By Amy Van Veen (The Cascade) – Email
Print Edition: March 6, 2013
9199 Glover Road, Langley, BC
604-866-2538
Hours: Tuesday to Sunday 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.; closed Mondays
Prices: Up to $8.49
Fort Langley has a new eatery in the neighbourhood and they serve one thing and one thing only: grilled cheese.
Say Cheese has all the charm of a food truck with all the reliability of a stationary location. They fill what used to be the Fort Toy Box location, which means the space is small – hardly enough room for both sandwiches and customers, but they find a way to make the take-away system work.
I braved the Sunday crowds to finally get a taste of specialty grilled cheeses I haven’t been able to stop thinking about since I first saw their “coming soon” sign a few months ago. Employees described the shop as a “fishtank” because their line-up of four panini presses sits right in front of the large window where passersby stop and stare as their eight different sandwich options are put together and grilled.
Soon those passersby began filing into the small standing area in front of the counter waiting for a chance to have their own red and white paper cone filled with potato chips, a grilled cheese and a pickle.
The menu appeals to a variety of tastes and budgets. Students—especially students of the local high school and university—have the classic option of a Kraft single on white bread with chips and a can of pop for $5 including tax. For those who want a little more oomph in their sandwich, though, Say Cheese does provide more than just Kraft.
They have caprese, butter chicken, chorizo, cranberry turkey (which they adorably named the “gobble gobble”), Hawaiian, sundried pesto chicken and the Sicilian. They also offer soup of the day, which on the Sunday I was there just happened to be tomato basil, for only $2.49. Most of their sandwiches are $7.99, except for the chorizo which is $8.49.
Like anything in Fort Langley, the price includes the experience, but for under $10 I would definitely make my way back to Say Cheese to try out each and every sandwich. I had the butter chicken with cilantro and mango chutney, but I also stole bites from my friends’ selections – the sundried pesto chicken and the gobble gobble. It took a lot of self-control not to just eat all three sandwiches and shrug off the protests in the name of article research.
Local ingredients made on Langley’s A Bread Affair bread rivaled Roasted Grape for freshness. And the employees were both friendly and efficient. It would be difficult remaining chipper in such a small space with only one open door to ventilate the cheesy air and an endless stream of meandering Sunday customers coming in and out, but the three employees there did an excellent job. They even kept the waiting horde’s attitude up by asking where people were from, chatting with students and apologizing profusely for the unfortunate loss of debit connection.
The clincher for me was when wannabe customers popped in, saw the “cash only” sign, nipped down the street to the bank machine and squished in with the crowd to get their hands on a specialty grilled cheese.
I wonder how soon too soon would be to go back for another one.
