Thursday, May 26, 2011

Melt Bar and Grilled:

It’s only been 3 weeks since National Grilled Cheese month, and my quest to have a different grilled cheese every weekday, ended. By my count, I made at least 30 grilled cheese sandwiches last month, 23 of which were different.

You might think I’d be tired of grilled cheese at this point, and that I’d avoid a restaurant that serves some of the most massive, insane grilled cheese sandwiches in the state.



You’d be wrong.





Enter the Melt Bar and Grilled, located about 15 minutes west of downtown Cleveland. Last Saturday, as I watched our location move closer and closer to our destination on the GPS, my dreams of traveling to the grilled cheese mecca became more of a delicious reality with each passing mile.

And then we were there!

We arrived in the middle of lunch rush, and the restaurant was pretty busy. We were told there would be about a 45 minute wait for a table. OK. David followed the official Melt procedure and fished a name tag for our party out of the big orange jack-o-lantern by the register (he ended up with “Kimm Chee”) and we resigned ourselves to wait for our ticket to grilled-cheese paradise.



45 seconds later, we had a table. Our theory is that the 45 minute wait is a test. If you are not willing to wait 45 minutes for one of the best sandwiches you may ever have, you are unworthy. When you come to Melt, you’ve got to want it. You’ve got to bring it.

David ordered the Prime Time Rib Melt, with prime rib, cheesy garlic mashed potatoes, provolone, horseradish sauce and au jus.





I chose the “Big Popper”, full of fresh jalapeño peppers, as well as cheddar and herbed cream cheese. The sandwich is beer battered, deep fried, sprinkled with powdered sugar and served with a sauce of mixed berry preserves. I also asked for a side of the honey chipotle tomato dip with the house-cut fries that come with every sandwich.





Melt, it has just been broughten



We ordered two pints and a pierogi to tide us over while we waited for our orders, which was very good and a nice size to split. David watched Kung Fu on the television behind me while I admired the décor.





cool take on stained glass



the ceiling



Our sandwiches arrived fairly quickly, and they were incredible. If I lived in Cleveland, I’d be at Melt all.the.time. And probably 3 pants sizes bigger. I’m pretty sure it would be worth it. The staff was extremely nice and friendly, and—this goes back to my previous post about the people in Cleveland—our server was full of suggestions on where we should stop by before we left.

Melt Bar & Grilled on Urbanspoon

4 comments:

  1. Your food blog is fantastic. I came across your link in a post on Serious Eats, the food porn here is really great, you have a good eye for this sort of photography. I dated a girl in Cincinnati once, when I visited her family I came away with the impression that the town was famous for confusing their chili with spaghetti sauce and nothing more. Looks like I was wrong! Keep up the good work.

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  2. Holy hecks--I think I gained a couple pounds while gawking at that Big Popper sandwich! I've been reading your blog for a while now, but haven't commented. Just wanted to say thanks for giving us ideas of neat places to eat. We moved to Cincy couple years ago, and it's been great to have recommendations and lovely photos to go along with them!

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  3. OMG, this place sounds AMAZING! Unfortunately I fly out of Ohio tomorrow night but I am SO there when I'm in town again in July! I had to go look up their menu, of course, and I have to say I am totally tempted by the Godfather...a lasagna grilled cheese sandwich, sign me up, please! :-D Thanks for the restaurant review!

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  4. Thanks Keith, Steph and Sara for the kind words! It was amazing, and I was so happy we were able to fit Melt into our trip. If you are ever in Cleveland, GO! Also, the Westside market was phenomenal.

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I try to be honest, fair and keep a good sense of humor in my posts--I would appreciate if you follow the same policy with your comments.