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Team American

The Joint Cheese-of-Staff

Heidi Gibson, Commander-in-Cheese
Heidi is the menu architect and co-owner of THE AMERICAN Grilled Cheese Kitchen. As the winningest Grilled Cheese Invitational contestant in history, Heidi dreamt up the concept of a gourmet grilled cheese restaurant after numerous fans, rival grilled-cheese chefs, sandwich judges, family, and friends encouraged her. Her culinary creativity stems from years as a competitive grilled-cheese chef, and a scientific approach to sandwich making as she also holds bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in engineering from MIT

Nate Pollak, The Big Cheese
Nate is the general manager and co-owner of THE AMERICAN Grilled Cheese Kitchen. After assisting in Heidi’s recent grilled cheese competitions, Nate made it his mission to pair Heidi’s culinary talents with a grilled cheese-deprived world. Nate helped pay his way though UCLA as an economics and classics scholar through multiple foodservice positions. Nate draws on these restaurant experiences as a host, server, and bartender/bar manager to create the inviting atmosphere at THE AMERICAN.

Startup Cheeseheads


The American would not be where it is today without the exceptional team that helped us plan, build and open our restaurants:
Ray Tang, operations consultant, restaurateur, Chef at Presidio Social Club
Wylie Price, architect, restaurant design, www.wylieprice.com
Alex DeCarville & Tim Schofield, restaurant construction, general contractors,
Brent Dodge, Travis General Contractors , restaurant construction, general contractors, www.travisgeneralcontractors.com
Dave Le, branding, graphic design director, www.davelecreative.com
Drew Bennett, interior art installation, www.iamdrewbennett.com
Emily K. Rolph, signage and art direction, www.emilyrolph.com
James Wildman, graphic layout and design
Liz Seibert, graphic layout and design, www.lizseibert.com
Arlette Thibodeau, web development
Jeanne Ormsby, CPA , management advisor
all the staff, friends, family and colleagues that gave us their time, their skills & energy, and their support; we can't thank you enough