New Comfort Food Trend

More cheese please! America’s comfort foods—grilled cheese and mac ‘n’ cheese—are getting gourmet makeovers. The fast-casual industry has embraced the two dishes and has seen a 33 percent rise in menu mentions of mac ‘n’ cheese in the past five years according to a recent article in QSR Magazine.

“People often told me I was crazy for opening a grilled cheese restaurant because they can make the sandwich at home. We’re not trying to compete with what you do at home, because what we do at American Grilled Cheese Kitchen is something you can’t or don’t want to do at home,” explains Nate Pollak, co-owner of American Grilled Cheese Kitchen in San Francisco.