October 26: Beecher's Handmade Cheese

I've been saving several nearby restaurants and food trucks for the days when it's drippy and rainy and drizzly and chilly and just plain Seattly. Today's weather is just that. Of course, because I'm known for failing to make the smart choice, I instead decide to head ¾ of a mile away and have lunch at Beecher's Handmade Cheese, at the Pike Place Market. Ranked #9 of 3000 Seattle restaurants on TripAdvisor, their mac & cheese and their grilled cheese sandwich sounded like it would hit the spot.

I headed over to 1st Avenue to begin my walk up, and was fortunate enough to catch the 62 bus, which was running a few minutes late. It didn't save me any time, but it kept me a little drier.

There's no line to speak of, and I order my lunch. The mac & cheese is ready immediately; the grilled cheese sandwich will take about five minutes. I grab a milk-can stool by the window overlooking the cheesemakers and open my mac & cheese. Tiny spots of cheese fall off as I remove the lid, and a little puff of steam wafts out. The penne pasta is coated in their blend of Flagship and jack cheese, and a very mild spiciness backs up the flavor. For a moment, I think I sense a little grittiness to the cheese, a sign that it was heated too fast or too hot, causing the proteins to clump up. It's just on the OK side of gritty, though, and I haven't eaten more than a handful of peanuts since lunch at Salumi yesterday (yes, it was that much food), so I devour it.

"Travis!" comes the call from the counter. I grab the warm wrapped grilled cheese sandwich and take it back to my stool. Unwrapping it, I'm a little surprised that the cheese is a milky white, but given Beecher's philosophy towards natural ingredients, it makes sense. The bread looks a little on the underdone side, but feels crisp to the touch.

I pull apart the halves, and strings of melty cheese bridge the gap. My first bite... tastes burned. I don't see anything on the bread that looks like it would give me the burned flavor (in fact, my first bite was the unbrowned tip at the bottom of this photo). My best guess is that it picked up something from the grill. Too bad.

I eat it anyway. The menu says it's made like the mac & cheese, with a blend of Flagship and jack. It's a very mild flavor. It doesn't have the near-grittiness that the mac & cheese had, but it's just kind of bland.

For a great grilled cheese, you want something with a tiny bit of zing to it: a sharp cheddar, a complex Gruyère, perhaps even American, or as Alton Brown suggests, adding a little Dijon mustard. This... was just a mild cheese between bread.

I walk all the way back to the office in the heavy drizzle. A few times, I think to myself that I really should have eaten somewhere closer. I also think back to the grilled Beecher's cheese sandwich that I had at Bacco in September. Now that blend of cheese made for a tasty sandwich.

Sure, Beecher's mac & cheese hit the spot, and despite the burned whatever-it-was on the sandwich, so did the grilled cheese. I think, though, that somewhere closer, drier, and a little more flavorful would have been a better choice today.

Beecher's Handmade Cheese
1600 Pike Place
Mac & cheese, grilled cheese sandwich, Boyland cane cola, $17.00