I had a first look at Edinburgh's tantalising new speciality food shop
There’s something exciting coming to Broughton Street
The sausage roll’s loss is cheese’s gain.
That’s because Greggs at Edinburgh’s 27 Broughton Street is no more.
It’s been replaced by a way more sophisticated proposition in the form of The Big Cheese - an artisan cheese shop that’s owned by former commercial director Neil Cunningham, with support from his husband, Nick Gulliver, whose lovely pottery is also available to buy in the shop.
When I visit, they’ve not quite opened their doors yet, and the final touches of swooping gilding are being added to the sign.
Apparently, the name was chosen by the couple’s pal, Barry Bryson, of popular Edinburgh restaurant, Barry Fish. He suggested it, while they were out for dinner, and the idea stuck.
It suits the place, which looks a bit more modern than your average cheesemonger.
The namesake spoils are kept inside their special environmentally-friendly multi-layered display cabinets, which cost £5,000 each and keep the fromage at the perfect temperature.
Cunningham calls this area “the cheese gallery” and shop manager and monger, Mia Cowie, formerly of Edinburgh institution IJ Mellis, is making the final touches to the display.
Thanks to her, there are around 50 varieties available, with, they say, around half of those unavailable elsewhere in the city.
I read a few of the labels.
Among many others, I spotted a speckled Pecorino al Tartufo, Westcombe Cheddar, Landana Rosso, Corra Linn, Cornish Kern, Baron Bigod, Minger and Camembert de Normandie. Apparently, they also stock a Gorgonzola that’s soft enough to scoop.
On a bottom shelf, there’s an entire wheel of Isle of Mull cheddar that Cunningham and Gulliver collected in person, then had to take home on the train.
It’s extra special, as it was made exactly a year ago to the date of the shop’s opening, 1 August.
The team points out an Elrick Log that the shop's owner and Cowie made themselves on a visit to Errington Dairy.
“We ladled the curd,” Cunningham says.
However, his current favourite product is an excellently named Ticklemore.
“It’s an English goat pasteurised cheese. So it's very fudgy and goaty. I did a very quick tasting on some of the cheeses that we had, and this was the one that I said had to be in the ‘gallery’ staff picks. It's just absolutely gorgeous,” he says.
Cowie has a favourite, too.
“Right now my staff pick is Doddington, made in Northumberland. It’s raw milk cheese that’s based on a Red Leicester recipe. Its flavour is a little bit cheddary, a little bit Parmesan. It's got that lovely crunchy texture,” she says. “And then a couple of other cheeses I'm really excited by are sister cheeses. So we have St Cera just here, and then St Jude. I had to rip this out of my girlfriend's hand when we were tasting it. I was like, we need to share this.”
The team are aiming to tempt customers into converting from familiar cheese to more adventurous ones. They plan to draw in those who would perhaps usually just grab something from the supermarket.
“The person that would normally go to Waitrose and pick up a prepack, or Marks & Spencer on Princes Street. We're trying to get them coming to us, because I guarantee you ours will be more mature or supply a better taste. Come and have a conversation,” Cunningham says.
They’re also hoping to attract a mixture of locals and tourists.
Cowie assures me that their vacuum packing machine means that any purchased fromage won’t be stinking out visitors’ hotel rooms.
She also tells me that, since the cost-of-living crisis, she thinks that people have become more interested in cheese, but as an alternative to a night out. Instead of spending on a meal, they might get a couple of chunks of this treat. It lasts a bit longer than your average three-course meal.
“It’s a really robust product. The lifespan of the small piece of cheese you pick up from a cheesemonger is a lot less dictated by whether it's going to turn. Often it can just be drying out, so keep it in a vegetable drawer to keep the humidity up,” she says. “When you take cheese home and you leave it a few days, there might be some mould growing on it. Just take a little butter knife and scrape it off. Cheese was invented to keep dairy for a very long time, before refrigeration itself. When it comes to eating your cheese, take it out of the fridge beforehand, let it get up to room temperature.”
The issue of whether to butter the crackers (or not), and serve with or without pickle, is down to personal taste. Cowie likes a little dab of honey with some cheeses, to round out the flavour.
In the shop, there’s a quartz-topped slab counter, which they’re calling their cheeseboard.
It’s where they can do consultations, cut and package up goodies.
At the back, behind a fondue-hued curtain, is the not-quite-operational-yet events space, where they’ll do talks and workshops. There are other future plans, to collaborate with Edinburgh chefs and maybe do a cheese-y afternoon tea somewhere. Cunningham is very ambitious, considering this is his first retail project.
However, there’s more to the shop than just cheese. They also stock Company bakery bread, Perello olives, Edinburgh Honey Co. and The Edinburgh Butter Co. wares, pickles and chutneys, Great Glen Charcuterie, Santu coffee, L’art du Vin wine, cider and perry; books, olive oils, and every type of cracker you could dream of.
It’s a potential weekend’s worth of treats that’s way better than a sausage roll.
For more information, see www.thebigcheese.store
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