Grilled cheese: a staple lunch in my childhood, the first thing I learned to cook, and a favorite meal to this day. When I heard about the San Francisco Grilled Cheese Festival, I was fully overcome with excitement at the prospect of spending an entire day eating and celebrating gooey, toasty, cheesy sandwiches in my favorite city. With everything from crab to Filipino spaghetti variations, the festival certainly was a well-rounded celebration of this classic dish. I’m currently stuffed full of melted cheese and toasty bread and reflecting on just how life-changing this experience was. Couldn't make it to SF for the grilled cheese festival on April 13? Here’s what went down.
The GrilledCheezGuy
I figured it was best to start off with a more traditional grilled cheese to get in touch with why I love these sandwiches so much in the first place. My first stop was the GrilledCheezGuy’s (GCG) stand, where I ordered a classic cheddar and mozzarella sandwich on sourdough, forgoing the many potentially delicious additions in favor of the most traditional sandwich possible. It arrived soon after: golden, melty, and basically begging me to eat it right that instant. I obliged, and quickly fell in love with grilled cheese all over again. The cheese blend was a perfect balance of sharp cheddar and mild mozzarella, and the bread was griddled to a perfect golden brown. The name GrilledCheezGuy was fitting—he really knew how to make a good grilled cheese.
The American
My second stop was my favorite. I went to The American Grilled Cheese Kitchen and ordered the special: artisan sourdough with boschetto and jack cheeses, white truffle oil butter, and topped with crème fraiche and chives. It was everything I hoped for and then some. The truffle flavor was present but not overpowering, the cheese perfectly oozed out of the sides, and the crème fraiche and chives truly solidified this grilled cheese as a fancy one.
Bun Bao
The next grilled cheese I had was really not much of a grilled cheese at all. I went to Bun Bao, a stand selling bao, or Chinese buns typically filled with barbecued pork. I opted for the least traditional bao of all time in the name of getting as close to a grilled cheese as I could at every stand, as I was at a grilled cheese festival, after all. I awkwardly ordered a cheeseburger bao, feeling slightly embarrassed of my seemingly apparent lack of cultural awareness but all the same excited to try such a unique dish. The bao tasted exactly as you’d expect it to. American cheese oozed out over grilled ground beef from inside the soft bun, and it really did taste like a traditional cheeseburger, the main difference being the sweetness of the bun. All in all, I’m not sure that I’ll order a cheeseburger bao again, but I’m glad I tried it.
The Sarap Shop
I continued the trend of unconventional grilled cheeses with my stop at The Sarap Shop, a Filipino food truck that gets its name from the Tagalog word for “a good flavor." I ordered a spaghetti grilled cheese with a good amount of pessimism about the dish I’d soon be eating. I pictured noodles falling everywhere and tomato sauce soaking the bread, but the sandwich I received avoided both of those pitfalls. The spaghetti was surprisingly sweet, which I enjoyed. I drizzled Filipino banana ketchup all over the sandwich for maximum flavor and found myself enjoying it way more than I anticipated. I never thought I’d appreciate al dente noodles on a sandwich, but I did!
Street Meet Taco Truck
The last sandwich I had was another higher-end riff on classic grilled cheese: brie and crab grilled cheese. I am a brie enthusiast, especially when it’s baked or otherwise melted, and I found that its mild creaminess worked very well with the more potent fishiness of the crab. The crab was well-cooked and fell apart nicely in the sandwich, ensuring that each bite included a bit of crab without overpowering the mildness of the brie.
I left the San Francisco Grilled Cheese Festival completely stuffed full of grilled cheese. I’m probably 50% grilled cheese sandwich, 50% human at this moment, but I wouldn’t trade it. Grilled cheese is the ultimate comfort food, and a day full of it is the best kind of day. Each variety I tried was exceptionally tasty, and I’m already planning to recreate some of the sandwiches I tried. Grilled cheese is a food that we all know is good but don’t celebrate enough, and I’m glad it finally got its day in the limelight.