Restaurant In Catonsville Caters To Grilled Cheese Lovers

CATONSVILLE, Md. (WJZ) -- If you like a good grilled cheese -- and who doesn't -- there's a place food lovers will want to check out in Catonsville.

Ron Matz has more on the big success of some local businessmen and the ultimate comfort food.

Grill baby grill, it's the sound of success at Grilled Cheese & Co.

They sell 200 to 300 grilled cheese sandwiches every day. There are 11 different kinds from the blue ox, to the crabby melt, the smashed meatball and of course, the original.

James Lancelotta is executive chef and part owner.

"Our most popular one is the crabby melt. It's crab dip on bread with Monterey Jack cheese. I've been cooking since I was 15-years-old and kind of have a passion for food. I love grilled cheese. I don't think there's anything better than just bread, cheese and butter. It doesn't get much better than that," said Lancelotta. "Usually, we can get an original done in about three minutes. Some of the bigger sandwiches -- because they're a little thicker -- take about five minutes to cook. We can do them all and you'll never have to wait more than 10 minutes for a sandwich here."

It all started at a festival two years ago.

"We started in 2009 doing festivals to test the idea to see how people would receive grilled cheese in the marketplace. The first festival was Wine in the Woods, May 16, 2009. It was unbelievable. That whole day we sold more grilled cheeses than we ever imagined. We continued to do festivals, but we knew we had to get a store. After the festival season was over we started looking for locations. We wanted to be in this area, in Catonsville. We looked at a couple of locations on Frederick Road and then realized this was available," said Vic Corbi, founder of Grilled Cheese & Co. "It's been a fantastic year. We'll be open one year on April 5."

There's soup and fries too, but the grilled cheese is at the top of the food chain.

"I think I had a foreshadowing how popular it was going to be when there was a line of 70 or 80 people at our first festival. We're really blessed and it's getting better and better every day," said Scott Pevenstein, Vice President of Grilled Cheese & Co. "The sky's the limit. We hope to have a couple more potentially opened by the end of the year."

The second Grilled Cheese & Co. is scheduled to open in April in Eldersburg, Carroll County. April is National Grilled Cheese Month.