Last Saturday we had an unusual but entertaining dining experience. I forgot to bring my canon so these iPhone photos will have to do.
East Burn, a restaurant/bar in Portland, hosted the 1st annual Grilled Cheese Invitational, a golf-like competition between 9 different grilled-cheese-selling restaurants in the city where the proceeds go to the Portland Women’s Crisis Line. The event raised over $4000 for PWCL! Where did the idea for this random event come from? A disrespectful Yelp review.
Sometime in July a man left a 5 star Yelp review for East Burn praising their grilled cheese and joking about abortion. The restaurant owner commented on the review, reprimanding the man for his distasteful attitude towards women and said that because of this review East Burn would donate all proceeds from their grilled cheese sandwiches to the PWCL during the month of August. Someone posted a picture of the trashy review and owner’s response on Facebook and it spread like crazy (locally). As a result, East Burn sold far more grilled cheese sandwiches during August than usual. To take the fundraiser to the next level, 9 local restaurants that have a grilled cheese on their menu came together for a cook-off of sorts. We paid $20 to get in, $10 went to the PWCL and the other $10 paid for the food.
Kelsey and her sister (who was only in town for the weekend) came with us.
Some sandwiches had poached pears and cheese that I can’t pronounce while other had bacon or pulled pork. Each bite was a new adventure, that’s for sure. I’m surprised none of the restaurants used sourdough bread. Lucas and I always make our grilled cheese on sourdough : )
The place filled up really fast so even though we arrived on time we were left with only one seating option, Swinging chairs. Just in case you’re wondering, swinging chairs make dinner exceptionally entertaining.
The 1st Annual Grilled Cheese Invitational winner was The Cheese Plate! I think I remember theirs being really good but after 9 different samples, it’s difficult to keep them all straight.