The Free Times had a good review for Melt in this week's issue! I definitely want to try the Parmaggedon!!
Check it out:
The Cleveland Free Times :
www.freetimes.com
Article link :
http://www.freetimes.com/story/4213
Volume 14, Issue 26
Published October 18th, 2006
All Up In Your Grilled
Melt Makes An Event of the Ultimate Comfort Food
By Douglas Trattner
When it comes to comfort foods, the conversation pretty much ends at the mention of a grilled cheese sandwich sided by a bowl of tomato soup. Snow days, sick days, Sundays all required this heart-warming soup-and-sammy combo, made by mom and delivered to our cozy nest in front of the television. Those schmaltzy recollections may explain why Melt, a restaurant that serves dozens of riffs on the grilled cheese sandwich, is presently the hottest ticket in Lakewood.
Set in the former White Door Saloon, a Lakewood institution since the '60s, Melt fits seamlessly into the eclectic neighborhood. Owner Matt Fish, a chef and musician, spent considerable time and effort spit-shining the erstwhile old-man bar into a fun and funky little café. The boisterous barroom is routinely packed with heavily inked artists, musicians and service-industry types, most with cigarette in one hand, pint glass in the other. Melt feels like backstage at the Beachland.
Menus are mounted onto the backs of old album covers, a clever idea that serves as an instant conversation starter. Eighties rock seems well represented here, with Best of Blondie, Asia's self-titled debut and Def Leopard's Pyromania all making an appearance at our table. (In hindsight, it's tough to defend the music of Asia.)
Melt also has a fantastic beer list, with close to 100 domestic and imported options spread across six pages. Unfortunately, the list isn't organized terribly well, with varieties grouped by state if domestic, and country if imported. Classifying them by style would make more sense. Equally bothersome is the absence of prices, which can range from $3.50 to $6.50 per pint.
It might be a stretch to say, as management often does, that Melt serves 30 different grilled cheese sandwiches. I mean, at what point does a grilled cheese sandwich with numerous add-ons become just a "sandwich"? But Fish, a man who has crisscrossed the globe playing music, succinctly pares down his concept to a unifying theme. "Every country seems to have good bread and cheese," he told me over the phone. "I wanted to take grilled cheese sandwiches to the next level."
Along that vein, every sandwich features hearty, thick-sliced bread, a healthy dose of cheese and a crisp exterior thanks to a hot seat on the flat-top. Fillings can be as austere as a slice of cheese, or as extravagant as a pair of handmade crab cakes. Hippies have the grilled peanut butter and banana sandwich to call their own; stoners get the Wake & Bacon, with bacon, egg and cheese; veggies can sink their pearly whites into the mushroom melt, a "meaty" stack of portabella, grilled onions and provolone.
Fish also gives props to his hometown, with sandwiches named after the old Municipal Stadium (brats), Lake Erie (walleye) and Parma (pierogies, of course). That Parmageddon ($9), by the way, is a beast of a sandwich. Two doughy potato pierogies share bread space with napa kraut, onions and cheese. "I'd hate to meet the man who can finish one of these," I told my tablemate.
A beer-battered flank of walleye is paired with American cheese, sweet slaw and jalapeno tartar sauce in the Lake Erie Monster ($12), though the advertised jalapeno was in short supply. In the Smoky Russian ($9.50), good (not great) quality smoked turkey gets an added dose of smokiness from multiple slices of Gouda. House-made napa cabbage sauerkraut provides the crunch. Occasionally, sandwiches exit the tiny kitchen having spent too little time on the griddle, leaving the cheese a little south of soft  a sin for a place called "Melt." And the thick, golden brown toast has a tendency to soak up a little too much butter, leaving it on the greasy side.
If the prices sound steep, keep in mind that a) the sandwiches are two-fisted behemoths, b) each comes with a mound of fresh-cut fries, and c) they also come with a hillock of sweet and crunchy slaw.
Appetizers include quesadillas, nachos, cheesy fries and a crock of amazing spinach-artichoke dip ($8), served with plenty of warm tortilla chips. There are also eight salads to choose from. On Sundays, Melt serves a brunch with eggs, french toast, waffles and omelets.
All those elaborate sandwiches are great fun, but when the mercury dips and melancholy comes knocking, it's the fundamentals that sound the most comforting. Fortunately, Melt has us covered in that regard. The Kindergarten ($6) is a plain grilled cheese sandwich. Grab one, along with a cup of tomato soup ($2), and park yourself at home in front of the tube. You won't even have to feign a fever to enjoy it.
