About the 5 Melt Limit

Yesterday was very interesting. We were busy, which is good. We had a line, which is good. But we had a ton of people who ordered 5 melts each, which makes things a little crazy. This is what happened:

Three checks of 5 melts come in back to back after several single orders. Our grill can handle about 7 melts at the very most, (you have to get creative about spacing sometimes). So I was cooking and down the line, I see some big tickets. I have to start thinking ahead but there is only so much you can do about this situation. I have to fit 5 sandwiches on and sell them together. Then another 5 and another 5. Each group takes about 7 minutes to cook. So for three people's order it to about 25 minutes once they were cut and plated. The people behind them do not understand why it is taking so long. If we had three single orders, they would all come out very quickly. We always hope that they look around and see a bunch of sandwiches being handed out and get what's happening. That is almost never the case. We sold 115 sandwiches, that's a sandwich every 1.2 minutes. Sure enough, we got complaints about the wait.

The business model of a melt truck is not to serve a lot of people at the exact same time. that is why we park at the same place for 3 hours. Cheese has to melt and the bread has to get toasty, that takes a few minutes. We can do several single orders at a time but the big tickets slow the line way down. This is true for most kitchens large or small. We wish we could make it go faster somehow, and I do think we have got it down to a science at this point but this is the nature of a melt truck. It's fresh food made to order, it's not sitting in a steam table or under a heat lamp. We have watched the trucks in the big cities who have been around for years and they have the same issues. People wait at melt trucks in L.A. for 45 minutes to an hour or more on a regular basis.

Please come have a grilled cheese at GourMelt. While you are waiting, enjoy the fresh air and the sun on your face. Talk to the folks around you and make a friend. Make a fun lunch out of it. But if you are in a big hurry, take a look at the line and see if you have the time to do it first. We want you to be happy and well fed. If you can face the occasional wait, we think you will be both.