It's owned by Jonathan Kaplan, the man who founded Flip Camera–and Michael Mina is on the company board to help with recipes. In his presentation last week, Kaplan called The Melt "as much a tech company as a restaurant," and once you set foot inside the door, it certainly feels that way.

Order-ables are simple: you can get any of five Michael Mina-consulted melts, fancily aerated cups/bowls of soup, and combinations of the two like The Wild Thing (aged Gruyere on white wheat plus creamy wild mushroom), The Amsterdam (smoked Gouda on 8-grain plus spicy black bean), and a Fontina/provolone melt on garlic bread served with Italian sausage 'n pepper soup -- a duo called The Italian Job, although it's much crappier when Marky Mark makes it.