Beecher's Handmade Cheeses

Beecher's Handmade Cheeses
900 Broadway (between 19th St & 20th St)
New York, NY 10003

Depending on your viewpoint, Beecher's recent opening has contributed to the Flatiron District's reputation as the new culinary hotspot, or the Epcot Center-ization of food in Gramercy.

Whether it was wise to enter a long-term lease for a multi-million dollar location in one of NYC's trendiest neighborhoods, Beecher's Handmade Cheeses nevertheless is an addition to Madison Square area that is become a burgeoning foodie destintation.

The store specializes in their eponymous cheeses (Beecher Flagship, Flagship 4-year, Marco Polo, No Woman, and Flagsheep), but also specialty cheeses and charcuterie purveyors across the United States. The space is vast, with several retail counters on the ground floor to sample cheeses, charcuterie, and prepared foods, adequate seating for lunch and dinner upstairs, and a cellar of a bar in the basement. Beecher's offers free samples of all their cheeses, but this is a normal courtesy offered at many of the premier NYC cheesemongers.

I went down to the Cellar Bar and had a side-by-side comparison of Beecher's (Flagship, Flagship 4-year, Flagsheep) vs. the other cheesemonger's (Mozzarella Co's Hoja Santa/Jasper Hill Farm's Moses Sleeper/Wisconsin Sheep Dairy Coop) cheeses.

Regarding Beecher's selections, I was impressed by the nuttiness and funkiness of the 4-year Flagship, but let down by the lack of distinguishable flavors in the Flagship and Flagsheep.

The Cheesemonger's selection was considerably more impressive. The Wisconsin Sheep Dairy Coop's sheep cheese trumped Beecher's Flagsheep with it's saltiness, pungency, and earthiness. Jasper Hill's Moses Sleeper (cow's milk, aged 3-6 weeks) had the buttery, bright, savory flavor associated with cow's milk, but the bloomy rindness of a brie. The Hoja Santa (goat cheese wrapped in hoja santa leaves) was a revelation: the tanginess of goat cheese played off minty, earthiness of hoja santa leaves like a bow to a Stradavarius violin.

The sides offered with the cheese plates are not to be missed. Beecher's biscuits have a slightly sweet, wheaty taste that complements most cheeses. The pickled raisins provided a nice foil to some of the tangier goat and sheep's cheeses. And the pickled fennel stems might be my new favorite bar snack in all of NYC, with the vinegar notes providing a subtle facelift to the anise in the freshly shaved fennel.

Despite the quality cheeses, I was disappointed by the lack of in-depth knowledge about the cheeses by the staff. I admit I am a particularly picky consumer, but for a store that features regional cheese, it's important to know not just whether it came from a cow, sheep, or goat, but how it was produced, and where it came from.

Beecher's is the new kid on the cheese block, and I wish it the best of success. After running into Kurt Beecher (who has an uncanny likeness to Eastbound and Down's Kenny Powers) upon leaving the store, I couldn't help but think how he has vastly underestimated how ruthlessly competitive the NYC fromagerie market has become since his visit to NYC in 2008. If it is going to make its mark just like it did in Seattle, it will have to step up the quality of its cheeses and staff education to compete against the likes of Murray's, Saxelby's, and Artisanal.