The 2nd 8th Annual Grilled Cheese Invitational - Should I go next year?

The Grilled Cheese Invitational sounds as fun as a barrel of monkeys. That's why my friends and I decided to go this year. We all bought judging tickets for $5 more on top of the $12 entry ticket. We dreamed of ooey gooey interesting grilled cheese sandwiches moving quickly from the contestants pans to our tummy's. We expected to eat more grilled cheese then we have ever had before, watch contestants make their concoctions and do a little judging on the side.

That is not how the GCI went down. We arrived at the parking lot just before 11am and were greeted by a huge line wrapping around the location. After waiting for 15 minutes we learned of another line around the corner where if you had your tickets already you could walk right in. We went over there and walked right in. We received a judging bracelet and 3 carnival style tickets. In the grassy section of the fenced in "park" were all the free sample booths. Then, around all the edges were different vendors selling a variety of grilled cheese-esque food. There were food trucks as well and a beer garden. The beer garden sold vouchers for beer and all money went to the West Hollywood Library project.

A center stage was set up near the back of the huge open lot. We headed that way but at the time there was nothing going on so we went to the beer garden to wait for the rest of our friends to arrive.

We ended up going to the second heat for the competition. All the "judges" stand at the edge of the roped area and elbow their way to their grilled cheese. Each judge only gets 3 GC samples and to get those samples you have to yell and scream and wave down the sample carriers. The actual competitors are relatively boring to watch as most of them have already made all their sandwiches and are just frying them up in miniature frying pans on hot plates. The samples are small--1/4 of a regular piece of bread or less if the sandwich is made on something different.

In order to try more than 3 sandwiches, my friends and I shared our small samples with each other. The whole process though was pretty awful. There are 4 rounds of competition and we used all our tickets in one because we hated how we had to call for our tastes. We thought that these samples would fill us for lunch but no such luck there. We tried some interesting sandwiches though and found out later that our favorite--the Monte Carlo was the winner.

After our terrible judging experience we headed to the restaurant tents and bought various grilled cheese sandwiches and snacks. My favorite purchased sandwich was called The Elvis. It was challah with a nutella marscapone filling, caramelized bananas and maple bacon. I could eat another sandwich like that right now.

Will I go back next year? No. It is $12 entry fee for...nothing. You just get into a place where you can get some "free" samples which combined together is not worth $12. There is some entertainment but again, nothing that special that is worth the cost. $5 for three tiny samples as a Judge is an okay price, but elbowing and screaming for a sample is not my idea of a good time. There has to be a better way! I probably spent like $30 at the festival on top of my other money. I ate until my sides split and I had fun hanging out with my friends and trying new foods but I can do that elsewhere. Next year I will not go, will you?