Grilled Cheese at the Hollow Creamery

Crisp bread and gooey cheese… a delicious comfort food at the cozy combination coffee house/ ice cream parlor/ café in Carle Place.

The Dish: Custom Grilled Cheese Sandwiches

What’s in It: First, the cheese: cheddar, mozzarella, pepper jack, Monterey jack, Muenster, American, Swiss or provolone are the choices. Different cheeses can be combined. Then the bread, which comes from the famous Tom Cat Bakery in Long Island City. For a quarter century Tom Cat has been wowing New Yorkers with their terrific breads, supplying restaurants such as Le Bernadin and chefs such as JeanGeorges and Bobby Flay. The bread choices are white, whose wheat, rye, ciabatta and sour dough.

You can stop there or go on to add other ingredients: meat – bacon, honey , turkey or roast beef; vegetables – pickles, tomato, onion, hot cherry pepper, pesto, arugula; and finally dressing – mayo, brown mustard, spicy mayo, balsamic glaze.

How’s it Taste: Since The Hollow doesn’t offer any other grilled items, your sandwich won’t pick up other unwanted flavors left on the griddle. The bread is evenly toasted and crispy and the cheese is creamy and oozy. Perfect.

Cost: $4.95 for the basic bread and cheese sandwich; add $1.25 for the meat and $.99 for up to three vegetable items. There is no charge for the dressing.