Been meaning to try The Melt after hearing the hype in the media a couple of years back. The Melt, a chain of restaurants based on grilled cheese sandwiches was started up and financed by the founder of Flip Video, Jonathan Kaplan. I guess after making a fortune in selling Flip video cameras and then selling the entire company to Cisco, Kaplan turned his attention to the problem of making the perfect grilled cheese sandwich in a fast food environment. He came up with a high tech solution.
He sunk some money into engineering a machine to take the guess work out of making a grilled cheese sandwich. Instead of relying on the traditional method of flipping it on a hot griddle, workers just place the assembled sandwich in to what amounts to a fancy panini press and close the lid. At the appointed time, it pops open, letting the workers know it’s done.
Other techie touches includes an order board, where you can see the status of your order with expected wait times and the ability to send in your order online.
You can order the standard grilled cheese on white with cheddar, but there are other cheese choices. You can also add turkey, short ribs, and ham into your sandwich for a small charge. There are also 4 soups to choose from, including the traditional tomato soup.
I ordered the “classic” grilled cheese on white and a cup of tomato soup, while Theresa got the S’hroom sandwich and added short rib.
“The Classic”
“S’Hroom” with added short rib
“Two Tomato Basil” soup
I found the classic to be not really remarkable and the tomato soup very average. Theresa’s sandwich was better, with the sourdough, swiss, and short rib adding a bit more punch, but it would not rank among the better hot sandwiches I have had. One nice thing I did notice was the bread was much less greasy to the touch compared to other places and had a nice crispness/toastiness to it. Maybe as a result of all that engineering and testing?
Prices can be on par with other sandwich places, but if you add meat to your grilled cheese, and soup on top of that (a pickle being the only side included with your sandwich), your bill will go north of $10. The portion (both sandwich and soup) is not very large, so more than likely you will get hungry in about 3 hours, making it a not so great value in my book.
While the quality of the ingredients are better than your typical greasy spoon or company cafeteria and the high tech cooking machines draw people in, I would not characterize the sandwiches as a “must have” experience (e.g. like when Krispy Kreme first came out or getting your burger fix at In N Out.). I think the format will do well in high traffic areas like Stanford Mall, and cater to those looking for something beyond just burgers or pizza. I would have to have a real craving for grilled cheese before I would return to The Melt, and since it is a 25 minute drive away, I would probably opt for something closer to scratch that itch or even make my own.
