Fromagination

Fromagination, at 12 South Carroll St., Madison, Wisconsin, is celebrating National Grilled Cheese Month by featuring a different gourmet grilled cheese sandwich each week of April.  They describe this week's offering as "Crave Brothers' Petit Frere with Truffles and Espresso BellaVitano with fresh tomato and honey."  It sounded so delicious that I walked over in the pouring rain today to try it.

Fromagination is a beautiful, upscale artisan cheese store that also sells cheese accessories and accompaniments, as well as a small variety of sandwiches, soups and salads.  They are a champion of local agriculture.  The staff members are knowledgeable, well dressed, polite but they give off a (deservedly so) cheese-snob air.  Their dining area is limited to a long communal table in the back of the store, and sidewalk tables in the summer, so I got my sandwich to go.

The cheese was delightfully melty and sweet.  The tomatoes didn't add much (being pinkish and out of season).  I got a taste of honey about every other bite, and it was heavenly.  I didn't taste the truffles.  I think the more subtle flavors of the sandwich were suppressed by the bread.  The bread was overly greasy, with small burned bits, and had sesame seeds on the crust.  The toasted sesame seeds overpowered all other tastes the sandwich could have offered.  Unfortunately, the bread slices were assembled crookedly, giving more disappointing crust area per bite than necessary.  Included with the sandwich was a charming square of dark chocolate sprinkled with sea salt, nuts, and dried cranberries.  It was a perfect little dessert. 

Overall, the meal I got for $9.50 and thoroughly rain soaked clothing didn't tally up to what I had imagined.  The foundation of a sandwich, after all, is the bread.