Peanut Butter & Co Peanut Butter & Co. ...

Food and memory have long been intertwined, from Proust's famous madeleines to just about any dish you can think of that figured prominently in your childhood. So when Lee Zalben opened Peanut Butter & Co. five years ago at the age of 26 (not too old to remember his brown-bag lunches), he became something of a nostalgia vendor. Wittingly or unwittingly, Zalben tapped into the collective taste memories of American adults who still rely on peanut butter as a vital source of physical and sentimental nourishment. Apparently, grownups eat more peanut butter than children do.

Predictably, the sandwich shop capitalizes on the regression factor, revolving around juvenile menu items like Ants on a Log, the Fluffernutter and the lunchbox special (that's PB&J to you). Though there are some more-adventurous combinations, like the spicy peanut butter sandwich?hot peanut butter with grilled chicken and pineapple jam?and the peanut butter BLT, the menu has a strictly pre-K feel.

What appeared to be a one-trick pony when it opened in 1998 has shown itself to have enough staying power to cultivate not only a loyal following but an original product line. Americans consume 2.4 billion pounds of peanuts each year, about half in the form of peanut butter, and Zalben seemed a good contender to go for a piece of the PB pie. Since day one, Zalben, a robust young man with a scrubbed-fresh face and squeaky-clean look to match, has been grinding his own peanut butter in the back of the store, until customers began to bring in their Tupperware containers to take home extras. "They'd say 'great sandwich, but we like the peanut butter.'"

This past spring, Zalben started to manufacture crunchy, smooth, cinnamon raisin, chocolate, white chocolate and spicy peanut butters in a Brooklyn plant. He updated and upgraded the spread, creating an all-natural but enticing line of peanut butters that fall somewhere between fresh- ground and Skippy on the "good for you" scale.

With corny names like "Crunch Time," "Smooth Operator" and "The Heat Is On," one might expect the products to be executed with a wink and a smile. But Zalben takes it all, particularly the ingredients, very seriously. All peanut butters are vegan certified, and you will not find cheap, unsavory ingredients like hydrogenated oils on the labels of his jars. The sweetener that Zalben uses is evaporated cane juice, the oil is organic palm, and so on.

Peanut butter purists may not want to be challenged by new flavors, but the results are surprising. Cinnamon raisin, for instance, is goopy and gratifying, with a granular crunch of cinnamon sugar. The classics, smooth and crunchy, assert themselves as more desirable than both the ultra-processed conventional peanut butters and the under-processed super-healthy natural peanut butters.

Peanut Butter & Co.'s peanut butters are already available in stores nationally. Here in New York they can be found at Citarella, Century Market, Gourmet Garage, Todaro Brothers and others at varying prices. Zalben takes a shot at interpreting his success in the city. "We're sort of like the hometown favorite. A quirky peanut butter shop in Greenwich Village that against all odds decided to open and sell only peanut butter sandwiches."

[gabi@nypress.com](mailto:gabi@nypress.com)