I had stopped into the cheese shop once before to pick up a selection of cheeses for an armature wine tasting party hosted by wine novice, yours truly. I absolutely recommend the cheese shop to stop in for cheeses and meats. You can taste them before you buy, and the staff is extremely knowledgeable. You can also buy in small quantities to make it fit the size of your party and your budget.
On my first visit had seen the chalkboard menu announcing the selections on their cheese and meat trays for the evening. I also noticed an eclectic selection of craft beers and wines. There were just a few tables and a small bar for enjoying all of the above. Luckily I had filed that away somewhere in the back of my head.
We stopped into the cheese shop which was quite busy. We only waited a few minutes before a couple of seats opened up at the bar. The staff, of whom I think two were the owners, were friendly and created a nice vibe for a fun and casual date night. We received a wooden clipboard with the weekend menu. Obviously we need to study up on our food vocabulary. We didn't understand much of what was on the menu and found, up on the chalkboard, what we were looking for. We opted to skip the drinks and order a meat tray and a cheese tray. We were pleasantly surprised to find out that we could order half a cheese tray and half a meat tray. That was perfect. Our waiter also recommended that we order bread to accompany it.
I was impressed with proportions and glad we were able to just order half trays of meat and cheese. The bread was also a great addition. Again, I wish I had taken better notes on our selections. We had two raw cows milk cheeses. One was from New Hampshire. Unfortunately I don't remember too many details. I did appreciate the knowledgeable staff an learned that one of our cheeses was a washed rind cheese while the other was not. To butcher what I learned, apparently washed rind cheeses encourage the cultures to flourish and gives the cheese some extra umph while the non-washed rind cheese was very mild. We both preferred the extra flavor of the washed rind cheese.
If I have one complaint about our visit to the Cheese Shop, it is that there were only two cheeses and two meats on the tray. Maybe that is because we got the half. I would prefer smaller amounts of each with more variety. I like a slightly harder cheese with stronger flavors compared to the two soft cheeses we tried. Ok, one other suggestion. I would also enjoy sampling some of their variety of jams and dried fruits, or even fresh fruits paired with the cheese tray.
I couldn't have asked for more with the two meats that we tried. I really wish we had taken notes because they were absolutely worth going back for more. The bread we received was from La Mie just a couple doors down and was excellent paired with a slightly green olive oil. It also made a great host for the prosciutto.
Besides what we ordered, we saw some wonderful dishes coming. There were small pieces of bread topped with prosciutto that looked great. The couple next to us order some sort of small toasts with a good looking spread on it. They also had a macaroni and cheese in a cast iron skillet that looked dangerously rich and decadent. For dessert we heard about a mascarpone ice cream with some sort of skillet pancake.
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