cheese shops

Seattle's Best Cheeses Are Ready to Take on the World

Filed under: Dining

Do you really, really, really love cheese? Seattle is home to some surprisingly great locally made cheeses, particularly the famously sharp Northwest cheddars.

Beecher's Handmade Cheeses

Beecher's is as famous for their hand-crafted cheeses as they are for the space they are made in. Located in the famous Pike Place Market near the Seattle waterfront, Beecher's makes all their cheeses in a glassed-in room visible from the street, allowing you to watch the cheese being made in front of your eyes. Beecher's Aged Flagship Cheddar was the 2009 American Cheese Society's 1st place for mature cheddars, and their famous mac 'n cheese is notably indulgent and a must-have.

WSU Creamery's Cougar Cheese

While not strictly from Seattle, Washington State's famous Cougar Cheese is likely to please your tastebuds just as much as it will irritate nearby Husky fans. Ignore the intercollegiate rivalry and pick some up from the Cougar Connections store in the Westlake Mall in downtown Seattle. Cougar Gold is their flagship cheese, a white cheddar that gets deliciously crumbly and sharper with age.

Tags: bestof, cheese, cheese shops, creamery, local luxury, milk, northwest, seattle, washingtonstate

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Local Luxury: Pastoral, Artisan Cheese, Bread and Wine In Chicago

by Benjamin Haas (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Dining

cheese If you're looking for the best local and international cheeses in Chicago, then Pastoral is the place. In fact aside from just an artisanal neighborhood cheese shop, Pastoral is also an amazing wine store, with the layout of the wines in line with the cheeses they compliment, full body wines are across from the aged cheddars and parmesans, medium wines are across from the semi-soft cheeses and light body are across from the young fresh cheeses. On top of all this, add a genuine Midwestern friendliness that takes the snobbishness out of fine cheese, and Pastoral accomplishes what it set out to be, an artisanal neighborhood cheese shop. In November, Pastoral was recognized as a nominee for a Luxist Awards Readers' Choice Award for Best Gourmet Cheese shop.

As with any specialty cheese store, Pastoral has the staples in big name and international cheese, such as Cypress Grove's Humboldt Fog of Arcata, California, Neal's Yard Dairy Cheddars from Britain, and Bucheron from the Loire Valley, France. What truly sets Pastoral apart is the amazing selection of Midwestern cheese. Local farmstead cheese highlights include Prairie Fruit Farms' goat cheese in Champaign, Illinois, Capriole goat cheese from Southern Indiana, and Marieke's Gouda from Thorp, Wisconsin to name a few. Pastoral's relationship with some of these farms is so close that employees from the store will sometimes double as employees representing the farms at Chicago's Green City Market. Aside from selling to the public, Pastoral also supplies top Chicago restaurants such as, avec, Blackbird, The Publican and Perennial with their artisanal cheeses.

In addition to cultivating its strong Midwestern roots, Pastoral aims to educate Chicagoans by offering a comprehensive schedule of classes every season. Topics range from the basic "Cheese 101" to the more specific "Celtic in Spirit – Cheese, Beers and Spirits of the British Isles and Beyond" and "Bubbles and Cheese," a class focusing on pairing champagne, cava and prosecco with cheese. Although the staff is fully knowledgeable in both cheese and wine, the shop does have its own resident sommelier so you can be sure the wines, as well as the cheeses, are top notch.

More from Pastoral Artisan Cheese, Bread & Wine

Pastoral Locations:
Lakeview: 2945 N Broadway, Chicago, IL 60657
Loop: 53 E Lake Street, Chicago, IL 60601Chicago French Market: 131 N Clinton, Chicago, IL 60661

This post was contributed via Seed.com, AOL's new platform for freelance writers.

Tags: bread, cheese, cheese shop, cheese shops, chicago, foodie, gourmet, local luxury, luxist-awards, pastoral, wine