Everybody Likes Grilled Cheese

The Grilled Cheese Project transforms simple food into art.

Two months ago, I was eating dinner at home when my roommate rushed into the room and said, “Have you heard the news?” Having not heard any particularly newsworthy facts recently (Brett Favre had not yet decided to return to football; the Olympics weren’t supposed to begin for another month), I was puzzled. “Good Eggs is going to start serving grilled cheese sandwiches for dinner!” she said breathlessly. Suddenly, I understood my friend’s urgency: another meal from the people who brought us Good Eggs breakfast burritos is indeed big news on the Door County culinary scene.

Good Eggs has been making waves in south Ephraim since 2001, building a strong reputation for itself as a light, casual place to take in a hearty meal. Until this summer, Good Eggs specialized in a single item: breakfast egg burritos, featuring customer-chosen combinations of eggs, vegetables, meat, cheese, and potatoes. Though Good Eggs also serves juice, coffee, baked goods, and smoothies for breakfast, its menu remains simple: omelet wraps are the restaurant’s main focus.

Those who appreciate Good Eggs for its simplicity have nothing to fear from the restaurant’s new dinner service, called The Grilled Cheese Project; the new grilled cheese menu is as simple (if not more so) than its breakfast offerings. Just as Good Eggs’ breakfast customers may custom-order their burrito according to their taste, those hungry for grilled cheese may choose from a basic (bread and cheese, plus pesto, marinara, or ranch sauce, to which they may also add meat for an additional cost), a standard (the basic, plus vegetables), or a deluxe (the works, plus meat). Each customer chooses their cheese, bread, sauce, veggies, and meat, and sits down to a custom-built sandwich with either chips or grapes on the side.

The finished product.

Good Eggs founder Joel Bremer credits his wife, Lauren, with the idea for the Grilled Cheese Project.

“We had a semi-formal Trivial Pursuit league this past winter in Door County,” he explains, “and we’d already done the chili feed and the pizza feed, so we had a grilled cheese bar as an alternative to the regular party food. And everyone started talking about how easily we could do it at Good Eggs.” Lauren ordered the necessary supplies, and the Grilled Cheese Project was born.

Asked when he and Lauren officially decided to expand the restaurant’s menu, Joel laughs, “I’m not sure I ever decided; Lauren just ordered the food.” With grilled cheese supplies on their way, Joel and Lauren hired Matt Hagemeier to work the dinner grill and began hanging an orange “Grilled Cheese Project” placard over the Good Eggs sign from 4 – 8 pm each day. The Grilled Cheese Project has now been open for business since the weekend of July 4.

Initially, Joel was hesitant to expand beyond the breakfast menu.

“In the past I always thought an extra meal would cut into my sailing time,” he says. “But as I became more comfortable with delegating to staff, the kitchen, which was sitting empty for half the day, seemed like the best place to expand.”

Grilled cheese seemed like an especially logical vehicle for this expansion, particularly because of its appeal to families.

“Kids are definitely our target market,” Joel says. “I mean, we can’t serve alcohol in Ephraim [a dry town]. Plus, there’s a baby wave coming in the nation and closer to home. I see Good Eggs attracting more families, and I think it’s telling.”

The families Joel and Lauren see coming in for grilled cheese dinners respond well, and the product also holds appeal for Good Eggs’ original target clientele, whom Joel classifies as “working people in a hurry. And then,” he adds, “I guess the broad appeal of the product created its own market.”

Joel and Lauren also chose grilled cheese for its simplicity. Both breakfast and dinner customers can see their food being prepared, from preparation to cooking to serving.

“I think [simplicity] is part of the appeal of Good Eggs,” Joel says. “The open kitchen concept was really about creating a transparent environment where people could intuit everything that happens in the restaurant. At a glance, there are people chopping potatoes, people cracking eggs, people washing dishes.

As for the simplicity of the Grilled Cheese Project, Joel continues, “It’s maybe even simpler in the afternoon. To be doing grilled cheese is a much smaller commitment in terms of staff and prepping and making it happen – so whereas it might have seemed like a natural extension to go into more burritos, grilled cheese has a surprising simplicity.”

Though the Grilled Cheese Project hasn’t yet matched the popularity of Good Eggs’ traditional breakfast offerings, Joel and Lauren classify business as good and growing. In addition to the restaurant’s signage along Highway 42, Joel and Lauren have worked to put the word out through both formal and informal means.

“We did some radio advertising,” Joel says, “and I really think that helped, being able to tie this new venture to an established name that people could recognize. And we tried to talk it up to our morning clientele and use our existing customer base as guinea pigs. I think that Door County people are unusually supportive and want to go out and try people’s first efforts.”

The Grilled Cheese Project is a first effort that seems likely to stick around for a while. This year, the Project will go on hiatus after August 24 (while Good Eggs will remain open for breakfast through October). But for those who miss their grilled cheese fix this month, Joel and Lauren expect the Grilled Cheese Project to be up and running again next summer. After all, Joel points out, “Everybody likes grilled cheese.”