Dallas Grilled Cheese Company: A First Look

Dallas Grilled Cheese Company opened earlier this month, and cheese-deprived diners have been pounding on the restaurant’s door looking for an update on their favorite childhood sandwich. You’ll find the new butter-burdened sandwiches just around the corner from Oddfellows in Oak Cliff.

The dining room was packed during a recent lunch service, and sunlight poured through the windows, illuminating white walls, metal pipes and blonde woodwork. Customers flipped through pages on a clipboard menu, perusing beers, appetizers that included some saucy-looking chicken wings, and more than 15 variations of grilled bread and cheese. The waitstaff, all the while, bounced around the dining room wearing Carhart utility belts as aprons.

The number pictured above is JK’s Favorite, named after Jennifer Kunze, who’s charged with the restaurant’s sandwich creation. American and Gruyère cheese slices mingle with dijon mustard between slices of sourdough bread toasted with a crust of parmesan cheese. The menu promised crumbled bacon, but the sandwich above had strips of chewy pork, instead. This was not an upgrade.

The DGCC is ready to take on any sandwich bound with melted dairy. Ruebens, Cubans and other classics join creations stuffed with spinach, burger patties and ham. There’s even a Manwich slathered sandwich for a double nostalgia play that will take you back to the dinner table of your youth. Meanwhile, the liquor bottles behind the bar in tandem with that solid local beer list demonstrate that this temple to grilled cheese is not just for kids. The bar here is massive and people were drinking at noon.

Desserts include shakes, floats and sweet grilled creations with ingredients like bananas and marshmallow cream. Forget a napkin — you’re going to need a blanket after this meal.

Dallas Grilled Cheese Company, 310 W. 7th St., (214) 944-5515, dallasgrilledcheese.co