A Nation-Spanning “Journey-Turned-Odyssey” Led to Uno Dué Go's New Grilled Cheese

Uno Dué Go's new grilled cheese, complete with cheddar, cheese curds and roasted tomato jam. (Photo Courtesy of Uno's)

In about two weeks, Boston-based Chicago-style pizza chain Uno’s will branch out with an on-the-go concept, dubbed Uno Dué Go (which people are supposed to pronounce “Uno Doo-aygo”) in Downtown Crossing. It’s got your standard breakfast and lunchtime fare (think flatbread pizzas, customizable salads) as well as some weird-sounding muffins based on virgin cocktails (chocolate mint mudslide or lemon drop martini muffin, anyone?).

What does intrigue us about the Uno Dué Go menu, though, is its grilled cheese, billed as the result of a “journey that became a three-month odyssey,” per the release. We had to learn what this entailed, so we called up Jamie Strobino, Uno’s SVP of New Product Development and the man behind the cheesy quest.

Turns out, he wasn’t kidding when he said he did his research. Strobino and his team sampled six different sandwiches around the country to decide what they wanted in their own grilled cheese. “People tend to have a muscle memory about certain things, particularly comfort foods,” Strobino says. “The mindset was ‘whats going to make it different?’ We researched who everyone said had the best grilled cheeses. We took all that data in and created our own.”

Herewith, a list of the sammies that they sampled:

The Lighthorse, Alexandria, VA— Monterey Jack, Swiss, cheddar, chives, garlic on Challah bread.

Grahamwich, Chicago, IL— Cheddar, prosciutto, cheese curds, tomato marmalade on Pullman bread.

Resto, New York, NY—Cheddar, Gruyere, pork belly, bacon, greens.

Cafe Brazil, Dallas, TX—Asiago, Monterey Jack, Cheddar, Feta.

The Cheese Factory, Wisconsin Dells, WI—A double-decker sandwich of cheddar, Swiss and Roma tomatoes on sourdough.

Roxy’s Gourmet Grilled Cheese, Boston—Meunster cheese, guacamole, Applewood-smoked bacon.

The resulting ‘wich after all that research? The curds and tomato marmalade from Grahamwich come into play, as does the sourdough from The Cheese Factory. The finished product is a combination of Cabot aged cheddar, cheese curds from Maplebrook Farms and roasted tomato jam with dijon and honey on sourdough. We’re not going to lie, if we find ourselves stuck in Downtown Crossing we may just have to give this a try. Uno Dué Go will be opening mid-October at 52 Summer Street.

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