We take our roles as food critics seriously at Time Out. But that doesn’t mean we’re above a simple cheese toastie, especially when the bread is buttered and grilled to golden perfection, the cheese oozes beguilingly from the sides, and the first bite is a satisfying crunch into the soft and flavoursome dairy goodness within.
Yep, there’s nothing like a fat, hot, toasted cheese sandwich. You know that, your hangover knows that, and so do mobile food doyens Frank Rusitovski and Dean Trpeski. And with their shipping-container-turned-drive-through-café concept, they’ve hit a winning formula.
Here’s the deal: you pull into Preston’s Food Truck Park, laugh at the arrow that points to ‘parking’ and keep chugging up the AstroTurf ramp until you’re face-to-face with a gourmet toastie menu that would make your 3am inebriated self shed a tear. Rusitovski and Trpeski are well aware that toasties are traditionally best served TV-adjacent, which is why each variation on the cheese and bread combo is dubbed after big names of the small screen: Bert and Ernie (roast beef), Lenny and Carl (macaroni) Mario and Luigi (pesto and tomato) or the illustrious Batman and Robin, which comes with an American Wagyu patty and crispy beef strip. All, of course, stuffed with house blend cheese, which is a combination of mozzarella, gouda, swiss and cheddar.
Being toastie traditionalists, we go for the Tom and Jerry – straight-up cheese and bread, for just $5.
Give it a moment, because that cheese comes palate-strippingly hot. Then, bite into that bad boy and enjoy the crunchy-soft texture combination that only a good toastie can provide, and enjoy the lingering aftertaste of the buttery and slightly tangy house blend cheese.
There’s no denying that you can do special things with cheese and bread at home. But for the times when you’re out of ingredients and in need of a quick injection of comfort food, there’s always Cheese and Bread. And believe us when we say that we’ll be back for the Nutella-filled Winnie and Tigger dessert toastie.
