The Cheese Stands Alone stands tall [Closed]

Number 3 in my series of The Essentials. Don't miss a single thrill-packed minute!

Life has become simpler since I discovered The Cheese Stands Alone. When I want cheese, I just go there and chat up Matt, the proprietor, and taste until I have a cheesegasm, and then buy $40 worth of cheese. When I have visitors from out of town, unless they are totally insensible to the pleasures of food, I take them to The Cheese Stands Alone and let them have the cheesegasm and walk out with $40 worth of cheese. It's easy.

Is that to say that other cheese counters-- Fox & Obel, Whole Foods, Marcey St. Market-- are not also good? That, in fact, they don't offer most or maybe even all of the same cheeses? Of course not. I buy cheese elsewhere. But The Cheese Stands Alone is where I go for the total cheese experience, the Cheesemax show on the 50-foot cheddar screen. I admire Matt's dedication, and possibly madness, in opening an almost cheese-only shop so close to my house on Western near Lincoln Square. (He has Red Hen bread and a few jars of stuff.) I feel he deserves my support. Most of all, I simply owe him for the aged gouda ("they say it's at least 3 years but it's more like 4," he invariably explains) which I always describe as being like Wonka chocolate, you can take the tiniest of tiny nibbles and its hard orange nuttiness will explode in your mouth with pure, radioactively gorgeous essence of cheese, more cheese flavor in one tiny bite than an entire reefer full of Kraft Singles could ever dream of possessing.

That's it in the back, behind a buttery blue non-aged Gouda and some aged cow cheese, both of which were plenty good too.



The Cheese Stands Alone
4547 N. Western Ave.
773-293-3870
Closed Monday

P.S. To round out the picture here's the first thing I posted on The Cheese Stands Alone, last July. (If you've read this before, feel free to cut out now. I'm clipping stuff from some of these old posts because I want to build up our database on the key spots in town, and it will be new to at least a few.)

The Cheese Stands Alone is the bomb

I just bought three little wedges of cheese for $25. I am so happy.

Let's back up. I remember a radio interview with Courtney Love, easily found on the Web:

Lisa: What's your tip?

Courtney: The thing you gotta do is A) Stop counting calories! Okay? B) Do not get on a scale! 'Cause lean muscle weighs more than fat. All right? I cut out FAT! That's all you gotta do. FAT! No cheese. That's it Lisa. Period. NO CHEESE. I told this to KROQ, I told this to my nanny. People I tell this to lose ten, thirty pounds. STOP CHEESE. You know why Orientals are not fat? 'Cause they look on cheese as this gross Western habit. It's like sour milk -- LARD. They don't want anything to [bleep] do with cheese. If you're going to eat cheese, take it out on a picnic, cut it up carefully, and really taste it -- with wine or something. Don't melt it on [bleep]. And I lost FORTY POUNDS by not eating cheese. And I even ate a little mayonnaise. All right? Skip the butter and skip the cheese and you will lose weight. I swear to God, Lisa.

Lisa: Here's my second question --

Courtney: Don't eat cheese. There are a millions things to eat that are not cheese.

And so on for about 20 minutes. It was pretty much an all-cheese interview. From this expert testimony we should conclude, if one is going to eat cheese, one should only eat wonderful cheese, sublime cheese, cheese that makes the fattitude of cheese justifiable. One should eat cheese bombs, small chunks of cheese that explode with cheesiosity and leave you in a state of cheesified cheeserrificness from just a small, calorically forgivable taste.

Not long ago I bought some cheese on recommendations from the cheese person at Whole Foods. They were okay. The stinkiest one was gross and reminded me of a cheese I bought in Italy that was so foul I not only had to throw it away, I had to move the site of my picnic away from the place it had befouled. The others were... okay. $15 and, more to the point, many Courtney Love-disapproved fat grams basically wasted.

I go into The Cheese Stands Alone. Not impressed at first by the small shop, the okay selection of non-cheese crackers and oils and whatnot. I describe my desires.

A cheese made by the Chimay people is unwrapped, a small chunk carved out for my tasting. Not bad, but it's a lot like eating butter. Courtney would not approve. Another camembertish sort is brought out. Saint Albray. As I reopen it at my desk it exudes a powerful funk but the cheese itself is mild, buttery with a surprising tang, a 3-D cheese compared to its 2-D predecessor.

A smoked, aged goat cheese called Auricho is brought out. Again, a tangy aftertaste which suggests there are depths to cheese one has hitherto unsuspected. I buy it too. Then I ask for something a little more hard and crumbly, though not bluish. A California cheese called Midnight Moon comes out, tart, highly concentrated, one bite is enough to pucker your mouth and send cheese waves coursing through you, your cheese jones satisfied.

I tried a couple others along the way but these are what I remember. Though $25 for the three is not cheap, each is so good and powerful that I know that small amounts will satisfy me for days and days to come. Moneywise, calorie-wise, Courtney-wise, each is a bargain.

Mr. G,

I am a fan of The Cheese Stands alone as well, but you really have to keep an eye on Matt when he weighs your purchase.



Enjoy,
Gary

I don't have the depth of cheese knowledge nor the vocabulary to add much to the above post, but I'd just like to give CSA a bump on the thread list. It's such a pleasure to visit a store where the proprietor has so much enthusiasm for and knowledge about his product. On tonight's visit, he supplied us with the cheese complements to champagne (Deuce de Borgogne), beer (goat gouda) and both (Grafton cheddar.) Also picked up some Serrano ham which looks sensational. I think I'd love CSA even I didn't care for cheese; it's the kind of place that makes me proud to live in this city.

I just wish he were in a better location so that he could actually move some of the more fragile cheeses available to him....next time you go in, ask him what his best sellers are.

CSA hasn't really caught on outside of the neighborhood. Which is a pity because he's such a great guy and the shop has so much potential.

I gave him a shout-out on Cheese Diaries a month back.

I'm very glad CSA is just where it is. I always used to drive to Fox & Obel for cheese, and still pick up some cheese there on occasion, but when I moved to Lincoln Square, I was thrilled to find CSA to be such a short walk away -- always a tremendous variety and the service is always excellent.

Sure, the location is great for you, but business isn't great there. Ask him the next time you are in. He told me that the summer was absolutely dead, but that it is picking up for the holidays. For his sake I wish he were busy all the time...

For a cheese shop to offer the best product, it is about velocity - even if cheese is cut to order, if a wheel spends too long in a case, it just doesn't taste great. Fragile, rare, expensive cheeses don't work for Matt - his customer base has very limited tolerance for pricey cheese and it would take too long to move one before it went bad. More durable cheeses work well, and surprisingly, some of the Cowgirl Creamery cheeses do okay for him.

I had a cheesegasm just reading your post!

Too bad I live in the far Western 'burbs.....*sigh*

I do love cheese; aged gouda.....mmmmmm.....

I checked out the Cheese Stands Alone this weekend and was very impressed. I gave Matt some details, 6-7 people drinking red wine and at least 1 stinky cheese, and let him pick the cheese. He choose 5 great cheeses (yes I kow you want to know what kind but I don't remember off the top of my head and I'm at work). Everyone loved them. The best part was I told him I was willing to spend 30 dollars and he got me all the cheese for only 20. There is nothing better then that.


Louisdog