4 places you can savor tasty French onion soup

I could eat French onion soup any time of the year. But during the cold, damp days of winter, French onion soup feels as much a part of the season as snow.

There’s a comfort in a hot-to-the-touch bowl filled with a hunk of bread threatening to sink under the weight of melted cheese into an onion-laden broth. But I don’t make French onion soup often – not because it’s difficult; I just don’t wish to fill my house with the smell of onions (and my oven vent can never quite pump out the aroma effectively).

The good news is there are lots of places around town where you can get this classic dish. These are a few worth checking out.

Dressler’s Restaurant

1100 Metropolitan Ave., 704-909-6295; 8630 1-A Lindholm Drive, Huntersville, 704-987-1779

We had a table by a wall of windows. Not a trace of sun penetrated the gloomy sky. Still, like the soup that came to the table, the setting was perfect. Spreading out like a kind of food amoeba was an expanse of milky white Gruyere cheese that was caramelized in spots. A generous slice of baguette lay underneath the cheese. Random beads of oil from the buttery soft onions and shallots glistened on top of the amber beef stock.

300 East

300 East Blvd., 704-332-6507

The cheese flowed over the side of the bowl, which meant I needed to use the back of the spoon to break through to get to the soup. The texture of cheese in French onion soup is an important thing. If the cheese isn’t melted enough, it’ll be too elastic and you’ll end up chewing on it like gum. Melt it too much and it’ll plummet to the bottom of the bowl. Nope, the cheese needs to be slightly crisp in places, just a little chewy in others and nearly liquid everywhere else – so that it practically glides down your throat. The provolone cheese at 300 East had all those qualities. It also had wide strips of onion that were a touch firm, but not overly so.

Rooster’s

6601 Morrison Blvd., 704-366-8688; 150 N. College St., 704-370-7667

Very little cheese is used in Rooster’s onion soup, and you know what? I didn’t miss it. The heartbeat of this soup is the stock, made using the remnants of Rooster’s short ribs. The kitchen hits the liquid with a bit of white wine and what results is a bold, beefy broth that leaves a faint bitterness at the back of the throat. A slender, round crouton wears a slight coating of Gruyere cheese. The thin sliced onions were almost an afterthought. But I’ll be thinking about this soup for a long time to come.

Panera Bread

Locations throughout Charlotte

The reason I included Panera’s French onion soup on this list is because it’s a decently tasty alternative to the soups at other sit-down restaurants that require a longer time commitment. The beef stock is laced with a sherry wine vinegar. The Asiago cheese croutons were somewhere between crunchy and chewy. Some shreds of Gruyere cheese landed on top of the croutons, while others floated in the onion-heavy soup until they finally melted and drifted to the bottom.

This story was originally published January 22, 2015 at 2:05 PM.