Laurel Diner in Long Beach serves burger between two pancakes

It was a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup moment when Andrew Loucas had the idea to combine hamburgers and pancakes. The co-owner of Long Beach’s Laurel Diner was being interviewed by a local website and as he told the reporter that the diner was known for its prime burgers and its buttermilk pancakes, he thought to himself, “Hey, why didn’t I ever put them together?”

After a few days fiddling in the kitchen, he came up with the Laurel Beefcake, which made its debut on Wednesday. Loucas, whose partner is his brother Peter, makes two pancakes “a little smaller than regular, a little bigger than the silver dollar,” and uses them as a bun to sandwich his 8-ounce burger (blended by Pat LaFrieda Meat Purveyors). The burger gets topped with a fried egg, melted cheese and your choice of breakfast meat: bacon, sausage, ham, chorizo. Served with homefries, it’s $13.95.

Since you’re not going to eat it with your hands anyway, you might as well go ahead and drench it with maple syrup.

300 W. Park Ave., Long Beach, 516-432-7728, laureldiner.com.