Valley Shepherd Cheese Coming to Seventh Avenue
Friday, October 14, 2024 at 9:05AM
If you have even a passing interest in cheese, this is big news, folks.
A brick and mortar storefront for Valley Shepherd Creamery, a six year old dairy farm in northern New Jersey best known for its handmade artisan cheese, is opening soon at 211 Seventh Avenue (between Third and Fourth Streets), in the space last occupied by Compucell. I reached out to owner Eran Wajswol, who had this to say (you may want to sit down):
"We’re very excited to be there and it’s a first for Brooklyn (and NYC other than our teeeeny SoHo shop) where an artisanal cheesemaker opens a shop just because he doesn’t like selling through the traditional cheese distribution channels.
And why?
Because we milk over 700 animals. (600 sheep, 100 goats, 50 cows) and make cheese 7 days/week, 15 hours per day for 9 months/year (then we collapse for 3 months).
Making small batches by hand means lower volume. Lower volume means higher quality that doesn’t work well with traditional distribution channels based on volume and low price. So you won’t find our cheese at Union Market, Blue Apron, etc.
We sell at our NJ shop, our SoHo shop, 22 farmer markets/week and 150 NYC and NJ high end restaurants like Jean-Georges.
In Brooklyn we’ll sell our 30-35 cheeses, a few of our friends’ cheeses, our sheep Ricotta based pasta products, lamb meat when we have it and 100+ American artisanal products we found over the last few years of talking to people like us. We’ll also do daily specials of sandwiches/panini each containing one of our cheeses accompanied by artisan condiments.
Soon, we’ll start with cheese/wine events and dinners with other local foodies.
Its going to be a ball."
The creamery is entirely vertically integrated, meaning that they're 100% in control of every factor of production, from the grass the animals graze on to the layout of the storefront.
The foodie revolution is still well underway (you might even consider this the cheese counterpoint to Fleisher's), and to quote Eran, "We want to be a part of the Slope foodie scene for a long time."
Something tells me they won't have any trouble with that.
Coming Soon in Food, Scoops, Storefronts
Reader Comments (8)
Never heard of this diary, but love cheese, this sounds exciting.
Here's the problem: artisinal cheese sells for $25 a pound and up.
They have some of the best cheese I've ever had.
YES! This sounds awesome.
Good cheese is a good thing. Great cheese is a great thing.
It's something I've always been willing to pay a little extra for. I've even read the Murray's Cheese Guide cover to cover.
I look forward to checking it out!
Good cheese, like good anything, costs money.
There are certainly cheap cheese options if you don't want to spend a lot.
If they truly are to cheese what Fleishers is to meats, we are in for a treat. That place has the ability to make anyone a believer that the extra cost associated with a higher quality product is worth it when it comes to sustainability, ethics and most importantly, TASTE!
Wow! Here's Park Slope is becoming the pre-opening Yelp! Awesome! Exciting! I will definitely have to be there an hour before they open!
An artisanal cheese shop replacing a cell phone store? This is some kind of watershed moment in Park Slope history. If we see a cobbler replace a nail salon -- it's on!