Field Report: The Melt

This past week I was in San Francisco for a work trip and, of course, for a field report!  In the week leading up to my trip three different people suggested that I visit "The Melt," the newest kid on the grilled cheese block.  The Melt had been receiving a lot of PR attention because Jonathan Kaplan, the founder of this soon-to-be restaurant chain, is the creator of the Flip Cam; a device that he then sold to Cisco (which they subsequently discontinued).  You can read all the fascinating details of his rise to grilled cheese glory here, or you can just read my key takeaways outlined below (my editorial remarks are in red):

• Kaplan left his post at Cisco working on the Flip Cam to start his chain of grilled cheese restaurants after researching whether grilled cheese would thrive as the centerpiece of a restaurant chain (answer: well, DUH!)
• Kaplan has developed a fancy pants sandwich cooker with the help of Electrolux (it involves two induction burners, a microwave and non-stick pads) which will apparently allow the bread to toast and the cheese to melt without squishing the sandwich like a panini press.  I'm quite skeptical about this one-- I mean, one of the key steps in grilled cheese making (according to GGC and now me) is pressing the sandwich down to make sure the ingredients are all getting melted completely inside/to the bread.
• Not surprisingly, this isn't the only technologically advanced feature of the restaurant-- apparently there's some way to tie in ordering via your smart phone and using some sort of code to retrieve your order when you arrive.  Kaplan genuinely believes that this will enhance the overall customer experience and won't just be technology for technology's sake.  Mmm hmm... we'll just have to see about that.

Let's set the scene: it's Tuesday, September 6 and I have just stepped off of my 5 hour flight to San Francisco.  After dropping my stuff off in my hotel room I make a bee line for The Melt.  Luckily for me, it's a mere two blocks from my hotel and it was a beautiful day!  Off I went.

Before I get too into the nitty gritty of my visit let me put out there that I am trying to ignore the fact that the name of this restaurant is a BLATANT rip off of Cleveland's beloved "Melt Bar and Grilled."  In my mind that is the original grilled cheese restaurant and it will be hard for anyone to live up to those standards (especially when they so clearly beg the comparison with similar names).  Unfortunately, I visited Melt before I started my blog so was unable to regale my readers with the scrumptious details of that visit, but maybe one day I'll find my way back.  Seriously, it was so tasty it might warrant a return trip... to Cleveland... I'll let that sink in for a second.

Anywho, after only one wrong turn I was ready for deliciousness!  I hopped in line and immediately thought to myself "Oh man!  The hype must be true, this line is out the door!"  I then glanced across the street and noticed that the line at Chipotle was ALSO out the door... and was, in fact, longer.  Oh well!

Although the line seemed long, it was partially because the order counter was right in front of the door, so I was at the front in no time.  My wait time did, however, allow me to contemplate which of the 5 sandwiches warranted a taste.  Red flag #1-- you are a grilled cheese restaurant and you only have 5 types of sandwiches?  Odd, but not necessarily a major negative-- perhaps they focus on quality over quantity.  The descriptions were very basic, so at $6 each, they better be good!

In the end I decided the Jalapeno Jack on Sourdough and the Fontina & Provolone on Garlic Bread were the ways to go.  I chose the former because it reminded me of the delectable spicy double jack we made last week and the latter because it sounded like the most creative of their options (thanks to the use of garlic bread).

Once you place your order you are henceforth identified by your initials-- they will go on to put your initials and some basic info about what you've ordered up on this fancy computer screen so that you can track the progress of your order (it says "working" next to your initials when your food is, allegedly, being made).  I saw two flaws in this plan-- 1) several people can have the same initials (I saw a minor altercation erupt over the ownership of "JD's" order) and 2) there appears to be no apparatus in the cooking area for the sandwich makers to actually input the status of your order.  As far as I could tell they just got the order tickets and went to work-- "working" would occasionally pop up next to my initials, but there didn't seem to be a method to the madness as several people after me would arbitrarily move to the top of the queue even if "working" had only appeared by their initials once while it had already flashed 3 or 4 times next to mine.  But I digress.

Let's talk about the overall look/feel of the restaurant before I get into the tasting.  The decor is very minimalist-- maybe 4 high tables and chairs and two counters for in-restaurant dining as well as one or two tables out on the sidewalk. 

I also got a futuristic feel thanks to the digital order status board and the soda fountains that seem straight out of Back to the Future 2. 

The jury was still out on whether either of these things actually improved the diner's experience or were just "technology for technology's sake."  Speaking of which, these special Electrolux cookers just looked like overly-complex pannini presses.

So once you place your order a ticket is printed and the numerous workers behind the counter set to work on your order.  As far as I can tell they have metal bins of pre-made sandwiches of every kind that they then just grill in their Electrolux machines.  Maybe it was the fact that they only had 3 of these machines, but orders seemed to take FOREVER.  Not to belittle my own love, but how hard is it to put some cheese between bread and cook it?  I'm hoping that once the initial excitement wears off and they have less of a mad rush at any given time that the wait times will go down.  Sometimes they would put a sandwich in, cook it, take it out, cook another sandwich, put the first sandwich back in, let the sandwiches sit there for a minute, etc.  I didn't get what was going on.  To me-- you only offer 5 things, how hard can it be to cook them in a timely manner?  (Well, to be fair, they also serve soup, but that appeared to be just ladled out from different pots right before the order was served, so that wasn't really a limiting factor).

Anyway, in a decidedly un-technological twist, one of the workers called out "JP" when my order was ready (what, no personalized text from my sandwich telling me it couldn't wait to meet me? and here I thought they prided themselves on their use of technology).  Both sandwiches were served up on their own metal tray each garnished with pickle slices-- I use the term garnish loosely as these were clearly just tossed on there at the last second to take up some of the empty space on the otherwise too large for one sandwich tray.  My first order of business: consolidate.  Why did I get two trays when both could have easily fit on one?  I don't think that wasted tray liner is in keeping with their eco-friendly mission.

Alright, you've put up with my babbling long enough, let's talk taste!

Jalapeno Jack (left):
The first thing I noticed when I took a bite was that one side of the bread was good and crispy crunchy while the other was not quite done (you could tell it had been cooked, but it was as if you put your toaster on toasting level 1 while the other slice was more like a 4 or 5).  This immediately called into question the use of the fancy dancy Electrolux grillers.  I thought the whole point of these was to allow for consistently cooked sandwiches.  Looks like there's still some fine tuning to be done.

I liked that the sandwich had actual jalapeno bits in it-- it combined well with the gooey cheese but was still spicy.  As expected, it reminded me of the spicy double jack, but was actually less spicy than that one was.  I guess when marketing to the masses you have to go with a relatively safe level of spicy. 

Fontina and Provolone (right):
I ran into a similar problem with the bread here-- it was also a little undercooked so I was missing that true crispy crunch that makes grilled cheeses so delightful!  The sandwich itself reminded me of white pizza thanks to the strong garlic flavor that combines with the cheeses.  The cheese was actually very stringy, which was good considering they use slices instead of grating (a typically surefire method for uneven melting).  Perhaps this is one of the merits of the Electrolux?  The ability to melt the cheese while not burning (or fully cooking for that matter) the bread.  What was made up for by evenly melted slices of cheese was offset by the lack of sufficient cheese near the crust.  I like using grated cheese because then I can be sure that the cheese is spread evenly right up to the edge of the sandwich-- but here it was definitely too concentrated to just the middle (surprise surprise, one of my criticisms is that there's not enough cheese).

On a general note, the sandwiches themselves were kind of small, so I was glad I had two to fill me up (but I have to wonder, were they really worth $6?).  Even though at some other locations I've been paying slightly more, they've made it worth my while by jam packing the inside with plentiful ingredients and creative flavors (I'm looking at you, Ms. Cheezious), but I'm not sure I'm really getting my money's worth here-- I could've made both of these sandwiches at home for a fraction of the cost. 

All in all it's a not so favorable review for The Melt.  Hopefully they'll further hone their craft before continuing with expansion, otherwise I think they'll get beaten out in certain cities by local favorites (i.e. Melt in Cleveland, Ms. Cheezious in Miami, Cheesy's in Chicago, etc.).  There's a distinct possibility that they'll turn into the McDonalds of grilled cheeses, so they need to step up their game if they want to hang with the competition.