“Cheese The Day.” In Latin, that would be “Carpe Caseum.” In Spanish, it’s “agarra el queso.” No matter how you say it, if you want an elevated grilled cheese sandwich, all you have to do is “Say Cheese.” That’s Say Cheese as in the restaurant that first fired up its grills and panini presses in Albuquerque back in December, 2025. That’s also Say Cheese as in what photographers may ask you to say when taking your picture. That’s because the pronunciation “cheese” naturally stretches the mouth into a grin. Visit Say Cheese the restaurant and you’ll be grinning broadly when a gourmet grilled cheese sandwich hits your table.
The grilled cheese sandwich ranks near or at the very top of both comfort food and sandwich lists across the fruited plain. Search volume data compiled by Time Out validated that grilled cheese is the top comfort food pick in six states (California, Illinois, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, and Virginia), edging out fried chicken and pot roast. (That same list shows New Mexico’s favorite comfort food is “chili.”) In a YouGov online poll on America’s favorite sandwiches, grilled cheese took first place with a 79% approval rating (rising to 82% in the South), coming in ahead of turkey, grilled chicken, and BLTs.
You may be asking yourself “if grilled cheese sandwiches are so popular, why aren’t there more grilled cheese sandwich restaurants?” The primary reason is that restaurateurs believe that a restaurant featuring the comfort food favorite have a low perceived value (translation: they won’t make enough money). Consumers view grilled cheese as a cheap, basic comfort food they can easily make in five minutes with a slice of American cheese and two pieces of white bread. Diners are generally unwilling to pay high restaurant prices for a plate that costs very little to make at home.
It’s also conceivable that grilled cheese sandwich restaurants haven’t exploded across the country because they’re not perceived as something adults would order. You can undoubtedly name independent and chain diners, cafes and fast-food venues featuring grilled cheese sandwiches on children’s menus. Never mind that some of us in our adultery are children at heart and when we’re out and about, we often crave a great grilled cheese sandwiches but don’t want to be subjected to the paragon of mediocrity and simplicity served at some eateries. That’s why Say Cheese makes so much sense.
You’d never use the terms mediocre and simple at Say Cheese, a concept created by Nicolette Quezada because she wanted to remain close to her son Sully (whom she affectionately calls the restaurant’s general manager). Her brainchild was inspired by Sully’s love of grilled cheese sandwiches. No ordinary grilled cheese sandwiches were these. Together mom and son experimented with creative gourmet sandwiches. They maintained a running menu of their creative sandwiches scrawled on a pantry chalkboard. In August, 2024, she launched Say Cheese in Bosque Farms which was physically close to the school Sully attended.
Her niche Bosque Farms concept proved so successful what while walking around the Duke City, residents recognized her as the “Say Cheese girl.” That inspired an expansion of Say Cheese, initially as a second location, later as the sole restaurant. Say Cheese is located just north of Downtown Albuquerque on the FUSION arts campus close to Sully’s new school. The campus is just south of Lomas on 1st Street. Signage glaringly reflects FUSION’s “The Cell” with a much less obvious street sign directing visitors to Say Cheese. Trust your GPS to get you there despite confusing signage.
You’re probably going to be greeted by Nicolette herself when you visit Say Cheese (the general manager had a baseball game the day of our inaugural visit). She’s got a very endearing, high likeability quotient and loves to talk about her restaurant and her Sully. Trust her to guide you through the menu which lists seven grilled cheese sandwiches as well as a featured special for the month. The menu also lists seven sides and two desserts. It’s easy to imagine Nicolette and Scully in white lab coats experimenting with various ingredient combinations in search of the perfect grilled cheese.
My Kim, a paragon of domesticity, would probably hire Nicolette to decorate our home. That’s how impressed she was at the restaurant’s thematic decor. More specifically, she loved the cheese graters hanging from the ceiling. Cheese graters also adorn shelves in the tiny kitchen. One wall of the space features a mural of cheesy images replete with such sagacious sayings as “Cheese Makes Everything Better” and “You’re the Mac to my Cheese.” If Say Cheese has a mascot, it would be Remy, the blue-gray rat with an extraordinary sense of taste and smell from the animated movie Ratatouille. We espied several stuffed Remy dolls on the premises.
At approximately 500 square-feet, Say Cheese can’t accommodate large numbers within the restaurant. Fortunately overflow crowds can (weather-permitting) enjoy their fromage-fare on the small patio in front of the building or on the north side of the building. Perhaps indicative of the type of people who love grilled cheese, there was a lot of “intelligence sharing” among the dozen or so of us dining at Say Cheese on Halloween Day. Within the restaurant’s personal-space proximity seating, diners freely shared what they were having and their level of enjoyment. Every item received unanimous acclaim.
Wikipedia defines “Mac Daddy” as “a slang term for a pimp, which has come to mean a virle man.” It’s highly unlikely the angelic Nicolette would have named the Mac Daddy Melt (sourdough bread, Havarti cheese, mac-n-cheese, bacon, green chile) for a pimp. Nor would my Kim have ordered it, albeit sans green chile. A wisp-thin cheese skirt drapes off the lightly toasted sourdough. Beneath that crispy skirt, you’ll encounter a generous pile-up of mac-n-cheese (adult stuff, not that crappy Kraft out-of-a-box junk). Havarti cheese (a mild, rich and buttery cow’s cheese from Denmark) and bacon proved a surprisingly wonderful combination.
If grilled cheese is one of the country’s most revered comfort foods, pairing it with tomato soup doubles the appreciation Americans have for the combination—a duo perhaps second in our estimation only to burgers and fries. The Tasting Table describes this combination as “a gooey slice of a perfectly toasted grilled cheese sandwich dipped into a steaming bowl of flavorful tomato soup is a tough combination to beat when it comes to easy comfort and satisfying taste.” Rest assured, Nicolette doesn’t just open up a can of Campbell’s cream of salt…er, tomato soup and pour it into a pan. This is homemade stuff and it’s absolutely delicious, a heart-warming exemplar of what tomato soup should be.
An old English folklore phrase proclaims: “An apple pie without the cheese is like a kiss without the squeeze.” Substitute “grilled cheese” for apple pie and you’ll grasp how much I enjoyed the cheesy apple griller (sourdough bread, cheese, fresh apple slices and your choice of ham or turkey). The sweet-sour flavor profile of the apples and the rich, salty cheese are genius. Turkey is the perfect protein to go with this pairing. At home it’s not unusual for me to have three grilled cheese sandwiches AND tomato soup for dinner on a cold day (no, I’m not “carb-loading” for a big race). I was tempted to order at least one more cheesy apple griller, but then I wouldn’t be able to enjoy another sandwich.
For my other grilled cheese, Nicolette suggested the Popper Like It’s Hot (sourdough bread, cream cheese, bacon, Cheddar cheese, jalapeños). As a native New Mexican, I should have asked for green chile in place of jalapeños, but instead ordered the NM Heatwave (sourdough bread, Cheddar cheese, green chile and your choice of ham or turkey). Unlike the sweltering summer of 2026, this is a heatwave you can enjoy. The green chile wasn’t quite piquant enough for this fire-eater, but it did have a nice roasted flavor. I recommend this one with ham, a not overly salty variety. A perfect side for this sumptuous sandwich are the Parmesan chips. They’re not Parmesan-coated potato chips. In fact, they resemble the aforementioned cheese skirt more than they do chips. Like the cheese skirt, they’re delicate, crispy and will fall apart if you look at them meanly (not that you could possibly do that).
It’s long been a family practice for my Kim to choose desserts during our restaurant forays. She loves desserts while salty snacks are my preference. Nicolette introduced us to cheesecake balls, nine-per-order golfball-sized orbs coated in four different flavors. For my bride, the cheesecake balls with sprinkles called loudest while the chocolatey ones were my choice. If I could offer Nicolette one suggestion it would be to serve the cheesecake balls with a con queso dip. Yeah, it’s rather outlandish but some of us salty eaters would enjoy them more.
It’s comforting to know that when you’re craving the ultimate comfort food, you can visit Say Cheese where Nicolette and (maybe) Sully will take good care of you.
Say Cheese
700 1st Avenue
Albuquerque, New Mexico
(505) 226-2887
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LATEST VISIT: 31 October 2026
# OF VISITS: 1
RATING: N/R
COST: $$$
BEST BET: Mac Daddy Melt, Tomato Soup, Parmesan Chips, NM Heatwave, Cheesy Apple Griller, Cheesecake Balls
REVIEW #1558