Popular New York cheese shop moving to New Canaan
NEW CANAAN — Elixirs for mocktails, a choice of 65 cheeses and coffee sourced from female farmers in Kenya will all be coming to New Canaan next month.
Plum Plums Cheese is moving with its gourmet goodies from its Pound Ridge, N.Y., location to 149 Cherry St. in New Canaan on April 1.
The 7-year-old enterprise, owned by spouses Gayle Martin and Michael Riahi, will be expanding its offerings with butchered meats in addition to the charcuterie, soups and sandwich options. The new location is 1,100 square feet, compared to the 700-square-foot space in New York.
“We know the back story of every item we sell. If cheese, meat, bar of chocolate or jar of jam,” Martin said. “Our primary focus of cheese.”
Cheese counters at the current shop are set up with softer cheeses, such as brie at one end; with semi hard ones, such as cheddar and Gouda in the center; and the harder choices such as Parmesan at the other end.
The cheese counter changes with the seasons, explained Martin.
During the winter, the more “hearty alpine-style, nutty harder cheeses” are popular “when you are drinking red wine by the fire,” she said. Less soft cheese is found during the winter because goats and sheep are not grazing and producing the milk, she added. Softer cheeses will arrive in the warmer months.
During the spring and summer, people seek “a brighter taste profile,” with lighter cheeses, such in a goat cheese spread on a cracker or mixed into salads, she said.
Plum Plums Cheese has purchased an industrial grater to offer freshly grated Parmesan cheese as well.
While the Pound Ridge location offers dried meats, pates, salamis and prosciutto, the owners plan to expand the meat selection in New Canaan by adding another display case for fresh meats from Brooklyn.
Martin expects vacuum-sealed organic chicken, ground meats, chops and sausages, packaged by the butcher, which she said will last a week or so unless the shopper freezes it.
The shop will also offer fresh baguettes every day, granola and a variety of crackers, she said.
Teamwork
Martin and her husband are focusing as a team to get the new store up and running in New Canaan.
Riahi, who started working full time in the cheese shop after the pandemic affected his job in the wine industry, is her “sounding board and taster,” Martin said.
“I want coming into Plum Plum Cheese to be an experience. That is what I love to hear form our customers and that is what I want to keep and replicate. You come in here, you feel you are transported somewhere else and you get wonderful service with a smile,” she added.
The cheese shop also offers gifts and a wide variety gourmet items from around the world.
“I am known for great hostess gifts and housewarming presents,” Martin said, noting the “unique, beautiful ceramics” from a producer in Brooklyn, the works of a “wonderful craftsman” from Vermont, “unique items from Florence,” and large ceramic guinea hens from France.
“We like to find unique items you don’t see in supermarkets. We want to highlight the smaller producers the artismal producers. We want to highlight the best quality,” Martin said. “... It is all about the whole gourmet experience,” Martin said.
The shelves in Pound Ridge are filled with such items as artisian small batch jams, salts, rubs for barbecue, edible flowers, jams, syrups, nuts and ginger elixirs from the Hudson Valley to put in mocktails, cocktails and teas. The store also offers tuna and anchovies from Portugal.
Other gourmet items include Lokah coffee made by a local couple and sourced from women farmers in Kenya; Fallot mustard made from seeds of France; and Arethusa ice cream from Litchfield County.
“We have been bringing people in from a wide range. We have a reputation. It is wonderful,” Martin said.