National Grilled Cheese Month is in full swing at Clementine in Century City and they’ve taken the holiday one step further from just selling grilled cheese sandwiches. Here, you can vote for your favorite grilled goodness from a new selection of five sandwiches every week in April. And I mean, really vote.

The quaint bakery/restaurant transformed itself into a polling place, er, eating place complete with poll booth walls around the cash register area where you can submit your vote, “Stand for Cheese” buttons and political cheese-themed posters like “Working to Preserve our Brie-doms” and “Cheese We Can Believe In.” Even their April menu is designed to look like a sample ballot complete with a list of partisan cheese measures you can vote for and a grilled cheese eater bill of rights.

“That’s all well and cute, but how are the sandwiches?” you might say. I was able to participate in last week’s vote for “Commander in Cheese” and tried the winning sandwich of white cheddar with roasted turkey, bacon and chutney on whole grain bread. It sounded so awesome that I couldn’t wait to dig in, but oddly enough in the end it tasted meh. I really hate to complain about this, especially because I’m a huge fan of both bacon and cheese, but my sandwich was kinda greasy. And the mushiness of the chutney didn’t really do anything for its appeal. I thought its sweetness would be a nice contrast to the saltiness of the other ingredients but…not really.

However, not to say that Clementine makes bad sandwiches because being a long-term customer I can vouch for them that they indeed do not. I just didn’t like this particular sandwich. Couldn’t even finish it. But I was able to erase it from the memory of my tongue with their ginger limeade, a nice cup of strong coffee and a cupcake.

Anyway, if you’d like to participate in this week’s election, here are the candidates for Highest Sandwich in the Land:

• Bratwurst Reuben with gruyere, sauerkraut, 10,000 lakes dressing and Dijon mustard on seeded rye bread
• Grilled torta with cooked ham, cheese, roasted tomato mayo and grilled jalapenos on pan especial
• Pimento cheese with roasted sweet peppers and jalapenos on country white bread
• Monterey Jack with roast beef, bacon and horseradish mayo on multigrain bread
• Havarti with braised leeks and whole grain mustard on multigrain bread

In the upcoming weeks, my picks for winners are Philly Cheese Steak ribeye steak grilled with onions, peppers and jalapenos topped with American and Provolone cheeses on a French Freedom roll for Sandwich in Chief (April 14-19) and Cobb Sandwich with havarti, blue cheese, chicken, bacon, avocado and roasted tomato may on country white bread for Big Cheese (April 21-26).

Super Cheesedays where winners of each week’s primary compete will take place April 28-30.

You can follow the election at Clementine’s special Melt the Vote blog where you can download a sample ballot and grilled cheese eater instructions.

Clementine
1751 Ensley Avenue
Los Angeles, California 90024 (map)
(310) 552-1080