Cheese Shops We Love: Saxelby Cheesemongers
Location:
Saxelby Cheesemongers
Located in the Chelsea Market, 75 9th Avenue, New York, NY 10011
Saxelby Cheesemongers interior
When Anne Saxelby opened the first location of Saxelby Cheesemongers in a tiny stall in the Essex Street Market in Lower Manhattan, in 2006, she wasn't sure what to expect. “The first day I opened the shop I kind of felt like I was having a garage sale,” she says. “I opened up the door and was like, Well, here I am. I wonder if anyone’s going to buy any cheese.” The shop was the first in the country to focus just on American artisan cheeses. Saxelby had previously worked at Murray’s Cheese Shop in Greenwich Village and then learned to make cheese as an intern at Cato Corner Farm in Connecticut. Along the way, she fell in love with the nuances of the cheeses made by small local producers. After visiting a number of small cheesemakers across the region, she decided she wanted to help more people learn about their products.
Saxelby’s timing couldn’t have been better. “2006 was really this watershed moment in the local food movement,” she explains. Michael Pollan’s seminal book The Omnivore’s Dilemma was released that year, and, along with movies like Supersize Me and Food Inc, it prompted more Americans to think about how and what they ate. More chefs were looking for local ingredients, and many started buying from her shop.
Fifteen years later, Saxelby now runs her shop out of a larger space in Chelsea Market and also has a wholesale business. “But the mission is the same,” she says. “We started with the mission of being the bridge between these great cheesemakers and the cheese lovers out there, to celebrate these cheeses, source them responsibly, sell them when they’re at the peak of ripeness.”
The Store
Saxelby Cheesemongers is located in the lower level of Chelsea Market, which Saxelby compares to a European marketplace full of specialty food purveyors. The 300-square foot shop is open to the main floor and has a 10-foot cheese counter where customers can choose from (and sample) over 100 different cheeses. The shop also has cold cases containing a wide array of pre-cut cheeses as well as some local beers and ciders. Near the register, customers will find shelves of accompaniments like crackers, jam, dried fruit, and nuts.
Top-Selling Cheeses
cabot clothbound on saxelby paper
This aged cheddar—a collaboration between the Vermont cheesemakers Jasper Hill Farm and Cabot Creamery—is one of the most popular cheeses both in the shop and on the company’s website. The aged cheddar, which is wrapped in cloth and coated in lard before it rests, has a rich, brothy, caramel-like flavor with some nuttiness and also some grassy notes. “It’s approachable but still something different,” says Saxelby. “People try it and are like, Oh, cheddar can be like this?”
Wischago is a firm, Manchego-style sheeps milk cheese made on a small farm in Wisconsin. Saxelby notes that customers are often looking for something like Manchego—which she calls “a great first 'gateway cheese' for people who may not have tried lots of European cheeses,” and her staff often recommends this American alternative, which has a brighter, fruitier flavor than its Spanish cousin.
spring brook tarentaise on saxelby cheese paper
This sharp, Alpine-style cheese is similar to cheeses like Gruyere, Beaufort, and Comte and has notes of white chocolate, black pepper, and toasted nuts. “It is great to snack on,” says Saxelby, “but is also an awesome cooking cheese for things like fondue, mac and cheese, French onion soup, or grilled cheese sandwiches.”
Also Look For
Saxelby Cheesemongers also sells grilled cheese sandwiches flavored with traditional accompaniments like fig relish, pickles, and ham. Customers can have them grilled to order and enjoy them in the market’s communal tables (in non-pandemic times).