In the past year or so, I’ve become enamored of Manhattan’s Essex Street Market. This Lower East Side haunt pulls together a dozen or so food purveyors under one roof, along with a tailor, a barber (both in some of the smallest spaces I’ve ever seen), and an incense-fumed botanica. In one especially bright spot, there is a pint-sized cheese store called Saxelby Cheesemongers. On most days, Anne Saxelby herself is behind the counter.
Saxelby is devoted to American farmstead cheeses, sourcing from dairies like Jasper Hill Farm, Evans Farmhouse, and Lazy Lady Farm. Anne and her staff are quick to hand out tantalizing slices of earthy goat cheese, tangy blues, and anything else that might catch your eye—like the “Barick Obama.” How did this young dynamo learn so much about cheese, start her own awesome business, and have energy to spare? Anne gives us the scoop—right after winning New York magazine’s “Best Cheese Store” award.
Q: How did you first get seriously interested in cheese as your calling?
A: I got interested in cheese during a trip to Italy during my sophomore year of college. I visited a foodie friend in Florence and she took me to the central market there. It was pretty much all over after that. I ate so many amazing cheeses, sausages, dried fruits, pastas, fruits, and veggies, you name it. So when I came back to New York, I started spooking around Murray’s and other cheese shops, annoying the staff, peppering them with questions, eating more than my weight in samples … you know, educating myself! The more I ate, the more I wanted to know about what made all the types different and what else existed out there.
Q: How did you make the transition into cheesemongering?
A: After I graduated from NYU [with a degree in art], I tried to get an internship at Cato Corner Farm, a small dairy farm in Connecticut. At the time, I was kind of over the art world and wanted a break from the city in general, so it seemed like a good adventure. Out of the goodness of their hearts, they said yes, even though I knew next to nothing about cheese/farming, but they didn’t need me to start until the fall. I decided to get summer jobs at Murray’s and at Chambers Street Wines to do a little wine and cheese summer school. In the end, cheesemongering was more fun than wine-mongering. After I did my stint at Cato, I went back to Murray’s.
Q: How about setting up your business in the Essex Market—were there any special challenges and triumphs there?
A: Many!
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