Cheese Shops We Love: Bimi’s Cheese Shop

Location

21 Main St, Chatham, NY 12037

Creating a Space for Cheese in Chatham

Ellen outside Bimi's photo credit Jack Shear

Owners of Bimi’s Cheese, Ellen Waggett and husband, Chris Landy, seem unlikely cheesemongers. First off, they work in television in New York City. She’s an Emmy Award-nominated freelance production designer for Late Night with Seth Meyers and created the set for Chopped. Chris Landy is an Emmy Award-winning lighting designer whose clients include Oprah Winfrey and The Tonight Show. So, cheese?

In 2004, they purchased a weekend house in New York’s Hudson Valley, close to the small town of Chatham, about 2 hours north of New York City. The town has a central main street lined with small businesses including a wine store, a historic movie theater, a pub, a brewery and a bookstore.

Ellen and Chris wanted to contribute to their adopted home, where they weekended with their two children, calling it “their real home.” Their dream was to create a business to help the town of Chatham thrive, to bring in a new audience.

“Chatham is the most physically beautiful town,” said Waggett. “We thought, what can we do to keep it from going away? What would we want to see here? When we moved up here, our rule was to be no more than 20 minutes away from excellent food and wine. Literally, that’s what started the whole thing.”

Nine years ago they opened their cheese store, naming it Bimi’s after Waggett’s late mother. It’s located on Chatham’s main drag in a historic two-story brick building, circa 1871. Long ago it housed a vaudeville theater where once Houdini and the Three Stooges performed. Later it became the studio for artist Ellsworth Kelly who painted his Chatham Series.   

The couple wanted Bimi’s to have a particular vibe. Friends confided that they’re often intimidated by cheese stores, said Waggett. Finding them “haughty and highbrow.” We wanted to make our shop accessible, friendly, “a community touchstone.” That took careful store design, something natural to the pair, who crafted the interior themselves utilizing found and recycled items. 

It also took careful staff training. “Teaching staff how to talk to customers the second they get in the door. How to then let them breathe and get acclimated. Keep touching base but don’t overwhelm them. Offer them tastes, and don’t correct pronunciation, ever,“ Waggett said. “Make cheese shopping fun.”

Make it local, too. Bimi’s keeps a focus on the artisans and makers of the Northeast. Most of their domestic cheeses are sourced just from New York and neighboring Massachusetts and Vermont. Remaining cheeses are sourced from abroad. 

Nowadays, Bimi’s attracts customers from larger upstate cities and they sell online. For two designers to open a cheese store, it’s pretty crazy, she said. “We’re weird cheese people, but it seems to work.” 

The Store

Bimis interior photo credit Chris Landy

Bimi’s Cheese Shop is located at street level. A sandwich sign outside announces “Cheese Sold Here.” Open seven days, the 800-square-foot shop carries around 45 cheeses sold from a large glass case display case. The store has an old-timey atmosphere with exposed brick walls, a pressed tin ceiling and curios such as a gumball machine and a butter churner. Large windows flank the front door and counters line each window with stools for patrons to eat a grilled cheese or sip an espresso. There is outside seating. A center display showcases cheese-adjacent items including fancy crackers, chips, jams and vinegars. They sell baked goods, charcuterie and provisions plus some wrapped cut cheeses.

Top Selling Cheeses

Challerhocker

Produced in Switzerland, this is a firm aged, raw-milk Alpine-style cheese with a nutty, fruity flavor. It melts well in a grilled cheese, advised store manager, Heather. “Very accessible, it’s a good entry-level cheese that makes people realize this is not a block of Cracker Barrel,” said Waggett. “The flavor keeps blooming in your mouth.”

St. Stephen

Crafted by Four Fat Fowl in nearby Stephentown, NY, it’s made from Jersey cow milk and cream.  An award-winning soft-ripened triple crème with a bloomy rind. Waggett finds it “cleaner than Camembert, buttery and super accessible because it’s not too funky.”

Meredith Dairy Farmstead Sheep and Goat Cheese

This Australian mix of marinated sheep and goat cheese in a jar of spiked olive oil is hard to keep in stock. Often customers return for a second jar, said Waggett, noting, “the lemony tang of the goat cheese, the velvety smoothness of the sheep’s milk cheese.” 

Also Look For

Bimi’s prepares breakfast and sells a selection of signature grilled sandwiches and cold ones, soup, coffee and teas. In progress is an ambitious expansion of the space, creating a farm-to-table restaurant, Bimi’s Canteen, and a downstairs speakeasy bar. Both are set to open around Memorial Day. A gelato bar is slated for the future.