Tom + Chee ready to go

[Robin Garr]

Thanks to Antonia for covering the soft opening for us. Sounds good to me!

http://www.louisvillehotbytes.com/tom-c ... akes-three

Thanks to Antonia for covering the soft opening for us. Sounds good to me!

http://www.louisvillehotbytes.com/tom-c ... akes-three

Excellent review rockstar! We should be enjoying far more of these from you. It is hard for me to imagine that you were devouring all of these grilled cheese sandwiches while still maintaining that willowy frame of yours however. Must be that British aristocracy lineage.

I was excited to try this place before and even more so now. Cheers Antonia!

Nicely done, Antonia!

Thanks, dudes. Try the place out - the people there could not be nicer, and the food is scrummy. According to their Facebook page (where they've just put up a link to Hotbyes), they're opening tomorrow.

Antonia..I see a new career in your horizon!

[Robin Garr]

Thanks, dudes. Try the place out - the people there could not be nicer, and the food is scrummy. According to their Facebook page (where they've just put up a link to Hotbyes), they're opening tomorrow.

Great work, Antonia! I can't find a Tom + Chee Facebook page for Louisville, though, just a few other towns. Could you post a link?

The page I looked at seems to be the only Tom + Chee page. They've been posting updates about their Louisville shop.

https://www.facebook.com/4TomAndChee?ref=ts

http://www.facebook.com/tomandcheelouisville

Hmmm...interesting concept, a must try next time we're in the 'hood. I couldn't help but to notice the "user friendly" prices on their menu...could this worthy addition to the local food scene perhaps spell the end of the $8 grilled cheese ?

I went to one in Newport. LOVED the Grippos, bacon, grilled cheese!!! The kiddos enjoyed a mac n cheese grilled cheese. The dessert "sandwiches" on Krispy Kreme donuts are really good too. No, none of it is healthy.

Hmmm...interesting concept, a must try next time we're in the 'hood. I couldn't help but to notice the "user friendly" prices on their menu...could this worthy addition to the local food scene perhaps spell the end of the $8 grilled cheese ?

They do have a nice price point.

I went to one in Newport. LOVED the Grippos, bacon, grilled cheese!!! The kiddos enjoyed a mac n cheese grilled cheese. The dessert "sandwiches" on Krispy Kreme donuts are really good too. No, none of it is healthy.

The dessert sandwiches here are made with plain ol' Kroger glazed donuts. Out of the ones they tried, their structure held up to the grilling best.

stopped in yesterday for fist time lunch.
*really* enjoyed the food - - but - - they've got a *HUGE* problem to resolve (somehow).

that problem is they're success!

the thing is, they only have one "point-of-purchase" in the restaurant - the point where you place your order and pay for your food.
yesterday, around 1:30pm, there was one very friendly, very helpful and *very* overworked young woman taking orders and money. she was surrounded by 8-9 other staff who kind of twiddled their thumbs, until she sent the next order down the line.
then they all jumped in to action, prepared the order, then waited - - again - - while she was trying to get the next order on to them.
the result was a que of 35-40 people, all waiting to get their orders in and - - having done so - - all waiting to receive their food.

As I said at the begining, *very* good food, but they're going to have to figure out a better way to receive & process orders, or I don't think folks will make return visits.
40+ minutes to order and receive sandwiches at 1:30pm, doesn't really work...

My husband and I stopped by for a late lunch on Saturday afternoon (around 2pm). Although we enjoyed our food, we noticed a few major issues.

First of all, from our counter seats overlooking the griddle/prep areas, we had the perfect view of the cooking process. There was one guy working the griddle and one girl assembling the sandwiches. As has been mentioned before, with the sheer number of customers, this is insufficient. The guy on the griddle would put down the bread and the cheese to start toasting as soon as an order was received. Meanwhile, the girl assembling the sandwiches was orders and orders behind. So, the toasting bread would stack up until the assembly girl could get to it. The result: cold and/or burned bread. Several times we watched the assembly girl take a knife and SCRAPE the burned areas of the bread! The sandwiches were served like that! Luckily my husband's and my sandwiches didn't suffer that fate; instead, ours were just cold. I ordered the "Crunchy American" which was white bread, American cheese and potato chips. Since the cheese on my bread had LONG since cooled before the assembly girl had a chance to add the chips, the chips had nothing to stick to and therefore just sort of fell out as I ate my sandwich. My husband's "ArmaGoetta" had a good taste, but was cold as well.

The second issue we noticed was that there was bacon everywhere. Seriously. Everywhere. The same griddle where the bread is toasted is also used to crisp up the pre-diced uncooked bacon. The guy working the griddle simply scooted the toasting bread over to one side and used the other side for the bacon. So, the griddle is basically covered in bacon fat. Similarly, the girl assembling the sandwiches would often add bacon to the various sandwiches and the bacon would land up all over the assembly area (since it's diced, it's hard to contain). We only saw her wipe up her area once or twice during our 30-45min visit. The result: bits of bacon in all of the food. My sandwich had several pieces of bacon on it and had a strong bacon taste to it. I'm not a vegetarian so it's not really a problem for me, but for vegetarians, I can't imagine they appreciate having bacon in their food.

Overall, we might go back once the initial novelty wears off. But, until then, probably not.

My wife grabbed some Saturday evening and brought it home to try. She went around 7:00 and there was almost no wait. Perhaps the delay issues others have experienced is more of a lunch thing?

For grilled cheese and soup, it was quite good. The BBQ+Bacon (the one with Grippos on it) was, well, pretty awesome. The creamy tomato basil soup was fine, though not spectatcular.

Mmmmm...bacon.