Thursday is my Wednesday

Dear Diary,

I like to sell cheese. People buying cheese are generally happy folk who often like to try new things. Sometimes they don't buy what I'm selling (metaphysically speaking) but that's okay--I tried my best.

Today I brought in some new cheese that I've never tried before. It's called Montenebro and it is an ash coated goat cheese. I've heard/read good things about it so I'm sure people will like it. In addition we're just cracking into the Cato Corner Farm order from last week as well as our new batch of Kunik from Nettle Meadow.

I also made 3 duck confit sandwiches for one customer. It took all of my will power not to make one for myself. Duck, pickles, mustard on a baguette. The cooking duck fills the whole entire store with the most awesome aroma. Much better than the tuna belly sandwich that I made last night, though the tuna sandwich is still pretty sweet.

It's the SuperBowl this weekend and I'm thinking we might sell a little bit of cheese for those watching the game. Why not? We've got lots of dips as well as "fancy" cheese so I think there's a little something for everyone.

Well, diary, I'm trying not to let Minnesota cabin fever make me too crazy. Maybe I'm feeling a little under-represented inthe US Senate, or maybe I'm worried that the Timberwolves winning streak is too good to be true. I know that if I just sell a little cheese (and maybe some chocolate and crackers) everything will be okay.

xoxo
Benjamin

Cheesy Idea for Valentine's Day

There are two days that are most anticipated and feared at a restaurant: New Year's Eve and Valentine's Day. These were two days that I could anticipate being at the restaurant from 8am until well past midnight. New Year's Eve has great expectations for many diners but it is nowhere near the pressure of Valentine's Day. In some ways I was kind of lucky because we found ways to make Valentine's Day fun at the restaurant. We turned off all the lights and illuminated the restaurant entirely by candle light and one of the servers made some special music mixes just for the occasion. As far as I remember there weren't any terrible mishaps on Valentine's Day (sometime remember to ask me about the great Mother's Day fiasco of 2005) but I could be blocking them out of my memory.

Enough about that. Let's focus on the positive. We've put together a package deal of deliciousness for V-Day. Stuff that we think will be wonderful for an extra special night. And if you're so inclined you could always hang out here at one of the tables in the cheese shop and try out some of the fun treats we have. Details:

What...is...that?

There's an instant conversation starter in the cheese shop and it looks like this:
I'd say 90% of customers who walk into the shop for the first time stop me and ask what is in the jar. It is a great icebreaker for those nervous cheese buyers. Even those reluctant to try a free cheese sample (Because everyone knows the hard sell comes directly after biting into the sample) have to ask about the jar. At a certain point the contents of the jar became irrelevant. When we first put the jar out someone around these parts suggested we cover the jar with a piece of paper so as not to "gross out" the customers. The paper lasted a day. It was kind of like putting lipstick on a pig if you know what I mean. Wait, is that the metaphor I'm searching for? No, but it did have some Phantom of the Opera implications that made us seem like we were trying to hide something terrifying and grotesque. No more!
So what is in the jar? Duck confit and duck fat. Maybe 1 out of every 100 customers guesses that is what it is. Most folks still haven't heard of it when I tell them what it is. We make our own pates and terrines here. That involves bringing in whole ducks and butchering them here. The duck breast goes in to making the terrines (and soon duck sausage) and the duck legs are reserved for the confit.
Roasted duck legs on their own are undelicious. I stress this to everyone. I'm not sure why beyond painful restaurant memories of being served roasted duck legs for family meal (the dinner given to restaurant employees prior to dinner service). They are totally unsatisfying. Tough and with very little meat on them. Very, very sad.
When you confit the duck leg, however, they are transformed into magical deliciousness. Confit is derived from the French word confire which means to preserve. The duck leg is first salted and left to cure. It is them poached at a low temperature in its own fat until it is tender and falling off the bone. We then cool the duck and use the fat as a preservative for the duck leg. Just like they did in olden times.
It is very, very, very delicious. Salty, rich, and meltingly tender. Here we sell it by the leg for you to take home or we make a duck confit sandwich with home-made pickles and whole grain mustard.
Oh! And if you buy a leg to take home you get the duck fat for free! That's right, free duck fat. What would you possibly do with that? What wouldn't you do? Check it.

Thursday is My Wednesday

I am not a student of discipline. I never took karate classes growing up and I can't hit a baseball particularly well. But I am going to try and wade into the deep end of the pool by having a regular Thursday blog feature. By regular I mean that I do solemnly swear (line, please) to try my bestest to blog about shop related news every Thursday. That doesn't mean I will only blog on Thursdays, it just means that you can at least expect a blog on Thursday called Thursday is my Wednesday. In this blog post you can expect less pontification and more shameless promotion of cheese shop wares. Though in reality it will probably just become the rant of a man in a cheese shop whose brain is so addled by cholesterol and sugar that he is unable to put coherent thought to paper, er, computer screen.

Thursday is action! action! action! day in the cheese shop. It is the day most of my cheese deliveries for the week arrive. Lots of unpacking and cramming cheese into the cheese case. The cheese case is brimming with cheese at the moment and there is a lot to be excited about.

Today I am expecting shipment from Nettle Meadow in New York and Cato Corner in Vermont. Tomorrow we have a brand new cheese arriving from a goat farm in Illinois called Prairie Fruits. That means we're going to have heaps of Kunik and Hooligan to sell this weekend. Now that's serious cheese-selling fun.

Two items that I am currently most excited about:
Paradise Coffee and Patric Chocolate Bars

These are two items that I have written at length about in the past but that I just can't get enough of. I start every morning with a cup of coffee from Paradise Roasters and it just starts me off on the right foot. Their coffee is an incredible treat and I don't really care if it costs me a few bucks more a pound for it. Coffee and chocolate are two things in life that I'd rather go without than compromise quality.

Oh, start thinking about Valentine's day and what the cheese shop can offer you. We have a few ideas kicking around, so stay tuned.

Not the Roquefort!!!

This story was pointed out to me by an alert blog reader.

I'm not trying to be overtly political in this blog. We have customers of all political persuasions who shop with us and we love them all equally. But let's just say you are one of the 75% (or more) of the population that disapproves of the President-For-One-More-Day. I've got one more reason for you to dislike him.

In retaliation for France disallowing our hormone ridden beef to be imported into their country, PFOMD Bush has decided to triple the tariff on Roquefort cheese. For those of you who don't know, Roquefort is a traditional sheep's milk cheese from France that might be the most delicious blue cheese there is. It has been our best selling blue cheese since we opened the shop. Ours actually has a nickname "Old Man Cheese" because it is produced by a 94 year-old man (if you go to the link to the Time magazine story you'll see a picture of a piece of Roquefort in a cheese shop in Paris--please note it's Old Man Cheese!).

A cheese shop without Roquefort is like a wine shop without Bordeaux or a Quickie Mart without beef jerkey. Nothing beats that tangy, rich sheep's milk blue. It's alread a pretty expensive cheese so no one is going to import it once the tariff triples. Even if some of the cheaper stuff continues to come into the country, we're not going to stock it--none of the others are anywhere as delicious as the Carles Roquefort.

I know President-In-One-More-Day Obama has a couple of things on his plate when he assumes the office, but are any of them really that pressing? I'm sure he could find time to hit the CTRL-Z button on this Roquefort thing. Listen, this is a cheese blog, not an economics or world affairs blog. I got my priorities and they're centered around having Roquefort available for grilling burgers this spring.

I'll let you know when I have the petition started.

Big change

Let's get one thing straight. We're a cheese shop. We're not a deli or a restaurant. Those were concepts that preceded me and that exist no longer. The core of our business is selling excellent cheese.

That being said we've added a couple of tables and chairs to the shop. The idea behind this is two-fold. Now there is a place for folks to sit and have a sandwich or bowl of soup during the day. Then, during happy hour there's a place to have a glass of wine and a small plate of treats from the shop. Note that I said happy hour. For now this experiment is limited to the operating hours of the cheese shop which is only until 7pm. If there is great demand for an evening hang out spot we will consider a later closing time.

We think the space is a nice place to sit and relax and we're going to keep refining it. Same goes for the menu. Right now it's pretty simple. Walk into the wine shop and pick out any bottle of wine (or beer if that's your pleasure) and bring it into the cheese shop. We'll pop it open for you and pour into some of our stemware. Then all you do is order a little bite to eat and sit back and relax. Simple. No corkage fee, no restaurant prices on wine. If you don't finish your bottle we'll put the cork back in it and send it home with you. Sound good? We think so.

And then there were 3

The word on the street is that E's Cheese out in Woodbury and Mendota Heights is no longer in business (I tried calling to confirm but the number is disconnected and their website is not up any more so that seems like decent enough confirmation to me).

Bummer. That leaves Surdyk's, Premier, and myself as the only cut-to-order cheese shops in the twin cities--two of which are within a mile of each other. Also a total void of cheese slingers on the east side of town.

Okay, I know, it's not the apocalypse. It might not even be cheese apocalypse. But here is the part where I unleash my true biased and opinionated self. Supermarkets/Coops generally don't do such a fantabulous job with cheese. This diatribe is only going to appeal to those folks who already care about cheese and/or the quality of their ingredients and the attentiveness of their service.

Forget the fact that a small business is no longer. I'm not sure if e's was really competing with the grocery stores or not. My shop is neatly wedged between the Linden Hills Coop, Clancy's Butcher and Premier Cheese Market (all of which sell cheese) and I don't hear an awful lot of comparisons of my prices/selection to what they have. Maybe I am naive to think that I'm not in competition with those folks, but I really don't think I am. My customers are drawn from the wine shop's traffic, not necessarily folks seeking out cheese.

So I feel like I am in competition with myself. I must provide service and expertise enough to help folks overcome their fear of the cheese counter. Not all of my customers are afraid, but enough are unfamiliar with having a chunk of cheese specifically cut for them. I know that there are many of the wine shop customers who would never dream of shopping at Costco or Trader Joe's for wine. Yet those same people are reluctant to consider checking out what's going on in my cheese case.

I realize I provide a specific niche. What I must do is convince folks that it isn't as specific as they think and that they might be more satisfied with what a cut-to-order cheese shop as to offer in terms of quality and knowledge. That is why I am bummed that e's has closed. It means more supermarket bought cheese that can be of questionable quality and is often bought without any assistance. If I'm going to spend $20+ a pound for a cheese I've never heard of before I'd like to taste it first or at least have someone available to tell me a little something about it.

In the meantime we need to keep up our end of the bargin. We need to find good products to sell, keep them in excellent condition, and help everyone make an informed purchase. And I shall try my best.

Cheese for Everyday Eating

I'm on a roll with these blog posts. I finally feel like a real blogger....almost.

We here at the France 44 cheese shop (and in the wine shop as well) understand that times are rough. Minnesota is down to one senator for the forseeable future, the Viking still need a real quarterback, there is a terrible recession happening in our country. It has forced everyone to examine what they're spending their disposable income on. We're not burying our heads in the sand over here. I know that by focusing on farmstead, artisanal cheese we have a lot of cheeses that many folks reserve for entertaining or special occasions. My goal here is to bring top quality cheeses to our customers in perfect condition while providing excellent service. That mission does not preclude cheese that is a little easier on the budget.

We are never going to compete with grocery chains on selection or price on many items. My hunch is that the folks who shop here are not looking for grocery store pre-cut cheese. They're looking for good quality cheese and they are often looking for good value. That is why we've created special tags for some of the cheeses in the shop--our Cheeses for Everyday Eating. These are some of our favorite cheeses that cost no more than $10 for 1/2 a pound.

Follow my math here on dinner for 2 from the cheese shop:

1/4 pound Widmer 4 yr aged Cheddar= $4
1/4 pound Delice de Bourgogne Brie=$5
1/4 pound Prosciutto di Parma=$6
New French Baguette=$3
Dry cured black olives=$3

That's a quite filling dinner for $21 (and oh so European). No cooking involved, no clean up necessary, plenty of protein. Also quite delicious. Check out this fanciness:

Holy Smokes!

One of the most requested cheeses since we've opened is smoked Gouda. Oh, dear. This might be the part where I admit that I am a cheese snob. I take it back, I'm not a cheese snob, but I do like good cheese. I also like cheese free of any artificial smoke flavors and that has been a limiting factor in our acquiring a smoked Gouda.

No more!

Introducing a smoked Gouda that has actually been smoked. It is from our friends at Oakvale Farm in Ohio. It arrived in the shop this morning and the shop now smells like a campfire. The cheese itself is wonderful and the smokey flavor is milder than the aroma might lead on. Just a reminder that Oakvale is a pastured based dairy that produces raw milk cheese. Which means that this is a full-flavored cheese in addition to being smoked.

I swear I'm not making this up, but one of my first customers today came in and asked right away "Do you guys have any smoked Gouda?". As you might imagine, it was a cathartic moment for me.

Best Tuna Sandwich Part II

Can you believe that a large number people who find this blog do so via the google search "best tuna sandwich"? I've alluded to this once before but I am still amazed that the hits keep on coming. Maybe I am wasting my time running a cheese shop/cheese blog. Perhaps the real gold mine is in a shop specializing in tuna sandwiches? I'm flexible on this whole cheese shop thing and could be easily persuaded to change concepts. Oddly, no one ever comments that they followed my recipe for best tuna sandwich and were transported into another space-time continuum because of its black hole deliciousness. So now I am upping the ante for all those tuna sandwich afficianados out there.

We have a new tin of tuna in the shop. First thing, this is not recession tuna. It is tuna belly imported from Spain and it costs $11.99 for the tin. Scared yet? We all need to try the finer things in life sometimes, don't we? The tuna itself is incredible and really requires very little to be rendered more deliciouser. Sure my depression era grandfather wouldn't understand why one might want to consume one tin of tuna that could easily be replaced by 7 or 8 cans of water packed stuff. Don't you see this tuna isn't for him? It's for us, you and me. The new consumers. The ones that guffaw in the face of plunging stock dividends and near double digit unemployment. We're sad the economy is desperate but we still want what is due to us. We know there isn't going to be any social security left for us. So we buy expensive tuna.

This is oil packed tuna so put the mayo back in the fridge. All you need is bread, a toaster, sea salt flakes, and some nice balsamic vinegar. Like this:

1 piece of sandwich bread, toasted until golden brown
4 pieces of Arroyabe Ventresca de Bonito del Norte
Pinch of Maldon Sea Salt
Drizzle of Compagnia del Montale Balsamic Vinegar

Okay, that's it. The tuna is so soft it just melts in your mouth and the crunchy little flakes of Maldon are the perfect textural contrast. The vinegar brings a little kick to the deal and brings out the natural sweetness of the tuna.

One more tasty snack I worked out:

Fried day old baguette in Castello di Lego olive oil. This is one of my favorite olive oils we sell. It tastes so fresh and clean. I warmed the oil in a stainless frying pan and put the bread face down. I pushed down on the bread until I burnt the tips of my fingers (use a spatula) and the bread was warmed through. Oh so good. Better than toasting it by a long shot.

The Greening of France 44

Everyone probably knows by now that I am as close to a patchouli wearing hippie as this corner of France and 44th has seen in some time. Like any good progressive I am long on idealism and short on execution. Do you remember my rooftop garden from this past summer? Yup, neither do I.

I'd like to think the reason France 44 has switched 95% of its lighting over to LED is because of my activism, but in reality it has been a project in the works for some time.

Nevertheless, it is one small step this small business is taking to lower their energy usage. Come in and check out the bright and efficient spotlights beaming down on the sales floor.