ONE WORD: AWESOME
Our cheese counter is something that most others can only hope to be. This is not to boast or sound pretentious, although we have rights to both. No, we’re proud, and we make no apologies about it. In a moment you will know exactly why.
When you step into a Fairway Market, it can seem overwhelming at first. Where to? What’s that? Something smells delicious! But then an amazing thing happens. You turn the corner and before you is something incredible – we, ourselves, practically can’t believe it every time. Neat stacks of cheese on wooden boards and straw mats; so many kinds, over 600, all seem to be awaiting your arrival. You eye a wedge of cheese you’ve never tried before with a friendly cheese department team member sharpening his knife in the background ready to serve. He knows exactly what you want, by the way. There’s so much cheese, and you try to take it all in, and then suddenly the thought comes to mind, “Where did all of this come from? How is this possible?!”
MEET STEVE JENKINS, MASTER CHEESEMONGER
When Steve Jenkins joined the Fairway family, he was an out-of-work stage actor with five years’ experience behind the counter at a New York City specialty food retailer. Steve was the only serious cheesemonger in town and had earned his place as a certified Maitre Fromager. He surveyed how Fairway was displaying their cheeses – it was just like everyone else, people who didn’t yet know the intricacies behind caring for cheese, presenting cheese, giving it the opportunity to taste the best it could. Steve dove right in, absorbing the tricks of the trade and bringing them to life right on the Fairway cheese counter.
Steve has been an intensely influential driving force behind the state of the artisanal cheese industry in the United States today. By the mid-1990’s, he had amassed such deep and passionate knowledge on the subject that he published one of the most highly regarded manuscripts of the cheese industry. Cheese Primer, unleashed in 1996, will teach you everything you ever wanted to know about cheese, and then some, the way that only Steve could tell it. Cheese Primer won the James Beard Award and was nominated for the Julia Child Award of the International Association of Culinary Professionals. It is often referred to as the single-most indispensable book in the world of cheese. And of course we feel the same. (For Steve’s full bio, click here. There’s just too much good stuff to say about him!) As Cheese Primer hit the shelves, Steve had achieved the pinnacle of cheesedom and it was time to pass the proverbial cheese knife on to the next superstar fromager, Avanelle Rivera. Steve’s knowledge and passion are only rivaled by Avanelle’s, and it is with this knowledge, passion, and lots of love that she grew Fairway’s cheese operation into what it is today.
JUST ASK US, WE KNOW ALL 600. REALLY, WE DO.
At any of our locations, on any day of the week, you will find over 600 artisanal cheeses, and we know about every single one of them. That’s because Avanelle is an insatiable foodie, and she inspires her team to be the same. Each team member can help you design the perfect cheese platter for your guests, loved one, or even just for yourself (check out some easy ones here). We will wrap your purchase the way cheese was meant to be wrapped. Overwhelmed at all of the choices? Ask a team member. Each one is knowledgeable and will be glad to recommend a cheese based on a few simple questions: Type of milk? Hard or soft? Mild or smelly? Crowd pleaser, or something just a little different? Rest assured that we’ve got the perfect one for you.
WE’RE OBSESSED, AND THE WHOLE WORLD KNOWS IT
What really sets us apart from the rest is that our passion about cheese is actually an obsession, and our job as cheese people is actually a way of life. Avanelle and her team are always out there searching for the next great undiscovered cheese. They learn from the masters of the craft – France, Italy, Spain, Belgium, Holland, United States, England, Ireland, and on. They have made cheeses available in the United States that no one dared to bring over before. Their vacations are work trips to country sides where small famers, shepherds, and monks hand craft their own cheeses using age-old methods for the sheer love of it. And we always learn something new. We taste it, and when we realize we can’t live without it, we bring it back to you.
AFFORDABLE LUXURIES
What is even more incredible than the variety we display are the prices we are able to offer. Our zeal and mission to always make such wonderful treasures affordable is top priority in the cheese department. The finest cheeses that you thought you’d only see strolling through the marketplace in Italy are now right in front of you at Fairway at always affordable prices.
THE BEST CHEESE DOESN’T ONLY COME FROM EUROPE THESE DAYS
As is the Fairway way, we felt compelled to share our knowledge and passion for handcrafted European cheeses with the cheese craftspeople here in the United States. We encouraged them to up their game. Why should all the good stuff be imported? And now they rival, and even surpass, the quality we get abroad. And we are proud to support them in our stores. We are devoted; we are devoted to new cheeses, time-honored cheeses, the geography of where a cheese is from, the people who labored to create it, and providing the best price. We talk directly to the craftspeople, and the result is cared-for, and even loved, cheeses that taste incredible.
If you’re not already out the door to visit our cheese counter then we’re at a loss. Ask for a slice of this, a morsel of that, a hunk of the one over there. Your life will change.
