Northshore magazine showcases the best that the North Shore of Boston, MA has to offer.
Issue link: http://read.uberflip.com/i/589641
74 | 74 | NOVEMBER 2015 nshoremag.com great cheese on the North Shore. Hurd's cheese-centric resume alone is impressive: She's been awarded the John Crompton Memo- rial Scholarship, and the cheese cart she developed at AKA Bistro in Lincoln has been featured in Cheese Connoisseur magazine. She's also a three-time competitor in the Cheesemonger Invitational, and is a new member of the American Cheese Society Education Commit- tee. Other staff additions like Susan Ulbrich round out the expertise; A graduate of Boston University's Wine Studies Program who shifted to wine retail after working with the wine program at Belly restau- rant in Cambridge, she directs the entire wine and beer lineup at the Salem shop. The staff not only teaches cus- tomers more about their wares, but they also take on learning about them themselves as often as pos- sible. In-store, all-staff classes about gruyere (from their local, national, and international purveyors) are not at all unusual. To get the com- munity involved, there are regular events like the beer tastings with brewmasters, who work with the shop's staff to pair suds as perfectly as possible with farm cheddars and two-year-old goudas. Not confined to just cheese and its expected beverage and platter bedfellows, the shop also sells the kinds of things you want to eat for lunch after a few bites of superla- tive cheese—grilled chicken and corn chowder, an exceptional Ital- ian sub, or the "Moo-tiful" sand- wich, with roast beef, tomatoes, lettuce, and artichoke Parmesan. But ultimately, the point is still cheese—eating and savoring it, celebrating it, and learning about it. "There is a story behind the people working hard in the vineyard or on the farm," say Endicott and Hurd. They are "choosing careful and time-consuming methods over con- venient shorcuts to produce truly extraordinary products." The duo's goal? To employ that same approach in helping us to slow down, learn more, and appreciate all the effort and craftsmanship that went into that perfect piece of gor- geous cheese. The Cheese Shop of Salem 45 Lafayette St. Salem, 978-498-4820 thecheeseshop ofsalem.com CO N TAC T An enormous case features locally made cheeses. Jams and cured meats are also in the offering.