It was a grey, windy Open City 2014. Cinder blocks were keeping the tents intact at the Super Quintastic shindig in the Cyclesmith parking lot where one of Halifax's TWO new grilled cheese trucks was set up.
Cheese Gypsy was keeping it simple today with three varieties of sandwiches on hand: maple bacon, the hat trick (three cheese) and the classic (cheddar only). All options were available as combos, which come with a bottle of water, and fries or soup. There was a small line up when I arrived and a few people left (amateurs!). They were sold out of maple bacon after only two hours, so I went with the three cheese, and made it a combo, getting the tomato soup to keep me warm. It came to a very reasonable $11.50. There were several tickets in the queue ahead of mine, and only two people working both the kitchen and taking orders, so the soup was a good choice.
The soup arrived in a good sized cup, insulated in a wrap like a coffee mug, which my dainty fingers appreciated. It was a simple tomato soup, blended somewhere between a chunky rustic and a puree. It had an even seasoning, not too salty, and just enough herbs to give it some depth beyond just tomatoes.
It was a longer wait for my sandwich itself as the CG crew worked its way through the orders and took more in. All told it was about 30m, but I didn't mind much with the music playing on the site, general people watching and the always reliable smartphone web surfing to keep me amused. When my name was hollered and one of the owners kindly apologized for the wait, I plopped back down in one of the Muskoka chairs and dug in. It came wrapped in foil, but naturally I had to crack it open to get the pull-apart, stringy cheese glamour shot. There were tons of oeey gooey tendrils of cheese and I dug right in. The golden brown bread was crispy with a nice hint of saltiness and the melted cheese was rich and all you could want in a simple grilled cheese like this.
I was really torn on the star rating for this review as it was more of a hard 3.5, but I'm a sucker for cheese and cutting new businesses some slack. Cheese Gypsy is putting out a solid (figuratively) product, and I'm sure that they'll be better prepared the next time they come into the city (please don't stay out in Tantallon!) and/or for big events like this. read more