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South Florida caterer’s charcuterie board delivery a pandemic success story
Salty-sweet homemade cheese and charcuterie boards are a delight to our bellies and the Instagram scroll, but for one West Palm Beach small business called CheeseBoarder, they are a pandemic phenomenon.
“We did half a million dollars in sales in two and a half months,” said co-founder and Loxahatchee resident Aaron Menitoff. His delivery service is the only company in the country that ships gourmet, fully assembled, ready to eat, artisan cheese and charcuterie boards nationwide, he says.
The idea also joins a growing number of social influencers dedicated to the fun-to-eat boards. Instagram’s @ainttooproudtomeg has 237k followers with countless platter posts. She’s also started @ cheeseboardingschool with online workshops on how to prepare cheeseboards.
During a time when hospitality has relentless challenges, Menitoff cleverly found a niche that is now helping sustain his longtime catering business, Wellington Hospitality Group, which he runs with his wife, Julie.
“With catering, all the large events, the 500 to 1,000 person events that we do are no longer happening, certainly with the first part of the pandemic. Now the events we do are really limited to 30 people or less,” said Menitoff.
The couple is known for their work with the Wellington equestrian community. And despite
high-end clientele including Venus and Serena Williams, the Gates family, Prince Harry and Bruce Springsteen, they struggled with the shutdown and keeping every employee on staff.
The idea to ship cheese and charcuterie boards had been in the works because of the caterers’ very popular grazing tables. The pandemic, however, pushed CheeseBoarder quickly to the forefront.
“We ended up launching on Goldbelly.com on Oct. 12 and by the end of December, out of 800 vendors, we were the biggest producer,” Menitoff said about his company’s online marketplace.
Red wine cheddar, rosemary and olive oil asiago, dry cured black truffle salami and pinot grigio salame are a few of the options curated for the boards, which come in different sizes and can be strictly meat or cheese or both. Vegan options are also available.
And for the delivery, Menitoff says his team patented a process and developed a technology that safely and deliciously allows for the items to be vacuum-sealed, placed in a reusable wooden box and shipped nationwide. Palm Beach County deliveries can be shipped the same day or the next depending on the time the order is placed.
“We were featured twice so far in Forbes. We were one of the top holiday gifts for 2020 and we were also just featured in Forbes for their 2021 Valentine’s Day gift guide for some of our vegan products,” he said adding that a pandemic-friendly DIY catering kit is on the way.
“It’s taken a life of its own. We’ve been approached by multiple companies so we are developing products now and launching in the spring with Williams Sonoma, 1-800-baskets and some other exciting prospects,” said Menitoff.