Sloppy Joes on the new Say Cheese dinner menu.

By Kara Rota

Brunch on the Upper West Side is a beloved event, with touchstones like the ubiquitous strawberry butter found everywhere from Good Enough to Eat to Lansky’s, or the smoked fish spread at Barney Greengrass. It’s not hard to name a generous handful of spots that can be fairly described as an institution. Say Cheese, on 83rd St. between Columbus and Amsterdam, is certainly not. And yet it was the most delightful brunch experience I’ve had in my neighborhood in quite a while.

Tucked unassumingly beside a laundry on a block rife with rental car dealerships, the place seems to remain largely undiscovered although it’s been in business nearly a year. I visited on a recent Sunday morning, showing up promptly at ten (the long lines for brunch at other locales have trained me well). Around 10:05, a young guy in a t-shirt looked up from sweeping the floor and peeked outside to ask if we were waiting. He explained that they were getting off to a late start this morning: their front-of-house hadn’t shown up yet, so he seated us while hopping back and forth to do prep in the kitchen and ready the restaurant for the day. I’d come already not expecting much – some of the Yelp reviews for Say Cheese emphasize overly greasy food and bread dripping with oil. But walking inside, I was immediately won over.

Whatever that experience lacked in a smooth finish, it more than made up for in exactly the kind of neighborhood charm we look for in all those other “institutions”. The service is on-point, genuinely friendly and eager to please. The coffee is hot, bottomless, and actually good. And the food is undeniably spot hitting. We tried the Walking French Toast ($2.75), a portable presentation of crispy, custardy french toast bites kebabed on a plastic syringe filled with maple syrup. The Gruyere/Swiss/French Onion Grilled Cheese ($9.75) is a breakfast-food revelation, pressed on sourdough. Available condiments include sriracha mayo, but it’s better all on its own. The creamy mac ‘n’ cheese ($8.75) is after-school special perfection, although I wished I’d sprung for the white truffle version ($11.50). You can skip the tater tots ($4.50); I think they’re Ore-Ida.

I returned to Say Cheese on a recent weeknight when the restaurant invited us to preview its new dinner menu, which is still centered around the grilled cheeses. This time we got to try the Smoked Gouda and Fig on Peasant Bread ($9.25) – the Gouda doesn’t get melty enough, but the flavor combo is on point. The maple-glazed pork belly served on top of a mac and cheese meal served in a TV dinner-shaped plate was luscious, although the mac and cheese itself was a tad too sweet this time. Short ribs with grits tasted straight off the menu of a different restaurant, one without candy-striped paper straws: an excellent grown-up meal comfortably at home here. And those straws got put to work, as I gulped down rosemary lemonade (delightful) and a Creamsicle sake cocktail (a bit much). Miniature DIY Sloppy Joes were a platonic ideal, as were corn dog bites on sticks. Say Cheese gets away with an awful lot of cutesiness without ever seeming twee; there’s kitsch without a catch. Dessert consisted of Twinkie whoopee pies, reminiscent of the best out-of-the-box vanilla birthday cake, and deconstructed s’mores. The plastic syringes from the French toast at brunch made a reappearance here, this time filled with melted chocolate and skewered through perfectly charred marshmallows, sprinkled with graham cracker dust.

Sure, I can make perfectly good mac ‘n’ cheese at home. I can make a grilled cheese sandwich (sometimes even without setting off the smoke detector). But going out for a meal in your neighborhood, at its best, should feel like home, but better: a place where the walls are painted a color I would’ve chosen, the sugar and milk for my coffee are presented in adorable containers, I can sit for as long as I want and I don’t have to do the dishes.

Say Cheese, at 142 West 83rd Street, is open 11:30-7 on Friday, 10-7 Saturday and 10-8 Sunday. Hours may change soon to accommodate longer dinner service. Available Monday-Thursday for private parties.

Photos by Kara Rota.