Between the Bread

Grilled cheese sandwiches are one of the great American comfort foods: almost all of us have memories of someone we love grilling up cheese sammies with care. Not surprisingly, this delicious simplicity lends itself to nostalgic one-upmanship and friendly competition, including an annual Grilled Cheese Invitational and my own local Grilled Cheese-Off.

The very basic requirements — bread, cheese, meltiness — lend themselves to countless creative combinations, resulting in another modern grilled cheese phenomenon: the grilled cheese sandwich-centric restaurant. Check out five temples to the tasty classic after the jump.

In honor of QA testing today, the company treated us to sandwiches from the much hyped American Grilled Cheese Kitchen. Apparently they were a little backed up; it took three hours to get our sandwiches! Tasty but . . . I mentioned it's a grilled cheese, right?

I ordered the Moscone: fresh mozzarella, fontina, roasted tomatoes, basil-lavender pesto, and kalamata olive tapenade.