Community and fine dining collide at this underground grilled cheese pop-up

Amanda Andrade-Rhoades

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Nearly 2,000 people on Facebook said they were interested in attending a grilled cheese pop-up near Mt. Pleasant, but on the evening of January 6, 18 people showed up at Portia Hunt's apartment to dine on gourmet sandwiches and cocktails with strangers. Hunt coordinates these dinners once a month through Feastly, a company that helps chefs find eager diners willing to try out a home-cooked meal from strangers.

Attendees paid $50 to try four grilled cheese sandwiches, plus a dessert grilled cheese and cocktails. The evening started off with a fig, manchego and truffle grilled cheese.

The fontina, mushroom and sage grilled cheese was ultra popular.

Hunt says she's made some social connections through these dinners - she says that the types of people willing to go to a food event at a stranger's house for dinner tend to be adventurous.

[The third] grilled cheese consisted of Époisses de Bourgogn, a French cheese, pecans and pepper jelly, [followed by] a pear and Gorgonzola grilled cheese. For dessert, there was marscarpone on pumpkin bread, topped with dulce de leche.