Michael Inwald claims to have no idea why April has been designated as National Grilled Cheese Month, but as the founder of the Cheeseboy chain, he is not about to pass up a homage to fromage.
In tribute to this icon of comfort-food cuisine, his “Cheeseboy: Grilled Cheese To Go” locations plan to give away their signature product for free on Sunday from 1 p.m. until 6 p.m.
A chain with eight locations, Cheeseboy has four outlets in Greater Boston — at South Station, the Prudential Center, Natick Mall, and South Shore Plaza. These are kiosks and food-court locations. Within a few months, the chain plans to open its first stand-alone store in Downtown Crossing.
For the record, the chain’s croûte au fromage features American cheese grilled on “all-natural Italian bread.”
The Sunday giveaway could be the high point of a month of festivities. The original plan was to venerate National Grilled Cheese Month 2013 as a “small feel-good celebration,” Inwald said.
To that end, the initial thinking was to give away a thousand vouchers that could be redeemed for a free grilled cheese sandwich. These vouchers would be given to folks who practice “acts of kindness.” Among recipients: Volunteers for the American Red Cross and the MSPCA, Cheeseboy said.
But it turned out that “we grossly underestimated just how kind people around us could be,” Inwald said in his e-mail.
And after the bombings near the finish line of the Boston Marathon, first responders were added to the voucher list of Cheeseboy’s “Acts of Kindness” initiative, Inwald said.
As April draws to a close, Cheeseboy says it has given away nearly 31,000 vouchers so far.
Sunday’s event marks the third time that Cheeseboy will celebrate its “Free Grilled Cheese Day.”
Said Inwald, “Free Grilled Cheese Day has certainly grown as we’ve opened more restaurants, but the spirit of the day remains the same each year.”