Welcome back to Hangover Hamburger Friday, where throughout May we help erase last night’s mistakes with the hunkiest chunks of meaty goodness we can find.
It’s a well-known (though scientifically unproven) fact that nostalgia cures hangovers. Not only do childhood dishes like pizza, mac and cheese, and fried chicken taste like morning-after manna, they also bring you back to a purer mindset when the height of debauchery involved drinking a whole Coca-Cola. Hence we bring you Drew’s Peanut Butter Bacon Burger from Ted’s Bulletin, a PB&J/hamburger hybrid that seems like the brainchild of your ten-year-old self and the boozer he/she grew into.
The “Drew” named on the menu is Drew Kim, one of the co-owners of Matchbox and Ted’s. Before the PBBB became a staple, chef Eric Brannon says Kim would ask for his Matchbox sliders topped with peanut butter and bacon. This eccentric order inspired some skepticism, but the rich, nutty combination of Angus beef and smooth Skippy won converts. It’s now a menu staple at Ted’s, where Brannon dresses it up with a sweet-and-spicy tomato jam. Take it down with a glass of milk if you’re feeling remorseful, or opt for Brannon’s hair-of-the-dog approach and try it with a 16-ounce Schlitz pounder. “You’ll want something to cleanse your palate,” warns the chef. “And you’ll need a lot of it.”
Anna Spiegel covers the dining and drinking scene in her native DC. Prior to joining Washingtonian in 2010, she attended the French Culinary Institute and Columbia University’s MFA program in New York, and held various cooking and writing positions in NYC and in St. John, US Virgin Islands.
