When Sheldon Byer lived in Vancouver he liked to stop by a little hole-in-the-wall in Gastown. Its concept was simple: a tiny window served passers-by a small selection of grilled cheese sandwiches along with the option of tomato soup and orange Crush.
“It was a very cool, interesting concept that I loved,” Byer says.
While that restaurant shuttered several years ago, it stuck with him, and, in January, he officially opened his own version: Cheese Louise YEG, a take-out window housed in a sea-can inside Station Park, at Whyte Avenue and Gateway Boulevard.
Byer’s unique take is combining the comfort and nostalgia of a great grilled cheese with a rock ‘n’ roll aesthetic.
“I’m a big rock ‘n’ roll guy, so that’s my whole personality coming in,” he says. “Our mascot, the grilled cheese with the guitar, is called Chedward Van Halen. We don’t take ourselves too seriously.”
With his cousin, Ryan Vickers, a long-time Edmonton chef and the man behind the company Pickle Vick, Byer has developed a menu that ranges from OG Grilled Cheese to Kim Cheesey (mozzarella, mild cheddar and kimchi aioli) and Jalapeno Popper (mozzarella and jalapeno cream cheese), as well as a monthly special and, of course, a cup of tomato soup.
“He comes to me with ideas, and I give him the thumbs up or the thumbs down,” Byer says. “He’s got a pretty amazing palette, and it’s been really fun working on stuff with him and getting all sorts of new grilled cheese ideas.”
We asked Byer for some dos and don’ts for making the perfect grilled cheese sandwich.
Edify: What do you think is the most important part of a grilled cheese sandwich?
Sheldon Byer: The most important part is making sure that the cheese is at the perfect melting point. Everybody is all about the viral, ‘how big is my cheese pull?’ (Videos depicting just how far you can stretch melted cheese.) I can appreciate that. Nobody likes a stiff grilled cheese.
Edify: What do you think pairs best with grilled cheese? Is it the pickles? The soup?
Byer: Both of those are fantastic options, but tomato soup is always going to be the number one with a bullet, seconded by the pickle. And if it’s one of Ryan’s pickles, the Pickle Vick, I’d take the pickle over the soup.
Edify: What do you think people do wrong?
Byer: Put too much cheese on it. Then you get hard, not fully melted cheese, or you get that weird sweaty cheese. Nobody wants a sweaty cheese.
Edify: Do you think bread matters?
Byer: You don’t want dry bread for a grilled cheese because if you’re just putting cheese on there, you have a really dry sandwich. We use Texas toast. It’s nice, fluffy. It’s got lots of moisture in it. And it’s classic.
Edify: Ketchup on grilled cheese, yes or no?
Byer: If you’re talking to Ryan, who’s got an immaculate palate, he’s a ketchup guy. I would say at Cheese Louise, we’re down with the ketchup.
Cheese Louise YEG
CPR Irvine | #110 8125 Gateway Blvd, Edmonton | Cheese Louise YEG on Facebook
