Witness to history?

In its 40 years on earth, it’s chopped and channeled the world’s most innocuous beverage into a commercial art form, with 17,000 stores worldwide that sell scores of coffee blends to the tune of about $10 billion annually.

Theoretically, the grilled-cheese idea is already in its infancy, and you have only to visit Con Pane Rustic Breads & Café to cop to the particulars. Any eatery that can whip up that little bit of nirvana called the Almost Grilled Cheese ($7.95) has its heart and head for such a venture in exactly the right place. The sandwich’s triple-cream Brie and Gorgonzola is an absolutely killer team, especially mounted on warmed Rosemary and olive oil bread. Bread is Con Pane’s signature item, as many of you already know (“pane” is Italian for “bread”). Management has made a long-term study of the stuff and knows the science and art involved in baking it. If you’re looking for proof, try the raspberry scones. Then sink inexorably into a slough of despair in your feeble attempt to replicate the orgasm that follows.

It’s been about nine months since Con Pane moved to Point Loma’s Liberty Station (specifically 2750 Dewey Road) from nearby Rosecrans Boulevard, its cult following intact. You’ll find it there between 7 a.m. and 6 p.m. every weekday but Wednesday, 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. Saturdays and 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. Sundays (phone is 619-224-4344). If I do say so myself, the grilled-cheese franchise idea is a pretty good one—if you visit Con Pane and score an Almost Grilled Cheese, you might just bear witness to its beginning.