The Gourmet Grilled Cheese Company

31/12/2023

🧀 *Cheese Memories* 🧀

We’ve saved the best memory post until last… It’s all about you lot!

All the festival peeps who shared the good vibes with us at Camp Bestival, Common People, Alresford Music Festival, Purbeck Valley Folk Festival and all the rest. Shout out to the Dave special crew, the fancy dress fanatics, all the artists, performers and volunteers and all the festival kids who grew up with our toasties and definitely aren’t kids anymore! Thank you for the memories 😊

All the Christmas market cheese munchers who visited us in Wi******er, Salisbury or one of the pop up Christmas markets in the early days. Shout out to the lunchtime office crew, the lovely locals and everyone who travelled to see us for their annual grilled cheese sandwich every year! Thank you 😊

All of our food festival followers, the Christchurch faithful, everyone who visited us over the years at Highcliffe, Sturminster Cheese Festival, Southsea, Romsey, Salisbury, Bournemouth, Watercress, Trout & About and all the rest! There was always a lot of food to choose from, so thank you for choosing us! 😊

The Seafood festival fanatics, you really loved that crab toastie, whether you had it at Lymington, Weymouth or Swanage! Thank you 😊

All the market toastie people, popping by to grab a toastie in Salisbury, Southsea or at Record Store Day. Thank you 😊

All the brewery peeps who paired a beer and a toastie on a Saturday night at Siren and Phantom. Thank you 😊

All the Solent Cellar wine and cheese fans! Come rain or shine you came to support us in the courtyard year after year. Thank you 😊

All the history buffs, Romans, Saxons and WW1 soldiers who spent a week with us in Chalke Valley. Thank you 😊

All the country show and steam rally revellers at Chickerell, Melplash, New Forest Show and all the rest! Thank you 😊

All the Hotrod Hayriders, Dogstival peeps, Tank Fest fanatics and the fabulous fairies we met in a field over the years. Thank you 😊

All our suppliers of cheese, bread, chutney and veg. You gave us the very best ingredients to work with! Thank you 😊

All the event organisers we’ve worked with over the years and our fellow traders, with your burritos, curries, fish and chips, boa buns, burgers, wraps, paella and pizzas. Cheese, chutney and churros. Coffee and mulled wine. Bratwurst, fudge, crepes, pies and pancakes … you got us through and made it fun. You lent us things, helped us move when we pitched in the wrong place and fed us your delicious food and drink! Thank you 😊

All our mac and cheese takeaway peeps! Those lockdown deliveries saved us when all our festivals were cancelled. We remember all the lovely messages, special birthday orders, lock down dinner dates and even some night time forest car park drop offs. We can’t thank you enough for supporting us! 😊

And finally all our lovely family and friends … near and far. Thank you pitching in and helping us at festivals, for visiting us when you could and bigging us up on social media. Thank you 😊

Finally, thank you to everyone who has supported us over the years and been part of our toastie story!
We hope you all have a great 2024! If you see us out and about at a festival next summer make sure you come and say hi! 👋 🧀 ❤️

Emma & Andy xx

(Here are a few pics we have of some of your toastie visits over the years … if you have any of your own that we haven’t seen please leave them in the comments as we’d love to have a look)

29/12/2023

🧀 *Cheese Memories* 🧀

Todays cheese memories are just a load of numbers! We’ve done some maths and listed some of our favourite cheese stats from the last 10 years.

Total number of events we’ve traded at: 235

Total number of days spent grilling cheese at events: 731

First Event: Oasis Down To Earth Farm July 2014

Last Event: Salisbury Christmas On The Square Nov/Dec 2023

Events most traded at:
The Solent Cellar 14
Purbeck Valley Folk Festival 8
Christchurch Food Festival 8

Number of Months we did takeaway deliveries: 16

Kilos of cheese grated: Thousands! We worked that cheese grater hard at times!

Loaves of bread sliced: Thousands again!!

Wedding receptions we cooked toasties at: 4 weddings … but no funerals!! 👰‍♀️ 🧀

Gazebos used: 2 … Although many replacement sidewalls and canopies have been needed!

Vans we used to transport the cheese: 4 of our own and way too many hire vans!!

Shortest distance traveled to an event: 300 metres! The Solent Cellar was literally just around the corner when we lived in Lymington

Furthest distance to an event: 102 miles, RSPCA Big Walkies at Crystal Palace Park

The most toasties ever in one order : 16 (At Camp Bestival)

Celebrities served: 8 that we recognised!
Al Murray (Comedian and Actor)
Newton Faulkner (Musician)
Jeremy Hunt (Chancellor of the Exchequer)
Jamie Lenman (Musician)
Rob da Bank (DJ)
Dean Edwards (Celebrity Chef)
Annabel Scholey (Actor)
Dan Snow (Historian and TV Presenter)

Days left until we say good bye: 2! 😱 😢

28/12/2023

It’s taken almost 10 years but we’ve finally got a trophy for our toastie making efforts! 🙌 😂

Thank you for visiting us today and for the lovely trophy! We will display it with pride … and keep things in it … like mini baby bels! 🧀

Tomorrow there is only 3 days of cheesiness left before we hang up our graters for good! 😱 … so come and get some of the worlds best toasties before they are all gone 😉🤣

Find us in Salisbury Market Square, in front of the Guildhall. Our last day is Sunday 31st 11am til 7pm 🎉

🤣

27/12/2023

We hope you had a fab cheese filled Christmas! 🎄

We’re back in our chalet in Salisbury today for our final 5 days of cheese!!!! We’re open 11 til 7 and our last day is New Years Eve 🧀 🎉

We had a lovely Christmas visiting people and opening presents. This beautiful gift made our day … an amazing picture of us! It is absolutely lovely and the perfect memento of the last 10 years ❤️ Thank you you are super talented … we love it!

23/12/2023

Happy Saturday! Only 2 days to go until Christmas

We’re here today and tomorrow 11 til 7 serving up all your favourite toasties and mac & cheese 🧀

Find us on Salisbury Market Square, outside the Guildhall 👋

21/12/2023

We’ve got less than 2 weeks left in our little chalet in Salisbury! Here are our opening hours over Christmas and New Year🎄🧀

Don’t forget we’ll be grilling our last toasties and making our last ever mac & cheese on New Years Eve. You can find us on the Market Square, outside the Guildhall.

See you all soon 🧀 ❤️

20/12/2023

🧀*Cheese Memories*🧀

Todays cheese memories are about some of the times when things didn’t go quite according to plan!

Over the years we’ve had our fair share of mishaps 😬 It’s always fun and games trading in different places every week and dealing with the wonderfully diverse British weather 😂 You never quite know what you’re gonna get! Wind, rain, heat waves and even a bit of snow. We remember times when some of you helped us hold down the gazebo while we cooked toasties. That was before we invested in extra weights! 🙄

As well as extreme weather we’ve also had some random stuff happen including a couple of things catching on fire, dreaded equipment failures and power cuts (one Saturday at Wi******er Christmas Market some geese flew into a power line and the whole city’s power went down. But that didn’t stop us toasting and we did it by torchlight!) 🔦

Plenty of stuff has got broken over the years including (but not limited to) gazebos, van gearboxes, the handle of a mac & cheese delivery bag (when Andy was at the end of someone’s drive about to drop it off) and even ribs (Andy fell over and fractured a rib at Camp Bestival 😫 🤕) Talking about injuries we’ve had a few scalds, scrapes and swollen feet over the years too but it’s all been worth it!

When things go wrong we try to stay calm and carry on and sometimes we manage it 😂 So thank you for bearing with us through it all! ❤️

Here’s a few pictures that made us laugh (they might have made us cry at the time but now we can laugh at them!) Also, sorry about Emma’s swollen feet … but they have to be seen to be believed! 😂😫

16/12/2023

Its a busy weekend on the square! … today we’re joined by the Charter Market and tomorrow is the last of the Sunday Festive Markets! 🎁

Find the full list of Sundays vendors over on Experience Salisbury’s website:
https://www.experiencesalisbury.co.uk/what-s-on/2023/november/sunday-festive-markets/

Our weekend food pick is the Sauerkraut Special Toastie and The Hey Pesto Mac & Cheese! 🌿 🧀

We’ll be here, in our little chalet on Salisbury Market Square, everyday 11am to 7pm 🧀 🎄

(Only 3 weekends left before we close! 😬)

13/12/2023

Happy Wednesday! Halfway to the weekend 😄 🙌
If you feel like a cheesy pick me up then you know where to find us … Market Square Salisbury - 11am to 7pm everyday 🧀 ❤️

Emma’s recommendation today is the Smokey Joe Mac & Cheese and the French Connection Toastie! 😋

11/12/2023

Entertainment tonight! 🎶 🧀

10/12/2023

We’ve gone a bit Christmassy! 🎅 🧑‍🎄 🎄

This morning we stocked up the chalet with cheese and then headed over the Salisbury Cathedral to join in with the annual Santa Run. It was a fun 5k around the city with a load of other Santas, shame about the rain at the end, but really good to help raise money for ❤️🎅 and Emma got a mince pie too!

Now back to grilling cheese for the rest of the day! 🧀

06/12/2023

🧀*Cheese Memories*🧀

Over the next few weeks we’ll be posting some of our favourite cheese memories ❤️ Starting with the menu …

It turns out we’ve had 15 different toasties on our menu over the years! How many have you tried and what was your favourite?

There are a couple of random ones that didn’t make it past the family taste testing day, but were still on a menu so they technically count! 😂

And the Classic Gourmet is the only toastie that’s made it all the way from first menu to the very last! 🏆

The Classic Gourmet - January 2014 to December 2023

The Signature Smokey - January 2014 to December 2019

The Seriously Stinky - January 2014 to January 2014

The Pot Bellied Pig - January 2014 to January 2014

The Tiny Toastie - July 2014 to December 2019

The French Connection - August 2014 to December 2023

The Breakfast Toastie - August 2014 to August 2023

The Orient Express - October 2014 to November 2014

The Christmas Quacker - November 2014 to December 2019

The Chilli Crab - April 2015 to June 2023

The Watercress Special - May 2015 to December 2023

The Straight Cheese - November 2015 to December 2023

The Merry Mince Pie - November 2018 to December 2018

The Hey Pesto - November 2021 to November 2023

The Sauerkraut Special - November 2021 to December 2023

We also did Homemade Baked Beans (don’t ask! 🤣) August 2014 to September 2014 (we only did these twice … and then they got the chop from the menu!) And Homemade Coleslaw (another random addition!) August 2014 to September 2014 (it was nice though … but we forgot to take the forks to one show … so that was interesting! 🙄😂)

06/12/2023

It’s another chilly December day in Salisbury …we’re still smiling and the griddle is hot! 😊

Come and warm up with something cheesy …Emma’s recommendation today is a Mac Attack or a French Connection Toastie 😋

You can find us on Guildhall Square in Salisbury until 7pm 🧀⭐️

05/12/2023

Our favourite little Christmas Tree Festival is back! You can check out over 100 beautiful christmas trees in St Thomas’s Church and listen to xmas carols 🎄🎶 ⭐️

If you’re coming to see us over the next few days make sure you pop in and visit. It’s on everyday until Sunday 10th December (10 til 6pm) and only a 3 minute walk from our chalet. Perfect to get you in the Christmas Spirit!

Last year it was visited by 12,000 people and raised over £15,000 for charity. Amazing! ❤️

05/12/2023

We had a lovely mention in the New Forest Business News update this week 😊🧀

Your monthly briefing for all things business in the New Forest. Click here to read the first edition for free...

30/11/2023

THANK YOU everyone for all your lovely comments and well wishes on our last post.
You lot really are the best! 😍 🙏

We’re excited to see lots of you over the next 5 weeks 🙌 So, here’s a little guide to Christmas events in Salisbury for you to check out. There’s quite a lot going on https://www.experiencesalisbury.co.uk/what-s-on/christmas-in-salisbury/

Tuesday and Saturdays the big charter market is on the square with us (great for fruit and veg, meat, cheese, cakes, bread etc) and there is a pop up Christmas market on Sundays too, for the next 3 weeks (great for handmade gifts)

The other days are a bit quieter in town, perfect If you are planning to do a bit of Xmas shopping while you are here. There are lots of lovely independent shops in Salisbury (I’ll tag some of my favourites below)

Finally, I love the cute Christmas Tree Festival in St Thomas’s Church (5 mins from our stall) which is on 5th to 10th December 🎄 and I’d also recommend a wander round the cathedral close if you fancy a bit of sight seeing ⛪️ ⭐️

See you soon! 😊

Artisan Wine & Spirit Co
Blueberry Den
Fisherton Mill - Gallery Cafe
Sisters Wardrobe Salisbury
MuseHairdressing

FROST at Christmas on the Square
Charter 1227 Catering

Get ready to be enchanted this Christmas as Salisbury transforms into the "City of Stars". From stunning art installations to festive markets, pantomime performances, and even snowfall, Salisbury promises an unforgettable Christmas experience for all.

29/11/2023

📣 LAST CALL FOR GRILLED CHEESE! 📣

We’ve got some big news to share with everyone ⬇️

After nearly 10 years of making toasties we have decided it’s time to call it a day and hang up our cheese graters for good 😔 It was a hard decision, but we feel like it’s time for a change and some new adventures.

Our Christmas chalet in Salisbury will be our last ever event and our final day of trading will be New Year’s Eve. We’ll be going out with a bang! 🍾 🧀 🥂

We want to say a huge thanks to all our amazing customers and friends for all your support over the years. We honestly couldn’t have done it without you! 🙏

We’ll be sharing this news on our website and social media, but if you could help us spread the word to your toastie loving friends, who maybe aren’t online, or who might not see our post, we’d really appreciate it. And of course if you get a chance to visit us in Salisbury before we close we’d absolutely love to see you ❤️

Emma & Andy 😊

28/11/2023

Tonight’s entertainment! 🍷🧀

25/11/2023

I think it’s gonna be a chilly one today … but we’ve got hot mac & cheese and the FROST bar has hot chocolate! I think we’re gonna be fine.

We’ll be here 11am til 7pm today, and if you’re visiting then you can have a look around the busy Charter Market which joins us on the market square today. 🎄🧀

Needing something to warm up? Our Monbana Hot Chocolate with cream and marshmallows will do just the job! 🍫

Swing by and get yours! We are open 11am - 11pm. 😄

22/11/2023

Music will be in the air tonight! 🎵 🎄🍷🧀

21/11/2023

We’re in! 🙌

After a fab first weekend we’re settled in and busy in our little chalet in Salisbury cooking up all things cheesy!

We’ll be here everyday for the next 6 weeks from 11am til 7pm. Find us on the market square next to and ❄️

This year there is a lovely covered eating area so you can enjoy your toasties come rain or shine and if your feeling festive wash them down with a mulled wine 🎄 🍷🧀

09/11/2023

Great News! … From 17th November to 31st December we’ll be back in Salisbury for ‘Christmas On The Square’🎄 🧀

You’ll find us in our wooden chalet outside the Guildhall serving up our most popular toasties and deliciously cheesy topped mac and cheese. We’ll be alongside the fabulous FROST bar tepee and our friends at 🙌 🧀

On Sundays we’ll be joined on the square by the Christmas pop-up market and on Tuesdays and Saturdays by the regular Charter Market, perfect for doing some Christmas shopping! 🎁 🎅

And, brand new to 2023, there will be FREE festive outdoor entertainment every Monday to Wednesday from 20th November to 20th December. Comedy nights, silent discos, story times and more 🎉

So, if you are heading to Salisbury over the festive period then come and say Hi! We’ll be there 11am to 7pm everyday (except Xmas Day) 👋 😊


.salisbury.uk

01/10/2023

Today is the last event of our summer season!
You can find us on the Square in Salisbury for fabulous Foodie Sunday 😊 🧀
See you there from 10am til 4pm 👋

01/10/2023

Today is the last ever of our summer season!
You can find us on the Square in Salisbury for fabulous Foodie Sunday 😊 🧀
See you there from 10am til 4pm 👋

03/09/2023

A Big Cheesy Hello from us! 👋

We’ve had a really busy few weeks … which is a great thing! But which is also why you haven’t seen much from us on here.

Thanks to all the lovely people we’ve seen in a field recently … you’ve all been fab … coping with our queues and the great British weather! 😎 🌧️

Today you can find us in Alton at Alton FlavourFest 11 - 4

Come and enjoy some food and drink in the sunshine. ☀️

(And next weekend we are back at Sturminster Newton Cheese Festival … always a great event!)

03/08/2023

This weekend is nearly here and I suppose we’d better tell you where we’ll be (and sadly where we won’t) …

Friday 4th : The Solent Cellar, Lymington
5pm - 9pm
We’re back at our favourite wine merchants for the last of our summer pop ups. We’ll be serving all our usual cheesy toasties in their lovely courtyard garden. Where you can relax and enjoy some amazing wine and local beers.

Saturday 5th : Very Sadly Stompin on the Quomps has been postponed this year due to high winds forecast on Christchurch Quay.

Sunday 6th : Trout 'n About, Stockbridge
10am - 4pm
This is always a great event with some amazing craft and art traders adding to all the tasty the food. You’ll find us in the new festival field!

See you soon 👋

03/08/2023

It has been a busy couple of weeks … we had 3 back to back events and we’ve just about recovered! (Sorry for the lack of posts but we were super busy)

Thank you to everyone who came to say hello at Christchurch Music Festival, The New Forest Show & Hot Rod Hayride.

It was a brilliant but exhausting week and we had a lot of fun! 🧀 😆

And I managed to get a quick pic of a drive thru order at Hot Rod Hayride! There’s a first time for everything 😂 🤙

23/07/2023

Yesterday was mostly banging in tent pegs and cooking in our coats thanks to British Summer time! Rain and wind is not our friend! 😂🙄

BUT today is the exact opposite! The sun is shining and we are back for the last day of Christchurch Music Festival 2023 🙌

So come down to the quomps and check it out. It’s free admission today and there’s lots of music and food to keep you happy! 😊