Grilled cheese: A modern meltdown

This is a very cheesy story about the resurgence of a favorite grilled sandwich.

Most of us have fond memories of the classic that Mom used to make -- a slice of American cheese melted between two slices of white bread. Margarine, not butter, was the grease of choice for a crisp exterior.

The results, always so warm and comforting, might as well be imprinted on our DNA.

Wait. You need a recipe? Truth is, I felt a bit silly searching for recipes. I mean, who doesn't know how to make grilled cheese?

Then I found a recipe for Bachelor Grilled Cheese: Pop two pieces of white bread into a toaster, brown; insert two slices of cheese, wrap sandwich in a paper towel and microwave for 15 or 20 seconds until cheese is melted.

It's not that hard to butter bread and cook it in a pan on the stove. Really. Still, 90 fans of allrecipes.com rated the Bachelor recipe with 4¾ stars out of a possible 5.

We can't all eat grilled cheese in the comfort of our own homes if we're ever going to get this economy pumping again, so some clever chefs are trying to lure us out the door with, you guessed it, lots of melted cheese.

Enter the grilled cheese restaurant.

The trendiest: The Melt, with locations expected in major cities, an automated grilled cheese restaurant chain started by the guy who invented the Flip video camera. Word is that customers order using a smartphone app. The sandwich is cooked in less than a minute by an appliance that melts the cheese while simultaneously searing the bread.

The Melt probably came as a surprise to Eric Powell, who promoted his concept, Meltworks, on the NBC reality show "America's Next Great Restaurant" last spring. Though he didn't win the competition with his grilled cheese sandwich concept, he expects to open his restaurant in 2012 in Cincinatti. "It's the quintessential American sandwich, along the lines of the burger," Powell said in an interview. "And grilled cheese is kind of anti-conspicuous consumption."

From the American Grilled Cheese Kitchen in San Francisco to Cheeseboy in Boston and the in-between Feelgood in Austin, Texas, grilled cheese restaurants are hot.

"When the economy is bad, everyone goes back to the basics. That's why grilled cheese, hot dogs and macaroni and cheese are popular right now. It brings us back to a happier time," said chef Marshall Roth, of Dog Nuvo in Kansas City, Mo.

Thanks to a steady supply of artisanal breads and farmstead cheeses, Americans are clearly ripe for more websites, cookbooks and restaurants on the subject.

As Werlin puts it: "Grilled cheese, the movement, has arrived."