Grahamwich: The Nation's Best Grilled Cheese?

Famed chef and restaurateur Graham Elliot (who you might recognize as a judge on Master Chef) opened Grahamwich in Chicago's West Loop as a destination for fresh, inspired and fast meals including sandwiches, truffle oil popcorn and gourmet soft-serve. As the ultimate evidence of the much-buzzed-about deliciousness of its food, #grahamwich was soon an established trending topic on Twitter. The grilled cheese in particular rose to glory, soon gracing Food & Wine's list of top grilled cheeses in America.

This sandwich is as sensational as the reviews make it seem. The bread is grilled to an optimum crispness, is a perfectly even golden brown in color and comes with a powerful buttery flavor for its relatively restrained grease level. Inside is an inventive and seamless medley of Wisconsin cheddar, prosciutto, tomato marmalade and cheese curds, all melted together in a way that seems meticulously engineered to produce the perfect gooeyness (the cheese will inevitable stretch out in long, messy strings in an honestly really satisfying way).

But perhaps the best thing this sandwich has going for it is the presentation: Each meal at Grahamwich comes on a quaint tray complete with a small brownie chunk for palette cleansing, and is eaten either at an intimate 50's-diner-style counter or a long rustic wooden table shared with others. Not to mention, the entire staff is capped with newsboy hats, for some inexplicable (yet nonetheless charming) reason. The overall effect is that of experiencing a truly gourmet take on all of the classic comfort food favorites in a trendy, quirky and casual setting. The sandwich is more "cool" than "comfort," but that's fine by us.