Photo courtesy of Adam J’s Grilled Cheese.
Amid the shipping containers at Pittsburgh Yards, it’s impossible to miss the bright red one. It belongs to Adam J’s Grilled Cheese and, even in this summer heat, you’re likely to see lunchgoers lined up, drawn in by the promise of buttery, gooey sandwiches. For Adam Jackson, the shipping container represents years of experimentation and determination as he sets out to carve out his place in the community.
Jackson, a fifth-generation Atlantan and one of eight siblings, hadn’t planned on becoming a grilled cheese perfectionist. After his brother’s death, he found solace in baking his family’s biscuit recipe, taught to him by his mother.
“I enjoyed the process,” he says. “I started making them for friends and neighbors, and that slowed me down.”
Photo by Lia Picard
With the help of his siblings, he founded Butterly Biscuits, which he sold at the Grant Park Farmers Market. Jackson never found a permanent home for his biscuit business, but he wanted to stay in the food industry, so he turned to sandwiches, with their broad appeal.
Years of selling sandwiches from a food truck at Dragon Con and Georgia Tech football games proved that his grilled cheese sandwiches had staying power. After finding the right blend of cheeses to perfect the “pull,” Jackson was ready to go all-in. He found a permanent home for Adam J’s with a shipping container in Pittsburgh Yards, just off the recently opened Southside trail of the BeltLine.
“It was a lot to get this container here, just a lot of sacrifices, money and all that,” he says. “But I saw the vision of the Southside.”
His neighbors in the shipping container courtyard include the coffee shop Urban Grind, Coffyn Pyes, which sells savory hand-pies, and the plant shop Pink Pothos.
The key to a perfect grilled cheese, Jackson says, is a blend of aged white cheddar, mozzarella, and smoked gouda on locally baked sourdough. He found a way to toast the bread to a deep golden crisp without charring it, while the cheese stays molten enough to deliver the dramatic pull customers love. He still leans on local partnerships, sourcing much of his produce from South Atlanta Farms.
Photo courtesy of Adam J’s Grilled Cheese.
“It’s funny, as soon as people taste it, it’s like ‘Is it better than my mom’s? Is it better than my grandma’s?’ It’s meant a lot to me to create an experience with the grilled cheese,” Jackson says.
Beyond the classic, he offers sandwiches including chicken parmesan with house-made tomato sauce and a jerk chicken grilled cheese that levels up the spice and quickly sells out. The truffle mushroom grilled cheese is his mother’s favorite. A classic sandwich costs $5 while the others are $10; they all include a side of chips and a pickle.
The shipping container is more than just a means to make money. For Jackson, it’s a chance to create a gathering place in an area he says is in need of good food.
Photo courtesy of Adam J’s Grilled Cheese.
“I want to bring gourmet to a community that hasn’t seen gourmet in years, and we all deserve that,” Jackson says. “Everybody wants something nice, so my thing is to bring that to the community, something they can be proud of.”
Even though it’s a shipping container, he’s still managed to make it a vibe. Between a playlist that shuffles R&B and jazz, affordable sandwiches, and a prime BeltLine location, Jackson hopes Adam J’s becomes the kind of neighborhood gathering place where people come as much for the atmosphere as the grilled cheese.
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