The American Grilled Cheese Kitchen

I've mentioned before that San Francisco is one of the world's great food cities IMHO (or not so humble, opinion). Access to high quality ingredients, willingness to take chances with said ingredients, yet at the same time being respectful of the ingredients means that you can eat many a good meal in the city. Couple that with a very cosmopolitan atmosphere and on any given day you can eat around the world, as it were.

I've also mentioned that I was travelling with a colleague who thinks of food as fuel and has the palate of a 100 year old.  I crave variety in my meals. I like some flavour and heat with my food. While I enjoy fried things as much as the next person (really, what human doesn't?) I am also cognizent of the fact that my pants are tight and as I close in on 50 it is harder and harder to reign in my expanding waistline. Finally, I don't really enjoy mush.

Selecting restaurants was a challenge.

I did spot one that I was sure would be a hit - the American Grilled Cheese Kitchen located in SOMA about three or four blocks south of the convention centre. Brought to the city by a seven-time winner of the World Grilled Cheese Invitational this place is devoted to simplicity—buttery, caramelized bread, with an oozy, melted center. By house rules, each sandwich must be at least 60% cheese. Finally a rule imposed by someone else that I can live with!

Who doesn't LOVE a grilled cheese? Crisply fried buttered bread. Gooey, melted cheese. MMMMM

My colleague loves grilled cheese sandwiches. In fact, when we travelled to Sonoma for 'Jerry's Day of Fun in the Wineries', we stopped in at the famed Girl and the Fig where she ordered the grilled cheese sandwich served with tomato confit and matchstick fries and declared it 'wonderful'.

Everyone raves about The American Grileld Cheese Kitchen on the internet (those who do not rave about it complain about the lines, lack of seating, or 'why pay money for something I can make at home' - which fits nicely in Jerry's 'most stupid thing to criticise a restaurant for' category). Heck, even Lady Gaga had made a point of stopping in earlier in the week when she was in the Bay Area for two concerts. I knew of all the restaurants I had selected that this would be my colleague's favourite. I thought it would be a perfect spot to head to for lunch during the conference.

Imagine, if you will, my shock when we met up for dinner one night and we were discussing our afternoon adventures, and she indicated that she and her sister had walked there for a late lunch. 'What did you order?' I asked.

'Nothing. It looked weird. There was nothing to order.'

Yes, they had walked to the restaurant from the hotel, looked at the menu, and turned around to walk back to the hotel.

Now this was curious. Could the Wall Street Journal, Food and Wine, Sunset, San Francisco Chronicle, and 100s of Yelpers, facebook users, tweeters, and bloggers be addled? Had the restaurant changed hands?

I had to see for myself.

The first thing I checked out was the route. To walk there from the conference I'd have to go under the highway. Now where I'm from walking under the highway can be an iffy proposition. I consulted with my bus map and noticed that bus # 30 picked up right beside the convention centre and would drop me off right by the restaurant.

As soon as the keynote speaker on Monday was done I raced to the bus stop and was soon on the bus heading off on my investigation of what had gone wrong for my colleague. Unfortunately because of an unscheduled 'bathroom break' for the bus driver I and the rest of the passengers were ejcted from the bus just past the CalTran station and forced to walk the rest of the way.

The area around South Park was lovely. Monday was the first day with full sun in more than a week and people were taking advantage of it by eating their lunches in the park. I smelled the delicious scent of grilled cheese before I saw the restaurant. I was early (i.e. before the lunch crowd) so I had no trouble ordering and securing a table outside in the sun. Because this was an 'investigation' and not really lunch I was forced to order TWO sandwiches so I was able to compare. I ordered a beer because  . . . well, just because.

The menu is simple. In fact, it is just seven sandwiches deep. Your options include a basic three-cheese Mousetrap and a spicy Jalapeño Popper, made with bacon and apricot-jalapeño relish. But I had heard that the Piglet—your basic ham and cheese, if your basic ham and cheese had been tastefully slathered with apple mustard and rosemary butter - was the sandwich to order. I selected a Piglet and a Mousetrap.

 

These, ladies and gents, were freaking amazing sandwiches. The bread perfectly crisp and buttery. The cheese delicious. Melted. Gooey. The artisan cured ham on the Piglet was amazing - delicately smoked, thickly sliced but not too thick to over power the wonderful tillamook sharp cheddar.

On the way back to the convention centre for my last session of the conference (a screening of the incredible documentary 'the Race to Nowhere') I couldn't help but ponder the disconnect between theperfect grilled cheese sandwiches I had just experienced and the experience of my grilled-cheese lusting colleague, who having walked all the way to the restaurant, left without ordering anything as everything, in her opinion,  looked weird.

I think I figured it out - first it was the walk. It wasn't a short walk. It had been raining when she went. Some of the walk in SOMA can be a tad sketchy. By the time one had gotten there it is conceivable that there might have been a bit of disquiet. Hell, let's be honest - I would have been whining and looking for a cab.

Then it was the menu. Had the menu merely said 'grilled cheese' she would have ordered and been fine. Because it said things like Havarti or Monterey Jack (both cheeses she had never eaten before and worried her) she wasn't sure. Had the cheddar been called cheddar instead of Tillamook sharp cheddar - what is Tillamook? SHARP? Had the piglet merely said - 'grilled ham and cheese' - she might have been fine.

It seems I had gone too far in my selection and missed an important food rule: 'nothing out of the ordinary'. The sandwiches ARE out of the ordinary; deliciously out of the ordinary. If you like food that is well made, delicious, and out of the ordinary - come here. If you prefer food that is not stay home, open up a package of white Wonder 'bread', slather on some butter, throw on two slices of Kraft cheese product (but unwrap the cellophane first) and make your own.

Comments

[Barb Cabot]

Loved this post! I know someone like your co-worker too. The world of food you live in is way more fun IMHO.

[Kayte]

Oh that looks delicious...grilled cheese, my guilty pleasure! The melty goodness and buttery toasted bread can't be beat...I would try it with any combination of things I do believe...okay, not anchovies...lol! You tried, you really tried!

[bellini]

Your travel companion is like my entire family with no sense of adventure when it comes to food. I think I was adopted:D

[Palma]

You would have had NO trouble getting ME there! LOL Sounds like I need my own tasting experience.

[JDeQ]

Funny how we all know some folks who just don't appreciate food. I tell you, there are times I look at my gut and wish I didn't appreciate food as much as I did. LOL

If you're ever in SF you should check this restaurant out - you won'y get a better grilled cheese anywhere.

[Laura]

What a great restaurant concept! Wish I had thought of it.

[JDeQ]

Laura - given the line ups at this spot I wish I had thought of the concept as well. SIGH