The Construction Site - Grilled Cheese in Toronto

Chiz Heads! At our Yonge & Eglinton local, we’re...

Sun, 21 Apr 2013 14:57:54 -0400

Chiz Heads!

At our Yonge & Eglinton local, we’re serving our 5-cheese Maccaroni & Cheese in 12oz portions now!! Yummy!!

The Future is Now

Wed, 27 Feb 2013 21:28:31 -0500

Hola Chiz Heads!

It’s been awhile…. Quiet your Hurried Lives! Serenity Now!

Much to catch up on so please read on…

With the recent meteor exploding in our atmosphere and asteroid near misses, it seems appropriate to mention that TCS has successfully completed a second TRIP AROUND THE SUN with our Sherway Gardens location!

Our second location in Etobicoke (Sherway Gardens) celebrated it’s first anniversary on Feb. 13, 2013.

Brief celebrations aside, it’s time for TCS to get down to the sticky business of forging “The Yellow Steel” to build cutting edge grilled cheese (kinda literally if there’s such a thing). As the story goes.. .. .. when TCS first opened it’s doors, CHIZ HEADS gathered in large numbers and we recognized the opportunity for collaboration by allowing you to play an integral role in designing our Menu; each week we would run a Feature that was designed by one of our cherished customers (and sometimes fellow Chiz Head). The ridiculously successful collaboration allowed us to build a large archive of grilled chiz recipes - we even fell behind and are still drawing up the blueprints for some!

Now I NEED YOUR HELP!! GCAW(grilledchizatwork) is reaching out to all present TCS followers and asking YOU to submit ideas you’ve had about your PERFECT GRILLED CHIZ. Nothing shall be disqualified as undoable or ridiculous until we have proven it to be so in our Grilled Chiz “Mythbuster” Test Kitchen.

The grilled chiz chosen to start the program will come from the list created by your submissions. I’m hoping to get this program going quickly…wink,wink,nudge,nudge

A Trip Around the Sun!

Fri, 23 Nov 2012 23:57:44 -0500

Hola M&M’s!

To all you Grld Chiz Lovers out there, LISTEN UP! We’ve just completed our first year of business! Or should I say, “Playin’ in a sandbox”? Wow, being Chizee isn’t Izee! I seem to remember the book-ends better than the middle….. muddle…. no middle. Thanks sooo much for the support! So many recipes have been developed and CREATED by you. We’ve had a blast so far and some epic moments along the way.

Our kitchen brigade’s been hard at work and we hope to see some menu developments in the new year that are both whimsical and defibrillator-inducing. We have also loved sharing ideas with the hardcore and the rookies alike, so come Jan2013, we will crystallize our Features Schedule and give you updates on how you can participate in making and naming a Feature grilled cheese! I even think there might be something we throw in for free, but I’ll double-check my facts……

Here’s to one more trip around the sun!!

Hola Grld Chiz Maestros & Maestras!!

Mon, 12 Nov 2012 16:38:01 -0500

We are fast approaching our 1-yr anniversary at our Yonge & Eglinton Store - November 24 - so don’t be surprised to see me handing out some free GrldChiz coupons in the coming weeks! Don’t worry, they don’t expire!

You may have surmised from Tcs’ long internet silence that our resident ChizWiz behind any of our social media has taken an incongruent path and resumed his graduate studies at one of our local centres for higher education. Congrats Cobi-ashi! I will do my best to fill in the huge gap left in your absence.

That being said…. BigChiz is now on the scene! I will be posting what I hope will become regular updates about our Tcs stores and what’s going on.

Our NEW FEATURE at Sherway Gardens is called THE CONSTRUCTION WORKER - it’s pulled BBQ Pork with sauteed onions and jalapeno peppers - steamed in Cane Cola. We’re throwing together with parmesan and monterey jack cheeses, smoky bacon hickory sticks and sliced pickle on panko-parmesan crusted Pannini. Get it with either our warm maple-bbq sauce or our homemade chipotle aioli.

Creating extraordinarily unique, fun ways of making grilled cheese and serving them to the masses is sometimes like playing in the sandbox! Though it has not come without it’s challenges, it’s been a divine pleasure seeing so many excited faces along the way.

The Yonge and Grafton: Haloumi Cheese, Spiced Beef, Diced...

Wed, 18 Jul 2012 22:43:32 -0400

The Yonge and Grafton: Haloumi Cheese, Spiced Beef, Diced Tomatoes and Onions, and Sweet Garlic Sauce

The Yonge and Grafton

Wed, 18 Jul 2012 22:36:49 -0400

The funny thing about this late post is that I actually got the photographs in on time. Just plain slipped my mind to actually get the post up. I guess that’s what happens when you’ve got grilled cheese on the brain, especially our new feature at our Yonge and Eglinton location, The Yonge and Grafton. This one takes influence from the east coast, by way of Eric. It is a Donair style grilled cheese and some have told me it is our best one yet.

While our cheese choice makes it somewhat unlike a normal grilled cheese - Haloumi doesn’t melt, at all - the flavour will blow your mind. The Yonge and Grafton is Haloumi Cheese, Spiced Beef, Diced Tomatoes and Onions, and Sweet Garlic Sauce on Black Olive Bread with some more garlic sauce to dip on the side.

Eric, thank you for this one, it is killer.

And We're Back

Tue, 03 Jul 2012 13:55:10 -0400

I hope everyone had a great long weekend. I know everyone at The Construction Site enjoyed the time off. Well we’re back and we’ll be getting into the swing of things with a new Feature coming soon at Y&E. The Super Mario ran out on Saturday and Eric is taking some time to decide on exactly what he wants. In the meantime we’ll be running the Asiago Fresco and Prosciutto grilled cheese as an interim feature.

Canada Day Weekend

Sat, 30 Jun 2012 10:36:04 -0400

Hey all, just wanted to let everyone know Canada Day weekend hours.

Our Yonge and Eglinton location will be closed for both Sunday July 1 and Monday July 2.

Our Sherway Gardens location will be open Sunday July 1 and closed on Monday July 2.

Both stores will be open regular hours again on Tuesday.

I hope everyone has a wicked awesome long weekend, and stay cheesy.

Here We Go! The Super Mario in all it’s glory....

Tue, 19 Jun 2012 16:07:01 -0400

Here We Go! The Super Mario in all it’s glory. That’s Spaghetti Bolognese on a grilled cheese. Yup, it’s amazing.

It's-a me, Mario! The Super Mario that is

Tue, 19 Jun 2012 16:03:40 -0400

In our fine tradition of pushing the boundaries with our features, Ernest brings us one of our most intense features yet, The Super Mario. His main focus in creating this feature was that it had to be Italian, and this is nothing if it isn’t Italian. It’s basically Spaghetti Bolognese on a grilled cheese.

To make the bolognese we made a marinara sauce from scratch and added a mixture of ground beef, pork and veal. We then mixed the sauce with spaghetti and a combination of melted provolone and mozzarella. That allowed the spaghetti to set up in the fridge.

When it is ready to be served we put the bolognese on garlic, oregano and parmesan crusted French White bread, with more provolone and mozzarella and a healthy smear of the marinara sauce to make sure it’s just a bit messy.

Yup, this one is awesome, thanks Ernest.

A Frustrating Few Days

Tue, 19 Jun 2012 11:32:48 -0400

A big apology to anyone who may have tried to visit our website in the past few days and saw a Tumblr error page. I guess we ran into some issues that can arise when you rely on someone else’s services. Oh well, whatever problems there were seem to be fixed now and we can move forward with grilled cheese goodness.

The Sheeva is Back

Thu, 07 Jun 2012 00:04:28 -0400

As happens approximately once a month, The Sheeva is brought back as our interim feature while we’re sourcing the ingredients for our next customer selected feature. As anyone will tell you, this is an awesome grilled cheese. If you haven’t had the opportunity to try it yet, swing by sometime in the next few days for a tasty treat.

This beauty is The Bacon Jam, the current Feature Grilled...

Sat, 02 Jun 2012 12:58:13 -0400

This beauty is The Bacon Jam, the current Feature Grilled Cheese. I know, not a very inventive name, but it says everything it has to say. It’s quite the grilled cheese with Edam, asparagus and our own homemade bacon jam. Think just a bit sweet and smokey all at once. Oh it’s a tasty treat alright.

The Julien, Fontina and Pulled Beef Short Ribs, with mushrooms...

Wed, 25 Apr 2012 11:40:43 -0400

The Julien, Fontina and Pulled Beef Short Ribs, with mushrooms and shallots sautéed in a port wine reduction on 100% Red Fife wholewheat sourdough.

The Julien, a Class Act

Wed, 25 Apr 2012 11:32:04 -0400

Today we are introducing our new Feature grilled cheese. It replaces the relatively long running Silver Slugger that had all the cheese on it, with a more refined flavour. This one takes the class level up a notch here at The Construction Site Y&E. Julien in all of his wisdom made only one request when picking his featured grilled cheese. He told us to just make one with short ribs. That’s right, we’re bringing a little bistro flavour to your next grilled cheese. This new feature is relatively simple, but has a great traditional short rib flavour. First we took short ribs and pulled them to get a nice shredded beef. We then sautéed mushrooms and shallots in a homemade port wine reduction. We mixed the two together and put it all on 100% Red Fife wholewheat sourdough with Fontina cheese. Yup, we here at TCS now how to class things up a notch. Enjoy.

Rise of the Silver Slugger

Tue, 03 Apr 2012 16:19:42 -0400

The Silver Slugger, the customer selected feature replacing The A.F.T., is just that, a slugger. Jason, the man who got to pick this one, wasn’t messing around when it came to making a grilled cheese. He knew what he wanted and it had to have a lot of cheese. It packs a cheesy punch with Fontina, Cheddar and Swiss cheeses. Matched with the Panini Bianca there is enough cheese to fill all the air pockets and stand up to the dense bread. To finish off the flavour explosion are prosciutto and tomato. Yes there is a lot going on with this one, but the three cheeses blend well and it all comes together nicely.

It will be interesting to see how this one does compared to The Jack Hammer, a similar Ham/veggie style grilled cheese. I know it’s not fair to compare customer’s grilled cheeses like that. I can’t help it though, I’m the competitive type, and I view this as grilled cheese battle royale, with only the best surviving. Maybe we should call it The Hunger Games :P

The Epic Double Decker-Double Down version of The A.F.T. Three...

Tue, 03 Apr 2012 11:47:16 -0400

The Epic Double Decker-Double Down version of The A.F.T. Three chicken breasts and a whole lot of Cambozola wrapped, breaded and deep fried then tossed in buffalo wing sauce. Oh yes!

A.F.T. All Around

Tue, 03 Apr 2012 11:06:40 -0400

I have to start this post out with an apology to Ken. While the lateness of this post is apt considering the name of his feature, he deserves better. Well now that the A.F.T. has come and gone as our customer selected feature last week, I figured I might as well finally write a bit about it, since I thought it was a pretty solid one. While it was a simple concept with a simple execution, a Buffalo Chicken grilled cheese, I thought it was damn tasty. For this one we decided to go with a creamy Cambozola, Mesquite grilled chicken and Hot Sauce on Cayenne-Panko crusted French White. The Cayenne-Panko crust had the interesting effect of making the bread less crispy this time around, far different than the Panko-Parmesan crust on the Funghi which makes the grilled cheese even more crispy. The crust had a great flavour to it though, that contrasted well with the saltiness of the Cambozola.

What was even better about the feature was the ability to make a really awesome Epic version. We’ll call this one the Double Decker-Double Down. The awesomeness started with three chicken breasts surrounding a healthy amount of Cambozola. The stack of Chicken-Cheesy awesomeness was then wrapped in rice paper, egg washed and dredged in flour and the Cayenne-Panko crust. The whole thing was deep fried until nicely brown and then tossed in hot sauce, making one giant buffalo wing grilled cheese.

It was a great feature, it was a sick epic, it was about freakin’ time that Ken got to choose the feature, and geeze it was about $#@%in’ time I got this post out. Sorry Ken, I’ll make sure those awesome photos follow right away.

The Jack Hammer

Fri, 09 Mar 2012 16:57:34 -0500

Yeah, I know, its a boring title, but I couldn’t think of any jokes worthy, so I figured I might as well not try for fear of embarrassing myself. Well the Jack Hammer is the replacement Feature Grilled Cheese to the HotStepper and it follows it up quite well. While it’s not as in your face as the HotStepper was, the combination of flavours is awesome. It has a really great subtleness to it that you wouldn’t expect from the name. And if you notice it is once again on Panini Bianca. I really love this bread and am basically putting all of our Features on it in hopes that the bread will eventually make it onto the main menu. I’m glad that our Feature-selecting customers have been happy to indulge me in this way. Thanks go to Taylor for choosing a great grilled cheese.

The Jack Hammer, a not so subtle creation on Panini Bianca with...

Fri, 09 Mar 2012 16:51:43 -0500

The Jack Hammer, a not so subtle creation on Panini Bianca with Monterey Jack, Serrano Ham and Balsamic Reduction Caramelized Red Onions. This is a good one.