It’s peanut butter and jelly time

Summer brings about a kind of childhood nostalgia for freedom like no other season can. Let’s kick off our shoes, dawn some abnormally high SPF sunscreen to protect our pasty Northwest skin and act like kids again!

When I’m really craving some childhood goodness, there’s truly no better place to go than PBJ’s food cart up on NW 23rd and Kearny. Growing up I ate a peanut butter and jelly sandwich every day of the week from kindergarten until high school. It was perhaps more PB&J’s than any single person should consume in a lifetime and enough to make me think I’d sworn off the food forever. But guess what, P-town? THIS AIN’T YO MAMA’S PB&J!

Think bread, peanut butter and jam is all you need? Well how about we slap on some jalapeños and bacon! The Hot Hood sandwich features all these great things piled onto two moist, thick slices of locally made challa bread. It’s spicy and sweet, with a whole lot of kick, all folded up into crazy incredible bacony bites of bliss.

If Chuck Norris ate PB&Js, this would be his sandwich. Or should I say, manwich? If you’re feeling macho enough, the Hot Hood is better than good, and will punch your mouth into pleasure town.

Owners Keena Tallman and Shane Chapman are really thinking out of the box when it comes to new combinations of homemade awesome. Their Betty sandwich features Gruyere cheese, bread and butter pickles, white pepper, sea salt, and of course peanut butter, grilled to crispy and melty perfection. What may seem like questionable ingredients pans out into the most fantastic remix of a sandwich I’ve ever bitten into. Once you’ve had Betty there’s really no going back.

Portland is fortunate enough that Tallman and Chapman had the mind to create a cart that is both a nod back to the good old days on the playground and a funky original twist on something we all know and love.

“One day I asked Shane if he ever had a grilled PB&J. He said no. So I grilled him one. He fell in love with it. He said we should start a business selling grilled PB&J’s. I said no way! Then he said it again, and we both started thinking. I agreed to do it, if it was gourmet. Meaning the best ingredients, local, natural, sustainable and as often as possible organic!” Tallman said.

More classically sweet sandwiches such as The Cream of the Crop take on peanut butter and strawberry jam pumped up with bananas and rich Gina Maria cream cheese. It’s rare that I find myself verklempt over food, but PB&J’s brings back childhood in a sassy new unique way that I can’t help but find myself craving their tasty digs during these summer days.

“We have fun and enjoy putting smiles on peoples faces,” Tallman said.

The care they put into providing quality food is clearly evident in every bite. Each sandwich is handmade right before your eyes and compiles some of the finest local ingredients found in Portland. They took a simple kiddy favorite and made it all grown up with a bitchin’ new attitude that will have you head over heels for PB&Js. ?