Sacramento cheese artisans live life on the wedge

Farm to fork grabbed Sacramento's attention a couple years ago.

The craft-beer scene also officially exploded. Now, artisan cheese has finally arrived. Which means locals are now happily spending $11 for a grilled-cheese sandwich and $40 per pound of the latest exciting, award-winning cheese.

Though the city has long had great cheese selections from local grocers like Corti Brothers and Taylor’s Market, new cheese-centric businesses started opening last year. And they opened with a focus on domestic, handcrafted cheese and cheesy dining fare.

The country’s cheese industry took notice two weeks ago at the American Cheese Society Conference, an annual five-day event that brings roughly 1,000 cheesemongers, cheesemakers, chefs, distributors and other cheese professionals to a new city each year.

Why Sacramento?

Organizers touted the city’s “Farm-to-fork Capital” distinction, its agricultural bounty and its close proximity to some of California’s greatest cheesemakers in Sonoma and Marin counties. And each night, conferencegoers were pleasantly surprised at the city’s thriving food culture.

Sara Arbabian said she felt Sacramento was ripe for a cheese renaissance when she opened The Rind (1801 L Street, Suite 40) last spring. The classy but approachable cheese bar specializes in pairing cheese with wine and beer, on top of a rotating cast of more than 30 cheeses cut to order. But Arbabian said the community didn’t really know what to think at first.

“A lot of people thought it was a cool concept but had a hard time understanding how a cheese shop was a bar; how you pair wine and beer and cheese,” said Arbabian. “It was tough, but ultimately, people were like, ’I like cheese, I like wine, I like beer—it sounds good.’”

In the fall, another cheese business opened: The Cultured & The Cured (3644 J Street), an artisan cheese shop that also serves up cheese-centered bistro fare. A few months after that, Block Butcher Bar (1050 20th Street) opened and completed the Sacramento cheese trifecta. Though chiefly known for its whiskey program and house-made charcuterie, Block also features a small shop at its entrance selling cut-to-order cheese.

Suddenly, Sacramento is a cheese town. Arbabian said it’s another step in the Slow Food movement.

“I think we’re all trending back toward procuring food and preparing food with care and high-quality ingredients,” she said. “People are becoming more educated about what they eat.”

But business owners agree that customers generally find artisan cheese selections intimidating—at first, anyway. The Cultured & The Cured, for example, serves 100 cheeses.

“People will walk up, look at the case and say, ’Oh my God. I don’t know what to do,’” said owner Andrew Hillman.

Hence the importance of the cheesemonger: the specialist that can help guide customers to a cheese of their liking, even if they know absolutely nothing about cheese.

With all specialty cheese shops, balance is crucial. Cheesemongers seek a healthy mix of cheeses from different milks—cow, sheep, goat, buffalo—and different styles. There are fresh cheeses, like ricotta; soft-ripened, bloomy rind cheeses, like Brie; washed rind, stinky cheeses; cheddar; blue; smoked; flavored; and all sorts of international styles, like manchego or Gouda.

Hillman tries to stay domestic with his cheese, though. Out of 100 cheeses, he’ll typically carry about five from Europe. Part of it is certainly the farm-to-fork mentality, but no chef would buy mediocre cheese simply because it’s closer, either. Hillman buys most of his from California because the state’s artisan cheese is fantastic.

The innovation of American cheesemakers was a major focus at the American Cheese Society Conference. During the keynote speech in front of nearly 1,000 cheese professionals, local tastemaker Darrell Corti and Bay Area food and wine pioneer Narsai David discussed California’s artisanal-cheese movement as one akin to its wine and culinary renaissance in the 1980s.

“We are doing things now that are the envy of the entire world,” David said.

According to census data, the country’s fastest growing cheese-manufacturing sector is the small, artisan cheesemaker—the business with fewer than 20 employees. And American cheesemakers are not limited by history. In Europe, cheesemakers have been using the same recipes and methods for hundreds and hundreds of years.

“Here, it’s a new frontier,” Arbabian said. “It’s exciting because you can go rogue—you can do whatever you want. If it tastes good, give it a name and push it forward.”

The American Cheese Society sees this innovation firsthand every year. In 1985, it held its first judging and competition—now commonly known as the “Oscars of cheese”—with 30 cheesemakers entering 89 cheeses in seven categories. This year, 248 companies entered 1,685 products in 85 categories. Talk about growth.

Tom Kooiman, chair of the society’s judging committee, tasted cheeses for a full week and noted a few trends: washed rind cheeses, aged alpine-style cheeses and burrata all saw a high number of entries. But more than that, he said he was impressed with the number and quality of “American originals.” The category includes national mainstays like Monterey Jack and Colby, but also the cheeses that are so unique in recipe, they can’t really be placed in a category. An example: Bleating Heart Cheese’s Fat Bottom Girl, which won a first place ribbon as well as the top prize at this year’s California State Fair.

Still, there’s a huge disconnect nationally between cheese-focused businesses and businesses that happen to serve cheese. Conference attendees expressed dismay in their experiences trying to get chefs to utilize artisanal cheese as an ingredient, and they pointed to the lack of cheese education in most culinary schools as a leading culprit.

Those such as Hillman and Michael Tuohy, executive chef at LowBrau and Block Butcher Bar, people who love cheese and decide to pursue it to a new level—are more rare. Hillman said restaurants might be resistant to using a product that’s so expensive and tricky to keep fresh. Tuohy noted that when he first entered LowBrau’s kitchen, the cooks were serving canned cheese sauce to top the sausages. Now, Tuohy buys 180 pounds of cheese each week from Petaluma Creamery to make 24 quarts of sauce every other day.

Plus, cheese isn’t exactly easy to just throw onto a preconceived menu. For Tuohy, cheese comes first, and the dish comes second. “The cheese tells us what to do with it,” Tuohy said.

Now Sacramento’s cheesiest businesses are ready for more. Both The Rind and The Cultured & The Cured are adding patio seating. Arbabian hopes to start offering brunch in the fall—quiches, croque-monsieurs, savory pastries and other simple dishes that can highlight different cheeses. And The Cultured & The Cured’s liquor license is due any day—Hillman plans to offer cider and a couple beers on draft, along with bottles of beer and wine.

The trend seems to be here to stay. Or perhaps it’s not a trend at all. Hillman argues the rise of artisanal cheese is just another result of Sacramento’s growing food culture.

“People are getting a lot more knowledgeable—they want to experiment, eat more and expand,” he said. “They’re finally realizing there’s a lot out there, and that’s the nature of what cheese has become.”