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Underground Grilled Cheese Chef to Become High-End Restaurant Manager

By DNAinfo Staff on November 4, 2010 9:44am

"Ronnie" will no longer be the city's underground grilled cheese maker beginning next week.
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By Jennifer Glickel

DNAinfo Reporter/Producer

EAST VILLAGE — A former banker turned underground grilled cheese maker is once again changing professions, this time to high-end restaurant manager, according to the New York Post.

The mystery cheese griller, who goes only by "Ronnie" for fear that he will be discovered by the Health Department, will be managing an American restaurant in Midtown starting Monday, the paper reported.

"It was nice being an outlaw for a while," Ronnie told the Post.

The secretive chef took orders for grilled cheese sandwiches via text message, which he made in his brother's East Village apartment, and then deliver by hand to customers on street corners.

Ronnie said his sandwiches are grilled to perfection in unsalted butter before being wrapped in tin foil and popped into a 500-degree oven to ensure extra crispiness.

Since news spread of his underground sandwich sales in August, the chef's business grew to 30 to 50 orders each day, charging $5 to $7 per sandwich, the paper reported.

"I upped the quality of the bread and ingredients as it went on," he told the Post.

"I really enjoyed feeding people all over the city, but I guess it had to come to an end at some point."