Brie and pear melt
When I first heard about the Grilled Cheese Truck last year, in all honesty, I was skeptical. “I don’t know if I want my cheese melted from some grill on a truck,” I thought. But then when the truck hit the streets in October, I found myself chasing after it. Unfortunately, so was everyone else. Seemed like every time it docked somewhere a huge line followed. Bah!
Chalk it up to its extensive menu of melts. You won’t find just grilled American cheese sandwiches here but a cheesey mac and rib melt, a Harvest melt with roasted butternut squash and even a variety of sweet melts like roasted banana puree, marshmallow and Nutella. Mmm!
From the Grilled Cheese Truck site:
…we realized that this world needed more grilled cheese sandwiches brought to the streets. Not just the classic bread, butter and cheese, but amazing creations that are constructed with the best ingredients, local produce and made with nothing but love.
But yeah, those lines. Even when it parks near my job in Santa Monica I couldn’t wait for it. My lunch hour is only an hour long after all. I resigned myself to perhaps never getting a chance to try that grilled goodness.
But then Grilled Cheese Truck’s Dave Danhi saw my whiny complaints about the lines on Twitter and offered to hook me up. “If u wanna go, lemme know and I’ll get u in the back door… No line for you. Dave.” AWESOMENESS!
This is only the front of the line.
So of course I took him up on that, calling him up and placing my order for the new and scrumptious-sounding brie, Bosch pear and honey melt on cranberry walnut bread — a replacement for the caprese melt til tomatoes are back in season.
After a short run to the ATM and then over to the truck, my sandwich was ready and waiting for me. Just as Dave said, I didn’t have to wait in the long line on the passenger side of the truck. I felt kinda like a jerk for cutting in line, but fortunately that crowd didn’t see me as Dave instructed me to pick up my sandwich on the driver side of the truck.
Now, the sandwiches range in price from $3 to $7 but the guy in the truck said my melt was on the house. Sweet! That was so nice of Dave. But then I realized, hmm, maybe this was just a ploy to get me hooked. Like they say, the first one is free..and then you find yourself coming back for more.
After I devoured that brie melt, I’m totally going to do that. I must have another one as it contains some of my most favorite ingredients all in one sammich. Sure, it’s probably not enough for most people. But if that’s the case, you can always order a side of tots ($3) or tomato soup ($2/cup), too.
To find out where the truck will be next, check out the calendar at the bottom of their site. The good news is that they go all over the place from the South Bay to Altadena to Venice. The bad news is everyone is chasing them, too.
Twitter: @grlldcheesetruk