The Melt in downtown San Diego's Gaslamp Quarter runs a counter-service grilled cheese and burger operation at 635 Fifth Avenue, part of the California-based chain founded in San Francisco in 2011 by tech entrepreneur Jonathan Kaplan. The signature MeltBurger uses a custom blend of Angus and Wagyu beef chopped and grilled under two slices of aged cheddar with a jalapeño-pickle mix, occupying the same Fifth Avenue late-night counter-service corridor as Gaslamp Burger's grass-fed patty program a block north. A company-wide commitment to 100-percent all-natural ingredients — no artificial preservatives, colors, flavors, sweeteners, or hydrogenated fats — runs across the full menu of grilled cheeses on artisan French bread, mac 'n' cheese bowls, and hand-spun milkshakes. The Gaslamp location stays open past last call for the post-bar crowd, offering the same Angus-Wagyu burgers and three-cheese melts into the early morning hours that Taste & Thirst sends down the block after its own kitchen closes. Self-order kiosks and mobile-app pickup complement the in-store counter, running a tech-forward ordering system that Kaplan — who previously built and sold Flip Video to Cisco — designed to move a full grilled cheese order from press to counter in under 90 seconds.