Unbreaded

Grilled Cheese At The Pop Shop?

Just a few miles from Philadelphia over the Ben Franklin Bridge lies The Pop Shop, a nostalgic throwback to a time when a ‘jerk’ was someone who made milkshakes and malts. Situated in quiet Collingswood, NJ the Pop Shop has received a lot of acclaim after being featured on television in Guy Fieri’s Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives and Bobby Flay’s Throwdown. The two shows have made Pop Shop famous for the more than 30 grilled cheese sandwiches that are offered on the menu.

We started with the Calvert, which was featured on both Food Network shows – it packs Jack cheese, roasted turkey, bacon, avocado, and balsamic mayonnaise on focaccia. The sandwich looked superb, the bread pushed to the limit by the ingredients bursting out and grilled on a panini press. Our first impression was that the sandwich was surprisingly dry, it could have used more of that balsamic mayonnaise and we would have preferred a lot more cheese, it just wasn’t gooey enough. The bacon was also so thin, the flavor was nonexistent. Next was the Linden, a grilled Philly soft pretzel stuffed with American cheese, chopped Angus Beef, caramelized onions and mushrooms. Although it was simply a glorified cheesesteak with the very unorthodox superseding of fried onions with mushrooms, the flavor of the Angus and abundance of cheese won over our palates.

The Pop Shop has made a name for themselves with the plethora of options offered on its grilled cheese menu, but when you add meat to the sandwich does it really remain a grilled cheese? For example, the Calvert seemed more like a California Club while the Linden is a cheesesteak, another sandwich the Laurel is a glorified pulled pork.

So where do you draw the line? When is a grilled cheese no longer a grilled cheese? Let us know what you think in the comments.

Get your sandwich on:

The Pop Shop
729 Haddon Avenue Collingswood, NJ 08108 (Google Map)