Jump to content
  • Welcome to the eG Forums, a service of the eGullet Society for Culinary Arts & Letters. The Society is a 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization dedicated to the advancement of the culinary arts. These advertising-free forums are provided free of charge through donations from Society members. Anyone may read the forums, but to post you must create a free account.

THE BEST: Cheese Store


toto2

Recommended Posts

Hello everybody !

I will be going to New-York with a friend of mine who has one of the best cheese store in Montréal ( Marché des saveurs du québec at jean-talon market , if you ever visited MTL). He and his girl friend wish to visit Cheese stores in NY , and any really special food stores. We will be munching for the three days we will be in town ! I need an insider look on all this. Please, do include the location info(street , adress subway if possible!) We plan on staying on Mahattan , but can go to other borogh for the exeptional !

We are looking as well for a restaurant , around 30$ per person , before tax and wine ! The more special (location , decor , food ) the better !

We are going for the Chrito event in Central park and are very exited !

Thank you for your help

visit my fondation: www.ptitslutins.org

I started a food blog : http://antoniodelaruepapineau.blogspot.com/

(in french)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I haven't been there yet, but I'm betting you'll find some good ideas via The Artisanal Cheese Center web site...they're at 500 West 37th Street and 10th Avenue. That's just a starting point; I'm sure others on the board will have reccomendations for you as well!

And depending on the date of your visit, you might be able to get some bargain meals via the NY Restaurant Week promo.

"I'm not eating it...my tongue is just looking at it!" --My then-3.5 year-old niece, who was NOT eating a piece of gum

"Wow--this is a fancy restaurant! They keep bringing us more water and we didn't even ask for it!" --My 5.75 year-old niece, about Bread Bar

"He's jumped the flounder, as you might say."

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I will be going to New-York with a friend of mine who has one of the best cheese store in Montréal ( Marché des saveurs du québec at jean-talon market , if you ever visited MTL).

:biggrin:

Yes, you should visit Murray's to see how lucky you are to have the shop at Jean-Talon. While their selection is impressive, prices are ridiculously high in many cases and my experience has been that they are shameless in selling spoiled and mishandled cheese.

Other cheese shops in nyc are Ideal Cheese (small selection, but trustworthy) and as already mentioned, Artisanal. If you have interest in Italian cheese, you might want to take a peek into DiPalo. In the Chelsea Market (again, very poor when compared to Jean Talon or Atwater), there's a good Italian products importer called Buon Italia that also has a nice selection of cheeses (although it's not a cheese shop per se)

M
Link to comment
Share on other sites

We plan on staying on Mahattan , but can go to other borogh for the exeptional !

Tuller on Court and Bergen streets in the Cobble Hill section of Brooklyn (take the F line to Bergen street). They have a wide array of imported and US "artisanal" cheeses and unlike Murray's where you will feel rushed sometimes, they will take the time to engage in lenghty and informative talks/explanations on cheese. I once spent 1/2 hour talking to one guy about Epoisses.

"A chicken is just an egg's way of making another egg." Samuel Butler
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'd second the recommendation for DiPalo's.

DiPalo Fine Foods

206 Grand Street (at corner of Mott Street)

New York, NY 10013

Tel: (212) 226-1033

They are direct import all types of Itlian specialty foods. They have a fine selection of Italian cheeses and your friend is likely to find something unusual from a small producer here (see if they have the red cow parmagiano).

Speak to Louie who visits many of the producers himself (and is a really nice guy).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

There is also Ninth Avenue Cheese Market (615 Ninth Avenue), which is an excellent, reasonably priced and often overlooked cheese market.

And let us not forget that Fairway has an outstanding cheese department, both uptown and UWS.

--

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It's not a cheese store, but the Union Square Greenmarket has some really excellent local farmer's cheeses available (as well as wines, breads, veggies and other local delicacies)--your friends would probably enjoy a visit.

Lupa (170 Thompson Street between Houston and Bleecker) has good Roman food, great cheese plates and house-cured meat and fish...you can have a full meal there for $30pp.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Toto -

As mentioned earlier, Murray's is great, but it's very expensive.

Not that it won't be fun to check out, but Cheese options in Montreal are better

than anything here, especially if you factor in price. Coming to NYC from Montreal

for cheese is kind of like going from NYC to Montreal for pizza.

Since Montreal's got French food and cheese covered, I'd focus on the kind of things that Montreal might offer less of - Indian (Angon on E. 6th St), Thai (Sripriphai in Queens), Sichuan (Grand Sichuan on 9th Ave & 24th St or Spicy and Tasty in Flushing), Italian (too many to list), NY Delis (Katz's for pastrami/Russ&Daughters for smoked fish), Sushi (too many to list, but I like Blue Ribbon, Hasaki, Jewel Bako), Middle Eastern, Ramen (Momofuku on 1st Ave. & 12th), steak (Peter Lugers or the more well-rounded BLT Steak) and pizza.

Sahadi's on Atlantic Ave in Brooklyn Heights between Clinton and Court St. is an excellent Middle Eastern market with a wide selection.

While you're in that general neighborhood, you can check out Jacques Torres Chocolate in Dumbo, Grimaldi's pizza, near-by, under the Brooklyn Bridge and the ice cream right on the pier.

If you have a car, or are willing to invest some time on subways, go to Flushing for Dim Sum or Sichuan - go to Shanghai Tide's (40th Rd off of Main St.) delicious $20 all-you-can-eat and drink (Budweiser) shabu shabu hot pot. Or go to Sripriphai in Woodside. Or China 46 across the George Washington Bridge.

Whatever, there're a million places to go.

Look through all the past threads. (I don't think your recent, more general question about interesting places to go will get many answers. That question could apply to almost every post ever made on this site!) Read. Soak it up. That's where your answers are...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Bedford Cheese Shop in Williamsburg borders on awesome. They have 5-year-old Red Cow Parm and 8-year old Grafton cheddar that I've seen nowhere else.

I'm not a fan of the new Murray's space. There was something so charming about their cramped old shop. (And, though this has nothing to do with the new shop, they sell an Epoisse for $13; at Fairway, it's $8.)

JJ Goode

Co-author of Serious Barbecue, which is in stores now!

www.jjgoode.com

"For those of you following along, JJ is one of these hummingbird-metabolism types. He weighs something like eleven pounds but he can eat more than me and Jason put together..." -Fat Guy

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Because price has been mentioned many times here, I would suggest you look at East Village Cheese on 3rd avenue near 9th street.

A good selection, interesting environment and good prices.

Time past and time future

What might have been and what has been

Point to one end, which is always present.

- T.S. Eliot

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'll second the rec for Bedford Cheese. Laid-back, friendly place. Tremendously useful and often hilarious descriptions labelling each cheese in the display case. And they turned me on to Abbaye de Belloc, a real crowd-pleaser (incidentally not available at Murray's :hmmm:).

While I'm on the subject of bitching about Murray's, last weekend I went in and out of their new location empty-handed for the second time since it opened. This time I was actually after something specific: a block of grana padana and maybe something nice on the side. But the pre-cut slabs of grana were all so huge and unwieldy I turned around and walked out. What the hell am I going to do with a pound and a half of grating cheese? How much pasta do these people think I eat?! :angry:

I've also been pretty impressed with the cheese counter at Dean & Deluca. Perhaps if I were more knowledgeable I'd find it overpriced (or perhaps not, I dunno), but it meets my needs nicely.

None of this is to say that Murray's isn't also a great spot--and it has the considerable virtue of being right next to Faicco's--but nothing to deserve its reputation as somehow in a class above the others.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 years later...

I'm sitting right now at a table at Amy's Bread in Greenwich Village, a couple of doors down from Murray's, having a coffee and a focaccia raisin twist, and the Murray's guys in white aprons just came around the corner with a cart stacked with bins and boxes marked with names like "Bar Boulud," "Cafe Boulud," "Hyatt Regency" ready to load into the truck. Alas, it's one of the few times I don't have a camera with me.

Update: Ten minutes later, a new truck arrives delivering boxes of cheese to Murray's. I need to hang out here more often.

Edited by David A. Goldfarb (log)
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

A long time ago I used to think Murray's was all that, but I've found in the past decade or so that it has become more and more possible to find wide selections of cheeses at better prices. Fairway and Zabar's, in particular, seem like the best bets for price/quality. These days, all the good places seem to be selling similar cheeses anyway. As far as I can tell, of the major retailers, only Artisanal adds any value, due to the affinage program. The other way to get unique value is to buy from Bobolink at one of the Greenmarkets.

Steven A. Shaw aka "Fat Guy"
Co-founder, Society for Culinary Arts & Letters, sshaw@egstaff.org
Proud signatory to the eG Ethics code
Director, New Media Studies, International Culinary Center (take my food-blogging course)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think Zabar's is best for price and selection, and Fairway has a pretty good selection at a slightly higher price than Zabar's, but when my daily routine started bringing me down to Bleecker St. regularly this past year, and I started buying from Murray's every week or two, I noticed that cheeses I'd bought elsewhere often seemed better from Murray's, perhaps due to better selection or better storage conditions, and Murray's features more handmade cheeses. I haven't tried a blind side by side tasting, but that could be an interesting exercise.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Gotta do a shout out for Anne Saxelby at Saxelby's Cheeses at the Essex St. Market. Small, perfectly cared for selection of "local" cheeses - local including Vermont, New Hampshire and Salvatore's ricotta, both smoked and plain, from Brooklyn.

Mitch Weinstein aka "weinoo"

Tasty Travails - My Blog

My eGullet FoodBog - A Tale of Two Boroughs

Was it you baby...or just a Brilliant Disguise?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 12 years later...
On 8/2/2009 at 12:40 PM, weinoo said:

Gotta do a shout out for Anne Saxelby at Saxelby's Cheeses at the Essex St. Market. Small, perfectly cared for selection of "local" cheeses - local including Vermont, New Hampshire and Salvatore's ricotta, both smoked and plain, from Brooklyn.

I haven't seen this posted here, but a big NYC food story a couple of weeks ago, and one which is quite sad...

 

Anne Saxelby, Who Helped Redefine America’s Independent Cheese Industry, Dies at 40

 

I was probably one of her early admirers at the old Essex Market, and she never failed to take time explaining, offering tastes, and just in general being a real swell person. 

 

and this sucks.

  • Like 1
  • Sad 1

Mitch Weinstein aka "weinoo"

Tasty Travails - My Blog

My eGullet FoodBog - A Tale of Two Boroughs

Was it you baby...or just a Brilliant Disguise?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

×
×
  • Create New...