Oh, St. James Cheese Company,
why did I wait so long to present my tastebuds as a petitioner at your door?
It is not because I doubted your ability to
assemble a plate of meats and cheeses that would please me beyond earthly
virtue or vice. Not at all. Rather, it must be that I feared how right you
would be.
Charcuterie is one of my most exquisite
temptations, and this city is a mistress of providing opportunities to exploit
it, as it does all my others. Before, I had been able to resist this particular
one—though barely by the skin of my teeth. Literally. But the St. James Cheese
Company had come highly recommended, it was in my neighborhood and I had a
coupon and a beautiful day. The Fates had spoken, and so be it.
The shop is located on a hip little stretch of
Prytania, albeit with little foot traffic. It features a nice little shared,
shaded patio as well as a few tables out front with a street view. The inside
also receives a nice share of sunlight from the front window-wall, but, per
usual, I was already too busy ogling the goods on display to really appreciate
any spatial aesthetics as that point.
I didn’t drool too closely, though, because buying
as many large chunks of cheese and cured meats as I could carry was not my mission
that day. Nor was the offering of lovely-sounding sandwiches and salads displayed
on their menu board. No, I was there to order four meats and three cheeses on a
plate, if you please. And a glass of the rosé. (Because of the weather, of
course, I said.)
Service was super friendly, even with a bit of a
line, and I learned that they supply cheese to the tasty City Pork Deli in Baton Rouge. Cheers!
My friend and I took a seat outside in the
afternoon sunlight, and, as promised, we received our bounty presented on a
slab of slate.
The nice man did try to explain to us what all the
offerings were, and I did try very hard to listen and comprehend, but it was
mostly drowned out by the cheesily (yes) angelic choir chords filtering through
my head.
Clearly it had been too long since I’d had
charcuterie.
Anyway, the individual highlights for me that
afternoon were the rustic, thick cut pepperoni-style slices of meat (bottom
left, above the candied nuts) and, for the cheeses, the Stilton (last cheese in
the column on the right). Guess I was having a robust day.
My favorite part, though, was when we were getting
towards the ends of our selections and started mixing and matching pairings
like bacchanalian scientists. The spicy mustard with which they provided us
(top left) seemed to go well with everything, but I was pleasantly shocked when
at the very end of the plate I added a dollop to the paté then swiped it
through the sweet-tangy red jam. Success. And then I chased it with a grape.
Overall, the charcuterie plate commanded so much
attention that I forgot I had a glass of wine at my hand, which is saying
something.
The moderately high price point will probably
relegate the St. James Cheese Company to a special treat rather than a part of
my regular rounds, but it is definitely worth a try or three.
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