Murray’s Cheese Cave Tours

When you really stop and think about it, many cheeses are actually aged to the point where they’re moldy in the darkness often for months at a time.  Then we eat them and expound on their wonderful flavors paired with some of the finest wines often with price tags easily over $100 a bottle.

Murray's Cheese Cave

Normally, you would think of ingesting a moldy substance as downright gross.  See why this simply isn’t the case by taking a tour of Murray’s Cheese caves under their store at 254 Bleeker Street. You don’t need a discerning palate to learn the finer points of how a huge variety of cheeses make it to your table. First of all, these caves are not what you’d normally imagine them to be: damp, dark catacombs carved deep in the ground.  While they are indeed underground below the store, you’ll discover that the cheeses here aren’t stored and aged in actual caverns, but rather in climate-controlled walk-in refrigerators. One is for younger cheeses, one for washed rind, and another for harder, older cheeses like the giant 200-pound Swiss Emmenthaler wheels.

Before entering, you’ll need to wipe your feet on an antibacterial mat.  Even with this precaution, sometimes a cheese needs to be quarantined because of bad mold.  The more exotic include goat and walnut-leaf wrapped Pecorino Foja de Noce.  You’ll learn that some need to be patted and turned every few days so the fat doesn’t settle creating a soggy bottom.  Half hour tours are held every 3rd Sat., cost $10, and include a tasting of seasonal cheeses paired with wine.

By subway: Take the A, C, or D train to the West 4th St. Station and then walk 1 block down Cornelia St. to 254 Bleeker.

photo courtesy of Murray’s Cheese