We've been in the
restaurant business forever.
(Well, since we were 17 and 20 … which can sometimes feel like forever.)
In 2010, Brian and Shelley started researching what it would look like to do their own thing in the Charlotte food scene. All they knew was they wanted to do comfort food.
Shelley pushed for a grilled cheese concept from the beginning, but Brian wasn’t so sure. So they landed on a street food concept that would let them reinvent their menu (and truck) over and over, and they’d start with grilled cheese. That was in 2012. And they never reinvented the menu. Now Papi Queso has moved out of their truck and into its permanent home in Optimist Hall, serving up gourmet grilled cheeses 7 days a week.
At Papi Queso, everything we do is about recreating your best food memories—and then adding to them. We want that wave of nostalgia to hit you when you first see the sandwich, and we want to surprise when you take that first bite.
“As a chef who’s spent time in fine dining, there’s something appealing about taking a handful of ingredients and treating them well. There’s something even more appealing about watching people’s faces when they eat a GC and tap into their childhood for a minute. It never gets old”
high five giver.
Meet some
of the fam.
