Huntington welcomes The Town Cheesemonger, a new cheese boutique

Patrick Ambrosio’s decades-lengthy affair with cheese has aged like a good wine.

About 20 many years in the past, he and his upcoming wife Gale expended a short stint in California, where they worked at a winery. She was the director of hospitality and he was a chef, operating a couple occasions every thirty day period.

Patrick Ambrosio soon accepted a career at Dean & DeLuca in Napa Valley and dove headfirst into the realm of gourmet cheeses. When the couple moved back to Lengthy Island, he caught with the gourmand cheese business enterprise, managing the gourmand cheese office at Crushed Olive’s old Primary Avenue area in Huntington.

Just after a lot of yrs and various retailers, he regarded retiring from the business in March in 2021. But that was prior to he recognized a quaint vacant New York Avenue storefront.

“This came along, and it is a modest very little place,” Ambrosio, 65, mentioned of his new store The Town Cheesemonger, inside of Marketplace Lounge and Gallery at 344 New York Ave. “It’s a pleasant manageable kind of shop that I can do a pair of days a week, and improve it organically and see what happens.”

“In a room like this, if there’s fantastic momentum, I can convey a thing seriously pleasant to the people of Huntington,” he included.

At The City Cheesemonger, buyers taste and master about the diverse European and American cheeses that Ambrosio carries. Given that the doors opened a thirty day period in the past, the creamy Delice De Bourgogne Prairie Breeze, a sharp white cheddar from Iowa and the Challerhocker, an aged Swiss akin to a Gruyère with numerous flavor notes, have emerged as the well known staples.

A faithful adhering to for specialized niche cheese

The challerhocker is a beloved of buyer Amy Girimonti, who returned to the City Cheesemonger for an additional serving to Friday afternoon. On her initially pay a visit to, she acquired the cheese together with truffle honey and biscuits for pairing, as effectively as slices of drunken goat and excellence.

Like several Huntington inhabitants, she has turned to Ambrosio for her cheese needs, dating back to his Crushed Olive days.

“This is unique,” Girimonti, 52, reported of the new shop. “[Patrick] is aware of so a lot about cheese and all the different things to pair them with and how to provide them. He’s pleasant, he’s jovial, he’ll allow you taste matters. He normally takes his time with you.”

Ambrosio explained he is grateful he sustain relationships with Huntington citizens during his job as a cheese monger. He said this will give him the foundation and momentum to share his solutions and his eyesight with a broader viewers.

“You can buy cheese in a selection of retailers in today’s earth,” he explained. “But the big difference listed here is I have bought a lot of cheese you’re not heading to find in standard retailers. I’m shooting for a improved level of cheese than you could possibly see in your traditional stores.”

For the following two months, the City Cheesemonger will be open up a few days a 7 days: Thursday, 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Friday, 11 a.m.-5 p.m. and Saturday, 11 a.m.-3 p.m.

Ambrosio he will extend his hours as the calendar receives closer to spring. Additional down the line, he hopes to extend his product or service line, when localizing his purchases.

“I do have a fair sum of European cheese in here now,” he explained. “But my dream is to transform it in excess of to a additional local, smaller farm type of thing, the place I’m obtaining right from farmers when their things is at its peak affliction. Much more New York condition, Vermont — possibly from a 500-mile radius about here.”