Feast Portland: Late Night Tillamook Comfort Call

Feastivus is almost here! Feast Portland is only a day away! Eeeeeeee!!!!! It’s Feast Eve!!!

Feast, of course, is amulti-day food festival raising money for Share Our Strength’s No Kid Hungry Campaign and Partners for a Hunger-Free Oregon September 19-22. 2013.

I just found out about some great stuff Tillamook Cheese has planned for Feast, and wanted to share with all my other cheese lover readers. In fact, I mean this literally- find me during Feast and let’s have some TIllamook cheese together! Here are the deets about the cheese:

Last year and this year, Tillamook is one of the sponsors of Feast. As they explained here in their blog post Loaf Life: Comfort Call: “Tillamook, being the cheese-nerds that we are, couldn’t just hand out samples. Yes, we wanted to hand out samples, but we couldn’t just stop there. The next logical choice was, of course, grilled cheese sandwiches.”

Yes, of course Tillamook. That is the next logical choice. Hot melty cheese a la Grilled Cheese Sandwiches with Tillamook Cheese.

The concept of the Tillamook Comfort Call is that Tillamook plans to hand out a certain number of special phones (“Tillaphones”) for Feast which are a direct line to calling in a grilled cheese emergency and ordering a grilled cheese delivered to you (assuming you are in the appropriate radius of the Feast festival) during the late night hours (11pm-3am) on Friday and Saturday of Feast.

LOVE. LOVE.

I hope to see if I can acquire a Tillaphone, and make a Tillamook Comfort Call! Then you should look for me at the ChefStable after party and Portland Penny Diner Popup party on Fri and Sat late night so I can “Share the Loaf”- i.e. share the Tillaphone so other Feast attendees can enjoy Comfort Call too. Just let me take a photo of the deliciousness, ok? If I can’t acquire a Tillaphone, I am so stalking Urban Bliss Life- check out her informative post on Tillamook and Feast too! She is sweet, smart, and will surely be enjoyable company while enjoying melty cheese.

So what’s on the Tillaphone menu?

• The Triple Threat Grilled Cheese – Tillamook Colby Jack, Vintage White Extra Sharp Cheddar and Sharp Cheddar Cheeses
• Sweet & Spicy BBQ Grilled Cheese – Tillamook Sharp Cheddar and Pepper Jack cheese with caramelized onions, BBQ sauce and bacon
• Dessert Grilled Cheese?

That’s right, a Dessert Grilled Cheese!

Tillamook will be sampling three dessert grilled cheeses at the Widmer Brothers Brewing Sandwich Invitational Presented by Lincoln Motor Co (tickets sold out). Attendees will get to sample and vote for their favorite at the event through social media, and the fan favorite will be featured on the Comfort Call menu. The contenders for the dessert grilled cheese are:

• The Dark Chocolate Ginger – Tillamook Extra Sharp Cheddar with dark chocolate and candied ginger
• The Ooey-Gooey – Chocolate covered pretzels with bananas, peanut butter and Tillamook Sharp Cheddar Cheese
• The Marionberry Waffle – Tillamook Vintage White Extra Sharp Cheddar Cheese and Marionberry compote on Ego waffles

Thankfully, I also already bought myself a ticket to the Sandwich Invitatational (which I blogged about here), so I will report back on on these sandwiches, and will stalk around looking for a Tillaphone, hopefully to participate in a Tillamook Comfort Call! I hope to sample all these sandwiches. I am a dedicated reviewer of cheese.

Besides the Sandwich Invitational, Tillamook will also be present at the Oregon Bounty Grand Tasting on Friday and Saturday September 20, 21, offering cheese samples of the Tillamook Sharp Cheddar and Monterey Jack. Keep in mind that Tillamook’s Sharp Cheddar won “America’s Best” at the 2013 United States Championship Cheese Contest (as did their Vintage White Extra Sharp Cheddar and Colby Jack). The Monterey Jack won “America’s Best” at the 2011 United States Championship Cheese Contest.

Make sure you keep apprised on Twitter by following @TillamookCheese! The Tillamook County Creamery Association is a cooperative of 110 dairy farming families since 1909, and their products are made with only the highest quality milk from cows not treated with artificial growth hormones. You can feel good about supporting local as you eat their delicious products.

You know what else you could do when you visit Tillamook at the Grand Tasting? Get this… they are offering the ability to grill your face onto a grilled cheese sandwich. Ok, grill your face digitally, but still!

If you are looking for me at Feast, my current Feast schedule includes the Widmer Sandwich Invitational (sold out), both days of the Oregon Bounty Grand Tasting presented by Alaska Airlines (tickets still available for Friday and for Saturday!), the Cookbook Social (free/$5 donation) on Friday- for a list of the various authors attending and what they wrote, check out my cookbook lineup homework here.

For Saturday, besides the Grand Tasting I will also be at the Whole Foods Best Butcher Contest and Fishmonger Faceoff (free!) and High Comfort at the Nines by Portland Monthly (tickets sold out). Both Fri and Sat I will be at most of the various Speaker Series events (tickets available, $10 each), and also the ChefStable after party and Portland Penny Diner Popup party. The Portland Penny Diner Popup mentioned is not a ticketed event: you can read more about them and other unofficial Feast events here at Eater Where to Eat During Feast Portland 2013. And I might be at more! Check out where I am on foursquare or @pechluck on Twitter!

What do you think of the 5 Tillamook grilled cheese creations above? Which would you pick to try for your Tillamook booty call?

Update! Recap:

Disclosure: I was granted a Bloggers Pass for Feast Portland 2013 which grants me access to the Media Lounge and Grand Tastings and Speaker Series. I was asked to help promote Feast but they did not require that I write this post and I am not otherwise being compensated.

The tickets to the Sandwich Invitational and High Comfort at the Nines were purchased out of my own pocket. I have no affiliation with Tillamook except that I love their products, and they make cheese, I love cheese, and so I wanted to promote what they are doing at Feast. The views and opinions expressed in this blog are entirely my own, and I will always provide my honest opinion and assessment of all products and experiences regardless of whether they were complimentary or not.