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As far as we are aware, this store is now closed. 8/18/08 - CB

[In the interest of full disclosure, I should start by declaring a slight bias towards Tuller Premium Food. Before joining Murray's, my manager was the GM and cheesemonger there. - Patrick]
Tuller Premium Food is a small gourmet food shop in the Carroll Gardens section of Brooklyn. They carry all sorts of great specialty items, from the gelato of Il Laboratorio to a nice selection of prepared foods. But, what I was there for, of course, was the cheese.

Name: Sunlight
Producer: Haystack Mountain Goat Dairy
Milk: Raw Goat
Age: 60 days
Price: $7.99 for a 1/4lb

For most people who have been around goats, it's easy to see why a lot of the new artisanal cheeses in this country come from goat's milk. Unlike the dull, lumbering cow, goats are smart, friendly and small, and you don't need a lot of land to tend to them. They're like pets, but, although you can technically "milk anything with nipples", goats produce more milk than your cat or Robert DeNiro.

Name: Robila La Rossa
Producer: Various (Italy)
Milk: Pasteurized Cow and Sheep
Age: 3-4 weeks
Price: $8.99 - $10.50

Oh, stinky cheese, you have met your match! No more will people sniff you and wrinkle up their noses and talk of gym socks. Instead, you'll hear about the smell of cloves, tobacco and spice. People will sniff you and imagine old books, autumn and bonfires; for you have met Robiola La Rossa.

Name: Blythedale Camembert
Producer: Blythedale
Farm (Cookeville, Vermont)
Milk: Pasteurized Cow
Age: 4 weeks
Price: $6.99 - $8.99

Going into the cheese department at the new Fairway in Brooklyn, my expectations were pretty high. After all, with Steve Jenkins (whose book The Cheese Primer was my bible during my first weeks at Murray's) onboard, I was looking forward to a veritable cheese mecca. Going in with hopes like that, I couldn't help but be disappointed.

Name: Bloomsday
Producer: Cato Corner (Colchester, Connecticut)
Milk: Raw Cow
Age: 6 months
Price: $17.99/lb

No matter how good a cheese shop is, I find nothing compares to the experience of buying the cheese directly from the maker. Not only does it give you a chance to sample the more unique or seasonal cheeses not carried at the retail shops, but you have that connection with the producer, matching a real person with the cheese.