When the investors on Shark Tank get behind an idea, it often sells like gangbusters. So it was with Tom + Chee, a restaurant concept based on tomato soup and grilled-cheese sandwiches. Sharks Barbara Corcoran and Mark Cuban supported the expansion of the Cincinnati-based franchise, and franchisees’ offers started pouring in.
Retired businessman Doug Mating grabbed the rights to open Tom + Chee stores in St. Louis and St. Charles counties, and he’s getting ready to melt the cheddar in O’Fallon, Mo., where the restaurant’s slated to open March 4.
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The restaurant’s menu offers creative grilled-cheese sandwiches with such innards as barbecue potato chips, bacon, and American cheese. But it’s the sandwiches made with halved donuts that are the real jaw-droppers. The “Barbara Blue” includes blueberry compote, ham, and Brie grilled on a donut. A version of the s’more features chocolate pieces and a marshmallow mascarpone melted inside a graham-cracker donut.
“To see if I really wanted to buy in as a franchisee, I worked at one of the restaurants for a week,” says Mating. “I served a grilled-cheese donut to a couple for dessert. They ate it, then ordered another. The husband told me they had to leave because they just couldn’t stop.” 1280 Hwy. K, O’Fallon, Mo., tomandchee.com.
