The problem with food is that they don’t always love you back, they are careless with the heart. It was the case with Elvis Presley towards the end of his life; he loved his peanut-butter-and-banana sandwich fried in butter. At Graceland, he snacked without guilt.

But there was a time when there was dignity in his diet. The dirt-poor childhood in Mississippi led to better days in Memphis, where a sloppy Joe didn’t break the bank. Then came his US Army days when creamed chipped beef on toast was a possibility, and then days of papaya juice diet before things started going downhill, confined within the walls of Graceland.

The ducks at Peabody Hotel

Sweet potato pancakes

One of Presley’s favourite places for breakfast was at the Arcade Restaurant, the oldest restaurant in Memphis. The man had his booth by the back door, so slipping in and out without being seen was possible. Located at the corner of South Main Street and G.E. Patterson, Speros Zepatos founded the diner in 1919 after immigrating from Cephalonia, Greece. The place was there when Chattanooga Choo-Choo played on the radio in the 1940s, it didn’t change when Presley let the beats flow on Hound Dog, and the vibe remains now that Taylor Swift is playing on the restaurant’s speakers.

The restaurant hasn’t seen a day off, except when Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in 1968 and during the 1978 strike by Memphis firemen. One can feel like the King when having breakfast here. Sweet potato pancakes? It’s the bomb! Presley came in here for Southern cooking, and he may have eaten these pancakes. Add to this, two eggs, bacon or sausage, hash browns or grits and bananas.

The Arcade is also a reminder that America has always welcomed people from every country. Zepatos’s story is that of every immigrant who came to America because it was considered the promised land. Born on the Greek island of Cephalonia, he left at 15 to work in a hotel in Athens. He picked up French, Italian and English before travelling to America. When he first came to Memphis, he worked for an uncle who owned a bakery.

Elvis Presley’s contract on display at Peabody Hotel in Memphis

Frankly, Presley didn’t care too much for salad or sorbet, and he hated fish. He enjoyed meatloaf and mashed potatoes so much that he ate them every other day for an evening meal. At Graceland, one of his favourite people was Mary Jenkins Langston, who cooked for him for a long time, serving him meatloaf, banana icebox pie and the much-talked-about fried peanut-butter-and-banana sandwiches.

Langston always kept Presley’s plate full — cheeseburgers, chicken-fried steaks, hamburger steaks, caramel cakes and family-size bowls of banana pudding. “It’s not true that Elvis liked burnt bacon sandwiches. He liked his bacon very crisp,” she told The South Bend Tribune in 1998.

Would you like to try Presley’s favourite sandwich? Toast white bread before putting it in the skillet, to which plenty of butter is added, to the point of two sticks for every three sandwiches. Apply peanut butter and place the banana slices. Grill it. Turn and turn again until all the butter is soaked up.

Duck tales

Another place you can put on your Memphis itinerary is the Peabody Hotel. You will still find businessmen in suits and a crowded bar. Its long and rich history dates to the 19th century. “The Peabody is the Paris Ritz, the Cairo Shepheard’s, the London Savoy of this section,” David Cohn wrote in 1935.

Presley had a strong connection with the hotel. In November 1955, he signed his first recording contract with RCA in the lobby of the grand Peabody Hotel, receiving $4,500 as part of his $6,000 signing bonus. The time had come for his manager, Colonel Parker, a master illusionist, to orchestrate the career of one of the greatest singers ever.

The stall at the Arcade where Elvis used to sit

A couple of years earlier, he was at the same hotel, but Presley was yet to ascend the rock ’n’ roll throne. Pompadoured and sideburned, he had as prom date Regis Wilson. He was too shy to dance while she loved to move her feet. They ended up talking the entire evening and having soda pop while watching other couples. Ultimately, Regis moved to Florida and lost her photo from their date, but Presley kept his.

Calling Peabody Hotel ordinary would be like forgetting the story of Arathoon Stephen and the Grand Hotel in Calcutta. The iconic Memphis address is the story of comebacks. Sure, the year 1975 delivered the unkindest cut — bankruptcy resulting from the declining fortunes of downtown Memphis since the 1950s. But the property was bought by the Belz family, who spent upwards of $25 million to renovate and restore the hotel.

Since the 1930s, the Peabody March has drawn visitors to the hotel twice daily. In the morning, the ducks ride the elevator from their rooftop home to the lobby. Once there, the birds waddle down a red carpet to a century-old fountain where they swim and eat until it’s time to return to their “penthouse” suite at 5pm. The tradition reportedly started with a bottle of Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Whisky. In 1933, Frank Schutt, general manager of the hotel, and his friend Chip Barwick went on a winter duck hunt along the icy waters of the Mississippi in Arkansas.

They needed to stay warm. So they decided to take another colleague along with them to help them stay warm in the cold — a colleague by the name of Jack Daniel’s! Soon, they planned a prank. They brought the ducks back to the hotel and let them loose in the hotel lobby fountain. The Peabody Hotel continues to have a good relationship with Jack Daniel’s Tennessee whisky. Hic to that!