Is there anything more nostalgic and comforting than slapping a whole lot of cheese between two slices of white bread and toasting it?
We don't think so either.
And neither do chefs Alex O'Brien and Alex Royds, who opened an emporium dedicated to the toastie.
Melted Toasted Sandwich Emporium - and we love that name, housed as it is in a tiny space on Pirie St in Fyshwick - has only been open a week or so and already trade is brisk.
Every second person in The Canberra Times office has been there, for research purposes we're telling ourselves, and there's a steady clientele of tradies, office workers, and shoppers lining up to sample the wares.
And why not when for just $10 you can pick up a gourmet treat of Asian spiced duck with miso, shallots, coriander and mozzarella or Lamb shoulder with fetta cheese, spinach, Spanish onion, parsley and lemon.
There's also the basics, a melted cheese mix with chilli jam, or cheese and Balzanelli ham, a traditional Reuben, the double bacon and egg toastie is popular early in the morning alongside a Red Brick coffee.
READ MORE:
There's also a range of sides that changes regularly. Shoestring fries with bacon, sriracha or chicken salt seasoning, a few salads. Next on our research list is the red cabbage and rocket coleslaw with ginger dressing to accompany that duck.
O'Brien has a long list of fillings he's keen to try. As a chef he's worked at Aubergine, Sage, Courgette and Les Bistronomes. He and Royds met when they were working together at The Boat House.
"I can't wait to get stuck into the list," he says, "but we decided to start with the super simple ones. We'll keep the standards, the cheese and ham, the Reuben but as the seasons change the menu will too.
"I'm already thinking about bolognese, about bechamel sauces with chicken and mushrooms.
"And soup, cups of soup with toastie dippers."
Royds said the pair first had the idea of a toastie place about six years ago.
"Working in fine dining, it's not like we're eating seven-course degustation dinners after work. You'll find a lot of chefs eating toasties at the end of a shift," Royds said.
"We thought it would be good fun to make the food we're actually eating."
After our story on Canberra's best jaffles last year, we questioned why Melted didn't go the enclosed option, and it all came down to ease of cooking.
"Jaffles are great, don't get me wrong," says O'Brien, "but the machines are hard to clean. We're looking at ones with removable plates but for the moment this works for us."
The toasties are started under the grill to get that cheese melting and then transferred to the hotplate and flattened under cast iron plates to crisp up the bread.
They found thick-sliced plain white bread worked the best, sourdough tends to get too crunchy when it's toasted, but they'll keep experimenting.
Open Monday to Friday, from 6.30am to 2.30pm, they're both surprised how busy it's been. There's a couple of tiny benches on one wall, a few seats outside, but there are expansion plans in the works, a large communal coffee table, an area outside like a little garden some green to stand out in the industrial concrete hues of Fyshwick.
In the meantime, they'll keep toasting those toasties. And we'll keep heading down the road.
