Cowgirl Creamery

When I worked downtown, I got to Cowgirl Creamery (on F, between 9th and 10th) much more often. It is such a treat and impossible to walk out of without a few cheeses.

I had the good fortune to actually discover Neal's Yard in London, the store that helped launch England's artisanal cheese renaissance, some 25+ years ago. Cowgirl Creamery comes as close as I've seen in this country to replicating the Neal's Yard experience. (It does in fact work closely with Neal's Yard and has some of its top cheeses, a cut above the Neal's Yard cheeses you get at Whole Foods). We are lucky to have it here, and Saturday's venture downtown reminded me it's worth the trip.

They have a wonderful selection of artisanal cheeses, including many from U.S. cheesemakers. The salespeople are knowledgeable and passionate about cheese and will patiently give you samples of any cheese you want to try. It pays off because the cheeses are invariably so good, you buy much of what you taste. It's not cheap. Prices run between $20 and $30 a pound, so a relatively small piece of 1/4 to 1/3 pound will cost $7-$10. There are numerous other gourmet selections as well, including great crackers to serve with cheese.

We picked up a few cheeses on Saturday. We started with the Ashed Log from the Pipe Dreams farm in Greencastle, Pa. The helpful Library of Cheese on the Cowgirl Creamery site tells me the farm has a herd of 60 mixed-breed goats and the cheesemaker trained in France in 1983 and has been making cheese ever since. We liked this one because it has a fresh, pleasantly "goaty" taste.

We also got the Tomette d'Helette, a semi-soft sheep's cheese from the French Basque region. An artisanal version of the "Petite Basque", the rind is washed with Espelette pepper during the four months of aging.

The Pondhopper comes from a farm in the Cascade mountains near Bend, Oregon. It is a semi-firm goat's cheese with a wax rind that gets additional flavor from being washed with a local microbrew.

We also got a wonderful cheddar from Seattle called Beecher's Flagship Reserve, a semi-hard cheese with a slight crumble.

Cheese, especially soft cheeses, don't always travel that well. When I tasted a perfectly ripened Pont-Leveque cheese in the town of Pont-Leveque, I realized it was different than even in Paris.

Cowgirl Creamery has mostly hard and semi-hard cheeses that preserve a wonderful flavor. Their own triple-cream soft cheeses -- Mt. Tam, Red Hawk, Pierce Pt, and others -- are terrific, especially if you can get them out of the fridge a good two hours before serving.