CHEESE WIZARDS: The owners (they’re brothers) with their sandwich sword and magical cheese owl.
  • Kelly O
  • CHEESE WIZARDS: The owners (they’re brothers) with their sandwich sword and magical cheese owl.
Not too long ago, Seattle was the type of backwater that lacked a food truck scene, let alone a truck dedicated to grilled cheese sandwiches. Now we have three: Monte Cristo, Cheese Wizards, and the Grilled Cheese Experience (though the Grilled Cheese Experience went on hiatus for the holidays and, as of press time, has not yet gotten rolling again). They all serve up grilled cheeses at around $10 each after tax. Assuming that the sandwiches do not come seasoned with powdered unicorn horns, this seemed a bit steep, so I assembled a tasting panel to see how the city's two currently active grilled cheese trucks compared to a good ol' homemade grilled cheese.

Monte Cristo: The "Full Monte" Cristo

We got the namesake sandwich, the "Full Monte" Cristo, and a sandwich called For the Love of Cheese. The tasting panel responded to the Full Monte thusly: "This is fucked up, but really good. This shit is crazy." It was indeed a crazy sandwich: Canadian bacon melted with a cheese blend on egg-battered cinnamon brioche toast, dusted with powdered sugar and spritzed with lime. I would have called it the "Type 2 Diabetes," but then, I'd be horrible at marketing.

The For the Love of Cheese was a cheese clusterfuck: Samish Bay Cheese's chive Ladysmith, aged Gouda, and labneh with peach/jalapeÑo chutney, plus a smoky, thick fondue for dipping. The smoky, thick fondue did an excellent job of making everything that touched it taste like smoky, thick fondue, which served to neutralize the woefully out-of-place chutney.

The sandwiches were both tasty, but almost comically opulent. It was certainly easy to see why they cost $10 apiece, what with local, organic ingredients; a name chef (Danielle Custer of TASTE at SAM); and a snazzy (if a little cheesy) truck.

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