American Grilled Cheese Kitchen

Finally, a Dedicated Grilled Cheese Restaurant Opens in the Mission

Admittedly, it seems pretty preposterous to get excited about a sandwich famous for being on every kid's menu ever.  Even more preposterous for an entire restaurant to be dedicated to it.  But American Grill Cheese Kitchen is here, serving up a whole mess of grilled cheese sandwiches (and maybe some other stuff too), and it has me not the least bit embarrassed to admit I paid $10 for bread and cheese.

As you can see in the Pulitzer Prize worthy photograph above, it's pretty damn good.  It oozes in all the right places; just soggy enough in the middle without sabotaging that burnt crunch on the bread.  Plus, it leaves behind a nice big pile of grease that sends you into a wonderful downward spiral of self-loathing and regret.

[Normally this is the part of the post where I would lament over what was displaced by American Grilled Cheese Kitchen, but as anyone who ever gastronomically accosted by Cafe Gratitude can tell you, there is absolutely nothing lost here.  Moving on.]

It's worth noting that this place is not without its faults.  For example, your sandwich doesn't come with tatter tots, which is bullshit.  Second, your sandwich comes with a complimentary clementine, which tastes absolutely nothing like tatter tots.  And there were no juice boxes in sight.

However, they do serve beer, and they most certainly make a good grilled cheese sandwich.  So do your lactose intolerant belly a disservice and head over to 20th and Harrison nowish.

(Oh, and for the growing Mission juggalo community family, they're even serving up Faygo. woop woop!)

Notoriously Strange Vegan Raw Joint Cafe Gratitude to Become a Horrifyingly Delicious Grilled Cheese Place

We're a week behind on this and only learning about it now, so please excuse our tardiness…but cult-favorite Cafe Gratitude on Harrison and 20th is, in fact, closing down at the end of the month and being replaced by an outpost of SOMA's oozy and popular American Grilled Cheese KitchenInside Scoop reports:

Pretty much since opening in 2010, The American has been bursting at the seams; Food & Wine declared it one of the best restaurant openings of the year. Since then, the 800-square-foot restaurant has been very, very busy, so a second location is anticipated to ease some of the strain on the original’s 200-square-foot kitchen, which does up to 600 orders a day (and they don’t even do dinner … yet).

The Mission location is about double the size, meaning they’ll be able to do the prep work there, like the pickles, housemade mustards, prepped sandwich ingredients, and so on.

While I'm sure everyone is mourning the loss of Gratitude's famous grass cracker sandwich or whatever, we now have a bona fide grilled cheese establishment that we can hit up for a healthy breakfast at 8am.  But be warned, American charges upwards of nine bucks for a sando, which is certainly causing many of you to gasp and sneer and declare the death of the neighborhood.  And maybe it is the death of the neighborhood.  However, now you don't have to walk into that building and tell a bunch of shitty vagabonds “I am transformed” or “I am fulfilled” when you're hungry as fuck and all you want to do is overpay for a salad.

A gratifying win for the Mission, if I do say so myself…

[Inside Scoop | Photo by Scott Savage]