Melted Toasted Sandwich Emporium opens second location at Croatian Club in O'Connor

When you're trying to find a good place to eat, simplicity is key. Look for somewhere that chooses their forte and delivers on what they promise. No matter if it's burgers, pizza or toasted sandwiches, if they only have one focus, Preston promised that they often knock it out of the park.

I remember thinking at the time how good it would be to have a local place that took the humble toastie to the next level.

Somewhere that combined the nostalgia and comfort of the toasties you grew up with, with top-notch ingredients or potentially even pushing the boundaries of what exactly can be put in between two pieces of bread.

Talk about dreams coming true - Melted Toasted Sandwich Emporium opened in Fyshwick at the beginning of 2020 to deliver just that. Now, just over two years later, Melted has found a second home in O'Connor.

After a trial day on Sunday for the European Multicultural Festival, Melted is officially opening its inner north location on Wednesday, with a permanent food van at the Croatian Club. What's more, it's going to be open on Friday and Saturday evenings.

We can hear the toasted sandwich fans rejoicing already. And trust us - there's a fair few of you out there.

The brainchild of chefs Alex O'Brien and Alex Royds, Melted has built itself a growing fanbase, whether they be tradies and office workers getting their mid-week lunches, or friends and families heading out to Fyshwick (and soon O'Connor) specifically to get one of their creations.

Really, what's not to love?

Even for the owners themselves, the store was created because they genuinely love toasted sandwiches.

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"We spoke about it for a long time, within the fine-dining chefs that I worked with," Royds says.

"Probably about 10 years ago, when I first met Alex, we spoke about our dream restaurant and it was pretty much a toasted sandwich shop.

"That's basically what we ate after work, and when we were working in restaurants. And it just got passed around like this really cool idea, and we talked to a lot of other chefs about it until we went ahead with it."

For fans of the Fyshwick store, there will be some familiar sights on the O'Connor menu.

Two of the best sellers, the Reuban - with pastrami, sauerkraut, dijon mustard and cheese - and the 24-hour barbecue beef brisket - with pickles, coleslaw and cheese - will be on the menu from Wednesday.

So will the classic bacon and egg, and the vegetarian option of mushroom - with spinach, bechamel sauce and cheese. Rounding out the toasted sandwich menu is the new addition of schnitzel with Japanese gravy and cheese.

And if that wasn't enough, there are also shoestring fries, soup and coffee available.

"We're also going to have a couple of new sandwiches. Maybe a sweet one. A couple of different things," Royds says.

Melted Toasted Sandwich Emporium in O'Connor is open Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday, 7am until 2.30pm. Friday and Saturday from 7am to 8pm.

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