Spread the word: Peanut butter and jelly restaurant planned for West Allis

Mike Hottinger grew up happily spreading Skippy peanut butter and grape jelly on Wonder Bread. Some enthusiasms never fade.

Decades after those Wonder Bread days, Hottinger now is laying plans to open a West Allis restaurant specializing in peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

He’s serious.

Hottinger is advertising for employees and seeking necessary city approvals, and he has filed for a trademark on the name of his restaurant – the Peanut Butter & Jelly Deli.

“Our plan,” said Hottinger, a 50-year-old real-estate investor who lives in Greendale, “is to bring peanut butter and jelly to a higher form.”

There’s much to consider: Creamy or crunchy? Jam or jelly? Crust left on, or sliced off? Sandwich cut diagonally or straight across?

Joking aside, Hottinger does have a lot of options in mind for this ultimate comfort food.

“We’re going to have about 10 different nut butters that we’re going to be grinding in-house every day,” he said. “Going to be very fresh, fast, affordable. We’re working with a small-batch local jelly manufacturer. We’re going to have about 70 different jellies and jams to choose from.

“We’re still in the planning stages for a lot of this, but yeah, we’re hoping to be open this fall.”

Last year, Hottinger bought a two-story building at 6125 W. Greenfield Ave., in the Six Points area of West Allis, and decided it would be the spot to realize what he said were longstanding plans to dedicate a restaurant to one of his favorite foods.

“I love 'em,” he said. “Ever since I was a kid I loved peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Plain, toasted, grilled – I love 'em all.”

As do so many of us. A survey last year commissioned by the Peter Pan brand found that the average American eats 3.36 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches a month.

But as deep as the potential customer pool might be, there’s also this: You don’t exactly have to be Mario Batali to unscrew the lid of the jar, scoop out a dollop of peanut butter, slather it across a slice of bread, dab on some jelly and dig in.

Which presents an issue for the would-be PB&J entrepreneur.

“The product has to be really good, since consumers can make their own at home pretty easily and with high quality grocery ingredients,” Darren Tristano, chief insights officer for food-industry research firm Technomic, said by email.

Hottinger isn’t the first to plan a restaurant around a humble food item. Several grilled-cheese and macaroni-and-cheese spots have emerged over the last decade, Tristano said.

Kellogg’s last year opened a cereal cafe near Times Square in New York. A mac-and-cheese restaurant is slated to open in Menomonee Falls late this summer.

Pittsburgh has a peanut butter and jelly sandwich shop, and an operation in Manhattan had a 17-year run before its owner closed it to concentrate on a booming wholesale business.

But other PB&J restaurants seem to have come and gone quietly. The narrow focus, Tristano said, can be a challenge.

Hottinger checked out the Pittsburgh restaurant, as well as the Krema Nut Company in Columbus, Ohio, which sells several types of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches in its factory store.

The menu for Hottinger’s place is still in the works, but he figures sandwiches will cost $5 or less, and a glance at the menu at Peanut Butter Jelly Time in Pittsburgh suggests the possibilities:

Peanut butter and marshmallow fluff; peanut butter and maple syrup; peanut butter and Hershey’s chocolate spread; and, of course, “The Elvis” – a grilled peanut butter sandwich with bananas and honey.

“They say that Elvis (Presley) had that sandwich once or twice a day,” Hottinger said. “It comes with or without bacon.”

A dish fit for a king.