The Melt - San Francisco

Rated: ♣♣

What do you get when you bring together a high-tech inventor and some comfort food? Apparently, grilled cheese sandwiches! Jonathan Kaplan, founder of the Flip Video camcorder, has jumped out of the tech industry and opened The Melt. Since its inception in September, they already have 4 locations in the Bay Area! Too soon too fast? Only time will tell…

The standard at The Melt is to get a combo - a sandwich, soup and a little bag of chips. They have some set combos on the menu, but you can also create your own. I ordered The Mission combo, jalapeno jack cheese on sourdough with a sweet corn tortilla soup. The sandwich was warm and gooey in the middle and crispy on the outside. It’s obvious they’re not afraid of butter. The spice from the jalapeno gave it a good kick to break up the richness of the sandwich. The soup was thick and sweet with a smooth consistency. They seemed to have thrown in all the ingredients and pureed everything together which I was not a fan of. There were no kernels of corn in the soup and I didn’t sense any tortillas in there either. I would have appreciated a more hearty soup with identifiable ingredients.

Overall, I think The Melt is a solid 2 clubs. Their selection of sandwiches aren’t too creative and the soups are disappointing. However, if I were to rate on taste alone, I would definitely choose The Melt over the American Grilled Cheese.

The Melt
115 New Montgomery St
(between Minna St & Mission St)
San Francisco, CA 94105
Neighborhood: SOMA

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Fondue Cowboy - San Francisco

Rated: ♣♣♣

Friday night, I moseyed on down to the Fondue Cowboy for a spaghetti western and… melted cheese? Whoever came up with the combination of fondue and cowboys is obviously crazy, but they know how to serve up a mean cheese.

Though you may consider this restaurant a gimmick, you’d be surprised at how trendy the restaurant is. If you could ignore the western flick playing behind the bar and the giant painting of Clint Eastwood’s face on the wall, this could be your typical after work happy hour spot. I actually don’t think they went far enough with the whole cowboy theme. I picked this place off of Open Table because of its name. So, I was expecting to be served a piping hot pot of cheese by a waiter in leather chaps and a Bolo tie. Instead, I got a male hipster in tight jeans.

Between 3 people, we shared one fondue with an added meat plate. I can’t remember the name of the fondue we ordered, but I believe it had gruyere, mushrooms, white wine and roasted garlic. We were slightly concerned about our diets, so we made sure we ordered the fondue with mushrooms in it. The cheese was so thick and rich, I’m glad we only ordered one. The accoutrements were plentiful - cubed pieces of bread, some crispy garlic bread, broccoli, roasted potatoes, mini pickles, olives, grapes and apples. The cured meat plate that we ordered in addition consisted of prosciutto, salami, sweet melon and other cured meats. All this food was dunked in the creamy gruyere and devoured.

I was thoroughly satisfied with the fondue at this place. After scraping the pot clean of any leftover droplets of cheese, we were way too full for chocolate fondue for dessert. That’s one thing I realized… when I go out for fondue, it’ll either be savory or sweet. There’s no freaking way I could eat both in one meal. My heart might kill me for it. All-in-all, the restaurant is fun and casual and I wouldn’t mind coming back for more.

Fondue Cowboy
1052 Folsom St
(between Russ St & Sherman St)
San Francisco, CA 94103
Neighborhood: SOMA

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