The Art of Cheese 505 Weaver Park Rd Suite E Longmont Co
Owner Alex Seidel in the cheese aging room at Fruition Farms in Larkspur, Colorado. Photograph by Kevin J. Miyazaki/PLATE
By John Lehndorff
The last thing anybody wants to do on an icy November afternoon is go shopping within a room-sized refrigerator. Even so that's precisely what crowds of folks do on a daily footing at Longmont'southward Cheese Importers Warehouse. They pick a prissy insulated jacket from a rack at the door and plunge into a remarkable 1,800-square-foot wonderland to sample nutty aged Gouda, tart herbed chevre, almost liquid Camembert and other favorites from the 400 varieties in stock during the holiday season.
Meanwhile, farms and minor creameries across the state are producing some outstanding cheeses fabricated from local goat, sheep and cow'due south milk. In 2015, the Denver-based American Cheese Social club handed out the Oscars of the cheese earth, giving awards to Longmont's Haystack Mount Goat Dairy and Barrage Cheese Co. in Basalt.
Specialty cheese shops and cafés pairing cheeses with local ciders and wines are catering to a younger generation weaned on Brie and eager to support sustainable, farm-to-fork fare.
For veteran curd-centrics like this author (who would eat cheese at every meal if immune), Colorado's fromage scene means road trips from Larkspur to Paonia with hands-on experiences milking goats and making burrata to simple cheese-to-mouth good times in the grade of chef upgraded mac-north-cheese, fondue and grilled cheese sandwiches.
LONGMONT
Cheese Importers Warehouse
103 Principal St., 303-772-9599
The cheeses, organized by country of origin in the walk-in libation, describe many visitors only there is much more to savor at Cheese Importers Warehouse, set in a revived 1930s power station building. I can warm-up in the cookware and gourmet foods store or take hold of quiche or a cheese plate at Bistrot des Artistes, the in-house French café. The Boudoir (upstairs, naturally) is a dining and gathering spot flanked by a kid's shop offering cute cooking supplies and classic books such as Babar the Elephant. This major cheese wholesaler's warehouse has become a vacation family tradition as well as a summertime gathering spot with a cool, bloom-festooned patio.
Haystack Mountain Goat Dairy
1121 Colorado Ave., 720-494-8714
Whether it is a creamy iii-solar day-old chevre, nutty 3-month-aged Queso de Mano or buttery, soft-ripened Summit, Haystack's award-winning cheeses are beloved past chefs and aficionados. Tours of the creamery characteristic cool, geeky details nearly cheese scientific discipline with numberless of curd draining, cheese rounds being dipped in black wax, and a harp-like instrument for cut curds. Tastings involve Haystack classics and small batch treats such as smoked Gouda with fenugreek. Haystack volition add together a new, larger facility in Longmont this fall at 505 Weaver Park Rd. with room for tours, tastings, a market and The Art of Cheese, a space for cheese-making classes.
DENVER
New World Cheese
2504 E. Colfax Ave., 720-380-2691
"American cheese" is no longer a joke, and New World Cheese celebrates that fact by selling and serving only "cheese from this side of the swimming," said owner Teresa St. Peter. The tiny shop and café is tucked in Denver's historic Lowenstein Cultureplex. St. Peter's fondness for cheese from California, Wisconsin, Vermont, California and Colorado show up in a menu of charcuterie plates, warm beer cheese dip, Mission figs blimp with Fruition Cacio Pecora, and comfy mac-n-cheese-filled grilled cheese sandwiches with tomato soup. For dessert: Ugly Goat'south otherworldly caprine animal's milk fudge.
Wine & Whey
3559 Larimer St., 303-325-3831
Pamela Zorn, co-possessor of Wine & Whey, crafts a Caprese salad with fresh mozzarella made past a form at the Denver shop. © Kim Long
For DIY "maker" types, it's non good plenty to simply sniff and taste the cheese. They desire to brand it, too. Located near LoDo, Wine & Whey stages classes in creating cheeses from milk including for butter, ricotta and mozzarella; feta and queso fresco; and farmhouse cheddar. Family unit and friends tin can schedule a course to make both red wine and mozzarella in one fun form with a follow up visit to cork the bottles.
St. Kilian'southward Cheese Shop
3211 Lowell Blvd., 303-477-0374
If yous like to talk about your Emmentaler and Welsh cheddar before purchase, you'll honey the personal service at St. Kilian's Cheese Shop in the Highlands neighborhood. Y'all and the monger will sample whatever cheese y'all bear witness an interest in earlier your choices are paper-wrapped for home. The snug shop also stocks carefully curated meats, pickles and condiments forth with artisan loaves from the nearby Denver Bread Company.
The Truffle Table
2556 15th St., 303-455-9463
The Truffle Tabular array is a hip Lower Highland eatery that doubles as one of the best sit-down cheese-tasting spots in Denver. Beautiful boards are composed from the seasonal roster of thirty international cheeses. They are properly ripened and served because the owners likewise curate the goodies at The Truffle Cheese Shop (2906 E. sixth Ave., 303-322-7363) across town. Some aficionados frequent the eatery for the epic truffle mac-n-cheese and others are Wednesday regulars for all-you-tin-consume raclette. What'south not to like about Gruyere melted over bread, vegetables, meat and anything else?
Mercantile Dining & Provisions
1701 Wynkoop St., Suite 155, 720-460-3733
Lots of chefs these days brag about their farm-to-table cuisine, just not many of them take actually bought a farm. Chef Alex Seidel's Fruition Farm and Dairy in Larkspur supplies sheep's milk cheese and fresh vegetables to his Mercantile Dining & Provisions and his original Denver fine restaurant, Fruition (1313 E. 6th Ave., 303-831-1962). The critically acclaimed Mercantile, in the renovated Denver Union Station, dishes stellar meats, cheeses and pastries during the twenty-four hours and ingredient-focused fare in the evening. Fruition Farm focuses on sheep milk cheeses such as Shepherd's Halo, a soft-ripened cheese served when silky spreadable. Mercantile'southward must-taste cheesecake is fabricated with Fruition'southward super-rich sheep'south milk ricotta.
Mondo Market at The Source
3350 Brighton Blvd. Unit 115, 720-398-8322
Cool cheese boards composed to your sense of taste buds are on tap at Mondo Market place at The Source, a taste destination inside a renovated industrial building in Denver's River North neighborhood. You lot might start with super-creamy Italian Robiola Bosina from the large cheese roster, add together thin slices of Serrano ham and crumbles of wine-soaked Basajo blue cheese. These are complemented with olives, crunchy fried corn, candied walnuts, marmalade and crackers. The marketplace stocks local treats including Tender Belly Salary, Elevation Ketchup and MouCo Colorouge cheese, spices ranging from sumac to five types of paprika. At The Source you tin can also take hold of a thickly crusted baguette at Babette'due south Bakery, a near perfect latte at Boxcar Coffee Roasters, aged steaks at Western Daughters butcher shop, and accolade-winning fare at Acorn and Comida.
WESTERN SLOPE AND MOUNTAINS
Avalanche Cheese Company
Farm and Dairy
11510 Crawford Rd., Paonia
970-527-4313
Creamery
216 Cody Lane, Basalt
970-927-6850
Meat & Cheese Restaurant and Farm Shop
319 East. Hopkins Ave., Aspen
970-710-7120
Avalanche Cheese Company has the whole Colorado cheese experience covered at its three locations. You can hire a cabin and wake up to milk the goats at the family subcontract with a view in Paonia; savour cheese-making tours at its Basalt creamery; or taste the 2015 medal winners Cabra Blanca, Midnight Bluish and Lamborn Bloomer, at its Meat and Cheese Eating place in Aspen.
DURANGO
James Ranch
33846 U.S. Hwy 550, 970-764-4027
Open year-round to visitors, James Ranch is a 400-acre family business that crafts farmstead cheeses using raw milk from its own grass-fed Jersey cows. The onsite marketplace offers subcontract vegetables, grass-fed beef, eggs, pork, ice cream and the memorable cheeses: creamy Gouda-similar Belford; Leyden (flavored with cumin); and anile Andalo, an Italian-style grate-able cheese. From June to August the ranch hosts visitors who walk or ride on a hay railroad vehicle or electric cart through pastures to larn about sustainable farming. Special tours are bachelor for kids and the Ranch also hosts a summer concert series with cheeseburgers.
BUENA VISTA
Jumpin' Skilful Goat Dairy
31700 Hwy 24 North, 719-395-4646
Visitors tin can have fun with Dawn Jump's free-roaming goats and assist collect the milk for a roster of cheeses made at Buena Vista's Jumpin' Good Goat Dairy. Courtesy of Jumpin' Adept Goat Dairy
Buena Vista brags about its myriad mount activities from skiing to hot springs but some guests arrive to hang out with Dawn Jump and her 600 or so bouncy goats. The view of the Collegiate Peaks is stunning at Jumpin' Good Goat Dairy where this fifth-generation farmer/rancher crafts a dozen or more than varieties ranging from soft-ripened Commencement Snowfall dusted with poplar ash to tangy Buena Vista Bleu and wine-soaked aged Cheddar. From March through October, subcontract and creamery tours are available forth with milking tours for those who desire a easily-on encounter.
KEENESBURG
Ugly Caprine animal Milk Co.
16420 Cavanaugh Rd., 303-870-3785
The Ugly Goat Milk Co. started with one singularly unattractive merely very friendly caprine animal and has grown into an accolade-winning creamery. Visits to the farm, about 20 minutes east of Brighton, include mingling with a menagerie of goats, cows, turkeys, ducks, geese, and guinea fowl and savoring the farmstead cheeses. Ugly Goat is famous for its beautiful mild chevre, feta in a brine, goat milk ricotta, and soft-ripened Ugly Ash. It's a joy to acquire a pound of owner Michael Amen's sigh-inducing chocolate goat's milk fudge. Serious cheesemakers accept classes here.
FORT COLLINS
The Welsh Rabbit Bistro
200 Walnut St., Unit B, 970-232-9521
From California'due south flossy Humboldt Fog to France'south heavenly Mimolette, the cheeses you taste at The Welsh Rabbit Bistro are the same ones you tin can buy at The Welsh Rabbit Cheese Shop (216 Pine St., 970-443-4027) a block away. The bistro offers a 40-item cheese list and minor plates such as braised Colorado bison tongue with roasted pepper sauce. The Erstwhile World-mode store is stocked with local eggs, salary, butter and preserves. The savvy staff insists you taste a few cheeses earlier they are cut and wrapped in paper. It's tough to go back to the plastic-wrapped Colby-Jack at the supermarket.
WINDSOR
Cozy Cow Creamery
28607 Canton Rd. 17, 970-686-6960
You come across the iconic cow on the roof before you spy the sign for Cozy Cow on a rural road leading to a store, creamery and farm. The creamery's Longview cheeses include squeaky Cheddar curds so prized that the cheesemaker sends out a text when fresh curds are available. Similar a hot Krispy Kreme doughnut, fresh curds must be tasted to be appreciated. (Text CURDS to 970-805-4269). Folks tin can view the cheese-making procedure through windows, visit some of the animate being inhabitants, and sign up for cow milking tours. At the store don't miss the Greek-style grill-able cheese, the lemon water ice foam or the fresh milk and cream ideal for making mozzarella, ricotta and water ice cream at home.
John Lehndorff hosts Radio Nibbles on KGNU-FM. The former dining critic of the Rocky Mountain News loves ripe triple creme cheese.
Prepare for your cheese trip
Before heading to the farm it'due south wise to review the do's and don'ts for cheese tourists.
- Wear old clothes and even older shoes. You volition exist tramping fields, corrals or barns that are euphemistically labelled "muddied." Sandals are a very bad idea.
- Don't aggravate the llamas. The farms employ them to protect goats, sheep and other animals from predators, and llamas are decumbent to spitting.
- If you go on a creamery tour you will get wet and you lot must wear a hairnet fifty-fifty if it makes you expect similar your Aunt Ernestine.
- Practise have the opportunity to nibble every blazon of cheese you are offered fifty-fifty if it's unfamiliar. You may find an unexpected new favorite.
- Practise purchase cheese at these stops where a wider selection is offered, plus special batches not sold at retail outlets. You directly assistance these family farms and minor nutrient businesses survive.
- Do remember that you are sampling, not having a repast. Filling a baggie with Muenster for the road is frowned upon.
A Colorado celebration of cheese
The Colorado Cheese Festival is Nov. 8 at the Plaza Event Center, 1900 Ken Pratt Blvd., in Longmont.
An all-Colorado political party cheese plate
MouCo Cheese Co. cow's milk Camembert (Fort Collins).
Cleaved Shovels Farm caprine animal's milk banons wrapped in grape leaves (Commerce Metropolis).
Rocking Westward cow'due south milk muenster curds (Olathe).
Coturnix Creamery sheep milk Roundabout (Windsor).
Did you lot know?
Colorado is home to Leprino Bros., the world'south largest producer of mozzarella used by pizzerias across the nation.
Source: https://johnlehndorff.wordpress.com/2015/12/06/the-whey-of-the-curds-the-colorado-cheese-trail/