Ever since the FDA announced last month that it was planning a crackdown on unpasteurized cheese imports, people have been making furtive requests of Matt and Sarah Parker, owners of the Lincoln Square shop the Cheese Stands Alone. “Customers come in and say, ‘Got any real Brie back there?’” Sarah says. “It’s like we’re selling fireworks.”
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The Parkers used to think of Chicago as a cheddar town. But their biggest sellers so far have been French triple creams like Brillat-Savarin, made from pasteurized cow’s milk and named after the French epicure.
Another domestic favorite is the Humboldt Fog goat’s milk cheese, made in northern California by Cypress Grove. It looks vaguely rotten–a thin gray line of ash wends around its edge and through its center to promote the rind’s growth–but tastes like a thick, savory custard. About a third of the store’s cheeses are American made, many of them from small-scale producers with their own animals. “They have lots more control over the milk” than larger manufacturers do, Matt says, which strongly affects the cheeses’ flavor.
Do the Parkers get sick of cheese now that it’s turned from a hobby into a business? No, says Matt. “I’ll be in the store for ten hours and then go home and eat cheese.”
