Cheese Shops We Love: Second Mouse Cheese
Location
357 Manville Rd, Pleasantville, NY
Cheese board photo credit Second Mouse Cheese
“I love these eureka moments in human history,” says Ivy Ronquillo, proprietor of Second Mouse Cheese, in Pleasantville, New York, referring to the serendipitous creation of cheese. She’s also enamored with food history, “the warmth of food, and how it brings cultures together, all somehow, some way.” Her singular charm and obvious delight in discussing cheese imbue her shop, helping to develop a steady following since opening in April 2019 in this northern New York City suburb.
Owning a specialty cheese shop was a dream of Ronquillo, who left a 20-year advertising career to attend culinary school. She worked as a pastry chef in top NYC kitchens, eventually transitioning to the corporate side of restaurants, namely for chef Terrance Brennan of Artisanal and Picholine fame. There she was drawn to cheese, “to dive much more deeply into a niche topic that has roots that are thousands of years old,” she reflects. Her stint there and at Murray’s Cheese and Greenwich Cheese Company taught her diverse skills required to run a store, deepened her cheese knowledge, and solidified her desire to open Second Mouse.
Grilled cheese photo credit Second Mouse Cheese
A connection to customers
Seventy percent of Ronquillo’s cheeses are local and domestic; 30% are European and at least half come from raw milk because she believes the product is more flavorful. Though she says European cheese set the standard, she focuses on quality American producers, learning them, their stories, and their products, feeling “a sense of responsibility,” she explains, “for our local communities and economies throughout this enormous country,” particularly “the little guy.”
The cheese here stands out as does the staff, friendly, knowledgeable, and patient, taking their cue from Ronquillo, whose advertising background is apparent in how she builds her brand, intentionally creating a feel-good experience. Second Mouse has exceeded its projections for its second year, even with pandemic challenges, including a pivot to online classes and a surprisingly flourishing e-commerce business. “We want to have a connection to our customers,” says Ronquillo. “If you can't engage a customer and explain why this cheese is exceptional, who makes it, why it costs what it does, and why you should be buying it at a small local shop as opposed to the supermarket, you don't have a business.”
The Store
Shop interior photo credit Second Mouse Cheese
Straight ahead from the entrance is a crowded case of about 85 wheels, rounds, bricks, truckles, wedges, buttons, squares, and pyramids of cheeses. White cards next to each offer detailed descriptions. Gilt-framed paintings of mice decorate the walls, underscoring the establishment’s name, a play on the business axiom in which the first mouse gets the trap, and the second mouse gets the cheese.
Sandwiches, soups, and cheese boards are currently all to go. Well-stocked shelves and cases offer quality small maker and artisan products: fresh local bread, an array of condiments, oils and vinegars, crackers, charcuterie, nuts, and ice cream, as well as cheese knives and papers, even local wine, cider, and beer, thanks to a tavern license. Ronquillo is particularly enamored with a tomato tapas jam from Three Little Figs, a smoked Spanish olive oil called OMed, and Girl Meets Dirt island plum shrub.
Top Selling Cheeses
Saint Stephen
Ronquillo says this triple crème from the Adirondacks is “unreal, really approachable and decadent. It never gets bitter, you kind of can't stop eating it. Nor do you want to.” She likes that it is locally made and admits a soft spot because 2 out of the 3 cheeses the company produces are named for Grateful Dead songs.
Prairie Breeze
“Everything about it is just wonderful,” raves Ronquillo about this cheddar from Iowa. She stocks two versions but comments the original one is legendary in the cheese world. “Really modest in presentation, really sweet,” she says it’s versatile enough to pair with a chocolate chip cookie, as a snack, or in any dish using cheddar. “It has that terracine crunch so many people crave in their cheddars. It's stupid good and also really affordable.”
Capriole Goat Cheese Julianna
Capriole was started in the 1970s in southern Indiana by Judy Schad, considered one of the four founding mothers of the goat cheese scene in the United States, explains Ronquillo. Their Julianna is an aged goat's milk cheese coated in herbs de Provence and edible flower petals. “It is gorgeous,” enthuses Ronquillo, “a celebratory cheese by appearance. Once you taste it, you dive deep into this other world. It's so beautifully balanced, herbal, citrusy, creamy, ever so slightly chalky, and everything that you might want, transporting.”