Savour Gourmet Provisions bills itself as “a unique food boutique specializing in gourmet cheeses, sauces, oils, spices, and much more,” and while that’s certainly true, this retail outlet is at its core a cheese shop, and a grand one at that.
Yes, the dried salamis, pasta, and precious jars filled with Mediterranean delights beckon, but the cheese case sits squarely at the store’s center, its brightly lit, neatly-ordered shelves glowing like some divine alter to the dairy gods.
And what heavenly cheese it is. The list includes the hallowed varieties one might expect to see, like high-quality Blue Stilton (England), Brie (France), Prima Donna (Holland), and Fontina Fontal (Italy), but the selection has some intriguing standouts, like the best-selling Welsh Red Dragon cheddar, soaked in ale and studded with mustard seeds.
It’s when one strays past the cow milk cheeses that the selection comes into its own: Drunken Goat from Spain, and Cloud 9 goat and Ewe’s Blue sheep cheese from right here in the USA. Unpasteurized and local varieties are well-represented, as well.
A couple of favorites included the mind-blowing Truffle Tremor, a goat cheese imbued with black summer truffles, and the creamy, subtle Idiazabal Spanish sheep cheese.
While one might ideally prefer a table filled with room-temperature wheels of fresh cheese to a refrigerated case of plastic-wrapped portions, the unpasteurized production methods used to create some of the varieties may make this unavoidable, and the cheese doesn’t seem to suffer for it. Of course, these artisanal goodies don’t come with bargain-basement price tags.
That said, one can purchase a nice wedge or two of something out of the ordinary, along with a loaf of bread, and be a hero at one’s next gathering. The stuff is first-rate.
In the bigger picture, it’s about time New Hope and Lambertville had a dedicated cheese shop within walking distance of the bridge.
Savour Gourmet Provisions is located at 37 N. Union Street in Lambertville; (609) 397-1930.
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