~ The Grill Cheese Grill 1027 NE Alberta
~ The Grilled Cheese Grill 113 SE 28th Ave
At 7 pm on the dot, people starting arriving and were welcomed by Katie, Dishcrawl Portland’s coordinator. Already I could tell we had a gregarious group.
Once everyone got checked in, Matt came out and introduced himself.
Matt grew up helping his mom in the kitchen and became a little grilled cheese whiz. Later in life, Matt didn’t attend a culinary school, but rather honed his skills working in restaurants. He always wanted to open a restaurant and he finally decided to do open a place that would feature one of his favorite foods, the grilled cheese.
He really looks like he’s having fun with it.
The group was getting hungry and you could smell the delicious cheesy goodness that was about to come out – even a small visitor was eagerly awaiting the grilled cheese.
I snuck into their food cart to find Matt’s crew hard at work. They were readying up the grilled cheese.
We had the opportunity to taste a few of the grill cheese options on their menu such as the Jalapeno Popper – roasted jalapeños, colby jack, cream cheese and corn tortilla chips on sourdough.
The Grilled Cheese Grill was a great start to the Dishcrawl and everyone was having fun meeting each other and checking out the bus.
It was time for our next stop. Katie gathered up the group and we were off to the Yogio food cart. Yogio is not normally opened late on Tuesdays, but did not want to miss the chance to be included in the Dishcrawl so co-owner Ali came in to host our group.
Yogio, owned by Timber Adamson and Ali Clarsy, features Korean snack food – all gluten free. I was very excited about checking them out especially after hearing they have ROCK, PAPER, SCISSORS on the menu. This evening we would get to try their most popular item on their menu – the Rocks. Ali gave us the scoop on what we were about to enjoy.
The Rocks are seasoned rice stuffed with bibimbap vegetables. They crisp it up and place it atop of a homemade gochujang paste spread across a bit of seaweed and served up with their Crack sauce – no clue what’s in this sauce, but it was so good. Everyone lined up right away to get their Rock.
I really liked the Rock. Let me just say, it was a great combination of flavors with a good spicy depth as provided by the gochujang paste.
Wow! It’s only stop two, but with all of the great food so far, I’m slowly getting full! Katie once again got everyone on the move to stop number three.
Next on the agenda was The Tin Shed Garden Cafe. They have a simple philosophy of using fresh and wholesome ingredients and that definitely comes through in their food. It is no wonder this place is always busy and has very good reviews. Owner Jannette Kaden greeted the group upon arrival. We had the pleasure of sitting in their covered patio area.
Jannette and two of her staff already had the food table set up with plates, silverware and napkins before we arrived. While they took drink orders and brought them out, Katie went around to each table to everyone know about the three different dishes from their menu we would be trying.