Albie’s Beef Inn introduces the Ted Cruz Open-Face Melt in honor of candidate’s Mission Valley visit

On April 11, Republican Presidential Candidate Ted Cruz held a sold-out rally at the Mission Valley Town & Country Resort, during which he accused rival candidate Donald Trump of undue complaining about the party's delegate allocation process. "As we know in the state of California, whine is something best served with cheese,” quipped Cruz.

“That’s when it hit me,” says Rick Albie, fourth-generation proprietor of Albie’s Beef Inn (a restaurant located in Mission Valley’s nearby Travelodge Resort) and a curious attendee at the Cruz rally. “It was such a cheesy joke — literally. Plus, it sounded almost clever, but was actually absurd if you thought about it. The cheese and the absurdity combined in my mind with the fact that everyone always says that Cruz looks like his face is melting off of his skull. I got busy with his picture and a small sheet of copper, and in half an hour, voila: I had a Ted Cruz heat ’n stamp cheese brander. We already had a solid tuna melt on the menu; all I had to do was make sure every slice of 100% cheddar cheese we slapped on got lovingly emblazoned with Ted’s head. The customer response has been fantastic: whether they support Cruz or hate him, they love his sandwich. That’s the great thing about delicious kitsch: you can enjoy it sincerely or ironically or both.”

Finally, Albie says he likes the edible portrait because it reminds him of “those images of Jesus that people sometimes think they see on their toast. Because if Cruz wins, it’ll be a straight-up miracle.”