Cheeseboy: Food Trend for 2011?

With 2011 nearly here, what will be the food trends of the coming year?  I suspect that grilled cheese sandwiches might be on the horizon, especially in the Boston area.  There will soon be a grilled cheese food truck, Roxy's Grilled Gourmet Cheese, and we have already seen the recent opening of Cheeseboy: Grilled Cheese to Go, a grilled cheese take-out restaurant in South Station. Several other local restaurants, such as The Beehive, already serve grilled cheese on their menus. As grilled cheese can be such a delicious comfort food, I do hope it continues to spread.

I was invited to check out Cheeseboy, to sample their fare.  The company was founded in 2009 by Michael Inwald, and the first store was established at the Connecticut Post Mall in Milford, Connecticut.  On October 25, 2010, their second store was opened in Boston's South Station, and current plans are to open more shops in the Northeast region.  Their motto is "Simple. Fresh. Delicious."  The South Station location is in the middle of the concourse, and you order at one end and then pick up your food at the other end.

The menu is simple and brief, primarily grilled cheese sandwiches and soup, and the sandwiches are customizable, an option I like. The basic grilled cheese costs $2.99-$3.79, dependent on your type of cheese and bread.  You can then add meat toppings, like bacon, for an additional $0.99 and veggies, like tomatoes, for $0.49 each. For soup, you can get a traditional tomato soup or the soup of the day, regular for $2.49 and large for $3.49.  Prices are reasonable and you can soup, sandwich and drink for under $10.  There are some tables nearby where you can eat, though it seems a number of people also get their meals to bring with them on the train.

I began with a regular-sized tomato soup and it was quite good, with a rich and creamy tomato flavor. It seemed fresh, and would be a good choice on a cold winter day.

I accompanied my soup with a grilled cheese, with Italian bread, cheddar cheese, bacon and tomato.  The sandwich comes in an easy to carry box, and is a decent sized sandwich for the price. Unfortunately, the person who prepared my sandwich forgot to add the bacon. It was not really that busy so there was not an excuse in that regard. I still enjoyed the sandwich without the bacon, finding the bread to be fresh with a nice crispness to it, plenty of melted cheese, and fresh tomatoes.  Good and simple comfort food, though they need to work on service. 

Currently, I am also obtaining information about the sourcing of their ingredients and once I receive that information, I will pass it along to my readers.

Cheeseboy also "is committed to supporting the Association of Hole in the Wall Camps, an international organization founded by Paul Newman in 1988 that provides year-round camp experiences to children with chronic and life-threatening conditions, including cancer, hemophilia, AIDS, sickle-cell disease, motor-neuron diseases, and many other medical conditions. Each summer, Cheeseboy founder and President Michael Inwald volunteers one week of time at Double H Ranch, a Hole in the Wall Camp located in New York’s Adirondack Mountains. His family has been involved with Hole in the Wall Camps for years, and Michael has rooted Cheeseboy’s philanthropic efforts to help this organization through corporate volunteer programs and donations."

Do you think grilled cheese sandwiches will be a food trend for 2011?