Peanut butter on a pedestal: Darrell's Sport's Café

I really wanted to like it. I really did, but I'm afraid I don't see what all the fuss is about. In fact I'm kinda perplexed about Darrell's famous (infamous?) peanut butter burger.

The concept? A hamburger topped with ketchup, lettuce,mustard, bacon, cheese....and peanut butter. The idea didn't really creepy me out because as a kid I used to make peanut butter, ham and lettuce sandwiches. I'm always up for something slightly off centre, but my expectations were way too high.

The peanut butter burger has won multiple awards, including The Coast's "Best Burger", but I fear it's resting on its laurels.

If I wanted a pre-formed, frozen hamburger patty I would go to the Superstore and buy a box. Actually, no I wouldn't even do that 'cause that's nasty. And Darrell's is just that—salty and borderline gelatinous. I asked the server what kind of peanut butter they use, hoping she'd name something exotic and gourmet so this burger could slightly redeem itself.

"It comes in with all the other stuff on the food order," she explained. My heart sank.

Translation: It comes in a giant vat.

I realize that restaurants obviously order in bulk, but in that moment, picturing the cooks reaching down into a giant white tub of generic crunchy peanut butter and slapping it on my pre-formed, frozen burger made me a bit queasy.

The first few bites were tasty, but after a while me and my fellow diners started asking questions, the biggest one being, "Whose idea was this???" The conclusion was unanimous. We were fairly certain the concoction was born out of a late, drug-induced night in the kitchen. "Let's grill a hamburger and like........put......peanut butter on it."


So, how it ever caught on I'll never really understand, but for all those Haligonians with peanut allergies who've felt left out every time they read a glowing review of Darrell's peanut butter burger, rest easy, you're not missing anything.

My friend summed it up quite nicely: "I would get it again if I had nothing else to get."