AMERICAN GRILLED CHEESE KITCHEN IN SOMA...GOOEY GOODNESS

May 6, 2012 A.W.

There is a little joint around the corner from me called The American Grilled Cheese Kitchen. I had been there once before a few months after they opened and have to say I was not impressed. The sandwich seemed on the small side which might have been okay had they not been charging $8.50 for it and it didn't even come with sides--sorry it came with a really small apple about the size of a baby's fist--a really small baby. And you folks know I have real issues with paying $8 for just a sandwich. Anyway, it was a nice blustery Saturday and I thought what they hey, I'll give it another try so I rolled into the place at around 3:50pm which was right on time as it wasn't crowded and they were just getting ready to close at 4 so all they were doing was making my sandwich. After perusing the board for a bit I decided to go with the club turkey with applewood smoked bacon, creamy havarti, sharp cheddar, stout mustard, arugula and I asked to get it on artisan whole wheat instead of sourdough. Here's what it looked like.

As you can see the sandwich is pretty big, bigger actually than what I had the first time I went. The apple is also bigger. And because they were closing up the clerk threw in a bacon, cheddar and chive biscuit as they would have just thrown them out. The addition of the biscuit made it worthwhile as the sandwich alone will set you back $9.75 (includes tax). That's still a lot for just a sandwich especially when you can walk over a couple blocks to Little Skillet and get a pulled pork sandwich with slaw on a hoagie roll with a side of chips and pickled carrots for $10 (includes tax) so I'm not going to let them off the hook for having a pricey grilled cheese.

However, I will say that this was a darn good grilled cheese sandwich and I enjoyed it immensely. The bread was over buttered and toasted to perfection which as any home cook knows is very important for a grilled cheese. The combination of creamy slightly sweet (to me) havarti and sharp cheddar paired nicely with the smoked salty bacon and turkey. Crunchy, creamy, flavorful, buttery and the tomato didn't make the bread all soggy which is always a plus in my book. I even enjoyed the slightly sat out too long biscuit. After popping it in the microwave for a few seconds and slapping on some butter it was quite tasty. It's not a traditional Southern biscuit, it's more of a cross between scone and biscuit, but still I ate it up, plus it was free, which made it tastier.

If you don't mind paying $9 for just a sandwich then I highly recommend you search this place out on the edge of South Park in SOMA. They are open everyday now and even open late if there is a baseball game going on (so it can be crowded). Would I go back, you betcha, though probably only if someone else is buying, because sometimes I'm cheap like that when it's just a sandwich!