In a city filled with foods of all kinds, Asbury Park has been missing one thing: a cheese shop.
With C’est Cheese, Tina Haskopoulos and her mother, Eileen, will change that. They are converting the former Magnolia Jewelry store on Summerfield Avenue into a shop carrying more than 70 varieties of cheese from America and abroad.
They hope to open in August.
“I couldn’t believe there wasn’t a shop in Asbury (and thought) why don’t I jump on that?” said Tina, who relocated from Jersey City to start the business. “It’s such a food community, it’s such a vibrant community with a cool food scene, cool art — all the things that I love in a beautiful town with great people.”
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C’est Cheese will offer cheese and charcuterie cut to order and sold by the pound, large platters for events and parties, housemade dips, and a grilled cheese menu.
“I would love to make some fresh mozzarella in house,” she said, “and I will have some specialty grocery items — seasonal produce when its applicable, like tomatoes in the summer and apples in the fall, to pair with the cheese.”
Tina, 40, has spent her career in food and hospitality, with a focus on cheese over the past 10 years. She learned to handle a high-volume of customers at Eataly in New York City, concentrated on cheese monger work and purchasing at Bedford Cheese Shop in Brooklyn, and experienced the business on a smaller scale at Van Hook Cheese & Grocery in Jersey City.
“That’s when the rumblings of my own shop started in my brain,” she said.
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C’est Cheese will stock “the heavy hitters, [cheeses from] Spain, France, Italy, Switzerland — all the good foundational stuff, ” Tina said. “But there is so much awesome American artisanal cheese now. There’s so much more, not just cheddar from Wisconsin. I would like to put a little bit more of my focus on those.
“I like to give a sample of a Taleggio from Vermont and [then a sample from Italy] and let [customers] taste the difference,” she said. ” … You may even end up loving [the American sample] a little more.”
Tina said customers will find her behind the counter, cutting up and handing out samples.
“I would love people to come into my shop and not feel intimidated in the slightest,” she said. “I just want people to come in and feel comfortable and taste whatever they want, be educated and empowered and feel like they can ask anything or try anything.”
Go: 516 Summerfield Ave., Asbury Park; instagram.com/cestcheesenj.
Sarah Griesemer joined the USA TODAY NETWORK New Jersey in 2003 and has been writing all things food since 2014. Send restaurant tips to sgriesemer@gannettnj.com.
This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: C’est Cheese cheese shop to open in Asbury Park this summer
