Beyond the purpose of sustenance, certain foods have the special ability to nourish us by bringing back memories. Grilled cheese may be the simplest of sandwiches, but few foods can bring you back to childhood quite like hot cheese between layers of buttery toast on a blustery day. With this concept in mind, twenty-something Spencer Rubin opened Melt Shop last summer, a restaurant that specializes in the gooey goodness of grilled cheese. Now that it’s the middle of winter, Melt Shop is the perfect place to go for a comforting lunch and warm memories in midtown Manhattan.
“We hope that our customers are able to get in touch with that inner child again, whether it be through our classic American cheese options or our more sophisticated versions with Gruyere and Fontina,” Rubin says.
A 2008 graduate of Cornell’s School of Hotel Management and lifelong grilled cheese lover, he hopes that Melt Shop’s grilled cheese sandwiches remind customers of home. In Rubin’s case, home is about 25 minutes away from midtown in scenic Montclair, N.J., though he now resides in Manhattan.
This past fall, Melt Shop was featured in the New York City Wine & Food Festival as part of”The Best Thing I Ever Ate Between Bread” series, hosted by the Food Network and The Cooking Channel. The event, which gave the eatery the opportunity to compete on the Highline stages alongside chefs from some of the best restaurants in the country, was a great success.
With such a major endeavor already under his belt, Rubin looks to the future for more challenges: “The best thing about the restaurant industry is it gives you so many different opportunities to channel your creative energy, be it through the food, the branding and positioning of the concept, marketing or special events and promotions…it always keeps you thinking.”
Should you find yourself in midtown, we highly recommend heading to Melt Shop’s Lexington Avenue location for a Buttermilk-Fried Chicken Grilled Cheese Sandwich (8.95) or a decadent Fontina & Goat Cheese Sandwich with wild mushrooms and parsley pesto ($7.50). Be sure to try some shop tots on the side. And for those who don’t feel like braving the winter elements, this place delivers in the literal and figurative sense.
The Melt Shop
601 Lexington Ave.
New York, N.Y. 10022
(212) 759-6358
Reprinted with permission from the GoodLife Report.