Legacy Hall has added a new tenant, and the timing could not be better. Cheese Lab, the Nashville concept built entirely around grilled cheese, is now open inside the Plano food hall, and its arrival happens to land on National Mac and Cheese Day. Consider that a sign.
This is the second location for Cheese Lab, which got its start inside Assembly Food Hall at Fifth + Broadway in downtown Nashville. Founder and CEO Youssef Koutout built the menu on a simple premise: take the most familiar sandwich in America and refuse to leave it alone.
The signature melts make the case. The Nashville Smokehouse Melty layers in slow-smoked brisket, the Pimento Mac ‘n’ Cheese Melty stacks two Southern staples into one sandwich, and the Pulled Pork Meltstorm is exactly what it sounds like. The Southern Heritage Grilled Ham Duo and the Brie and Fig Grilled Melty round out the list, backed by loaded mac and cheese, house-made soups, and crispy Cheetos Balls for those who came to commit. Mornings bring buttermilk biscuits, breakfast burritos, and bagel sandwiches.
“At Cheese Lab, we took one of America’s most recognizable comfort foods and completely reimagined it,” Koutout said. “Every sandwich starts with quality ingredients and is built to bring unexpected flavors to a classic sandwich. We’re excited to bring our second location to Legacy Hall and become part of the Plano community.”
Amanda McFarland, executive vice president of FB Society, which operates the hall, said the stall fits the room. “Their menu takes something everyone knows and loves and turns it into a new culinary experience. We think guests are going to have a lot of fun working their way through the menu.”
Cheese Lab joins the more than 20 eateries spread across Legacy Hall’s three stories at Legacy West, alongside the hall’s bars, in-house brewery, and live music stage. The stall is open Monday through Wednesday from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m., Thursday until 10 p.m., Friday and Saturday until 1 a.m., and Sunday until 9 p.m. Those late weekend hours mean a brisket grilled cheese at midnight is now a fact of life in Plano, which feels like progress.
