Remember school cafeteria grilled cheese? George Bieber sure does.

“One half was crispy. One half was moist. I used to love elementary school grilled cheese for that reason,” he said. “It’s an iconic thing — grilled cheese at school, at home, wherever.”

So iconic, in fact, that April is National Grilled Cheese Month.

“It’s one of the first dishes I learned to make,” recalled Bieber, co-owner of Shorty’s Sunflower Café in Pottstown, where diners can enjoy inventive grilled cheese sandwiches. “They’re so versatile. They’re pretty easy to make — an endless combination of breads and cheeses and fillings. I could probably rattle off 50 of them.”

For example, there’s “grilled cheddar and chorizo on our homemade sweet potato bread,” he said. Another favorite is grilled ham and cheddar on the Café’s own zucchini bread.

“That’s the classic. That’s the one people know and love,” Bieber noted. “That’s been on the menu since we opened 15 years ago.”

His advice for toasty, tasty sandwiches: use quality ingredients and pre-heat the pan. Another secret: mayonnaise.

“I’m a fan of using mayonnaise on the outside to grill it instead of butter. Although at the Café, we use the butter method,” he revealed. “Mayonnaise is really oil and egg yolk. The oil does what butter does. The egg, I think, almost makes it crustier if your griddle’s the right temperature.”

Erin Bause of Bause Catered Events in Pottstown prefers to use butter, usually on both sides of her grilled cheese sandwiches. She recommends a heavy skillet on low to medium heat.

“The crispness of the bread, the gooiness of the cheese — it’s just comfort food. It reminds you of being home with mom,” she said. “It’s fun to mix up the breads, different textures and different cheeses. It’s a little bit different than, say, Velveeta on white bread.”

Bause serves mini grilled cheese sandwiches on skewers over shot glasses of homemade tomato soup.

“It’s a fun hors d’oeuvre,” she said. “It definitely catches people’s eyes on the menu when they come to talk to us about a party.”

Some of Bause’s creative combinations include cilantro and black pepper bread with grilled red peppers and New York cheddar; carrot bread with dill Havarti; and brown rice and onion bread with grilled red peppers and Monterey Jack.

“I just like experimenting. It’s a good excuse to try more grilled cheese,” admitted Bause, who favors cheeses from Conebella Farm in Elverson, especially the garlic and herb varieties.

“We have a customer who uses our smoked cheddar to make grilled cheese,” added Conebella’s Don Gable. “He tells us how good it is.”

Gable called grilled cheese a “simple staple food.” “We ate quite a bit growing up,” he said.

So did Catherine Renzi of Yellow Springs Farm in Chester Springs, where she and her husband, Al, make artisanal goat cheeses.

“As we’ve gotten older, we’ve upgraded from white bread to nice crusty bread, from cheese in plastic to nice cheese,” Renzi explained. “Like a lot of cooking, success starts with the ingredients.”

She described grilled cheese as “satisfying” and “reliable.” Her favorite: “some nice goat cheese, basil and tomato.”

“If you go to a fancier restaurant, they call is crostini, but it’s really open-faced grilled cheese,” she said with a laugh.

Got goat cheese?

At Yellow Springs Farm in Chester Springs, Catherine Renzi’s “had about 20 kids so far,” she said. “It’s been a busy March.”

Renzi and her husband, Al, raise goats and produce artisanal goat cheese. In honor of April as National Grilled Cheese Month, she offered a different take on the standard sandwich.

“Almost any cheese you can make with cow’s milk, you can make with goat’s milk,” Renzi explained. “Enjoy this as an open-faced sandwich, or as a traditional grilled cheese.”

Grown-up Goat Cheese Griller

2 slices rustic, crusty bread—white or wheat
1-2 oz. chopped mushrooms
1 clove garlic, chopped
2 Tbsp. olive oil
2-3 oz. soft goat cheese (chevre)
Fresh basil or other herbs to taste

Preheat oven broiler. Sauté mushrooms and garlic in olive oil on stove top over medium-high heat until just before garlic browns. When garlic aroma is wafting, it’s ready. Butter one side of each slice of bread. Place bread, buttered side toward the heat, on a baking sheet 3 inches from broiler for 1-2 minutes until bread is lightly toasted. Remove bread and spread goat cheese on opposite side of both slices. Top with mushroom mixture. Broil 1-2 minutes about 3 inches from heat, until cheese is softened. Remove from oven. Sprinkle on fresh herbs.

Courtesy of Catherine Renzi, Yellow Springs Farm

Grilled cheese — the new hamburger?
Since its appearance in the 1920s, grilled cheese remains a favorite. It’s even one of this year’s hot restaurant trends.

“Grilled cheese — the new hamburger? We think so,” decreed Andrew Freeman & Co., hospitality and restaurant consultants.

Americans devour 2.2 billion homemade grilled cheese sandwiches a year, according to the NPD Group, a market research firm.

George Bieber of Shorty’s Sunflower Café in Pottstown isn’t surprised to find the classic comfort sandwiches in high demand. “They’re easy. They’re good. They’re versatile. They’re economical too,” he said.

The Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board launched a website devoted to all that ooey, gooey goodness. Grilledcheeseacademy.com features a cheese index and sandwich directory, which lists 30 recipes, including “The Sergeant Pepper,” “The Big Sal” and “The Lisa Marie.”

Other websites like grilledcheesesandwich.org explain the culinary evolution from open-faced original to today’s two-sided version. Apparently, it wasn’t until the 1960s that people commonly added the top slice of bread.