Goat cheese, fresh basil and tomatoes grilled on sourdough (Creative Commons-licensed photo from the Flickr account of nasunto)

Last night I mentioned on Facebook the recipe I usually use for grilled cheese—lots of Jarlesberg, a few dashes of cayenne pepper, multi-grain bread and a slow cooking time following an initial braise.

An old friend of mine responded with the name of her favorite Cleveland, Ohio haunt for grilled cheese: Melt Bar & Grilled.

All I can say is, wow.

Their grilled cheese menu never seems to end, and the pictures of these things on fresh-baked bread just makes me drown in my own saliva. (“Fat on fat on fat,” it’s been called.)

I remember a New York Times article about how the gourmet grilled cheese is developing a cult following:

“…in Los Angeles, the grilled cheese is less a starting place than a destination, an object of outright mania…”

So I think if my underground restaurant thing gets off the ground, I’ll have my own grilled cheese tasting. Below I’ll paste my favorites from Melt’s menu.

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blackened chicken – cast iron blackened, grilled peppers & onions, provolone

the parmageddon – 1 potato & cheese pierogi, fresh napa vodka kraut, grilled onions, charp cheddar

tokyo tuna melt – asian marinated grilled yellowfin steak, ginger wasabi dressing, lettuce, tomato, muenster

big popper – fresh jalapeno peppers, cheddar and herbed cream cheese, beer battered, mixed berry preserves

smokey russian – smoked turkey, fresh napa vodka kraut, smoked gouda, russian dressing

mushroom melt – garlic portabellas, caramel port onions, provolone

grilled peanut butter and banana – fresh made peanut butter, sweet cream cheese, mixed berry preserves