Food News

Food News: Cranston's Newest Cheese Shop

A new Pawtuxet village gourmet shop hits all the right tasting notes

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Casey D’Arconte has many passions where food is concerned, but what seems to bring all of them together is his interest in sourcing and highlighting quality local ingredients. The newly-opened Edgewood Cheese Shop in Cranston is his latest venture, and aims to showcase the best cheese from New England and beyond. Some customers are looking for a more boutique and locally-focused cheesemonger, others to class up their event with a gorgeous cheese and charcuterie board. Then there are those who simply want a sandwich that is as far away from the Boar’s Head technicolor dream-cheese monopoly as possible. Shhh, they may be watching, and they know how to turn you into a vacuum-wrapped rectangular cuboid!
 
Casey’s other business is The Breakfast Place in Attleboro, which he took over in 2004. It had been doing the breakfast diner thing quite successfully for decades, but despite this success, he was not content with the status quo. Instead of reinventing the pancake, he elevated the place by the ingredients, committing to higher quality local sourcing, using local grass fed meats, eggs and farm fresh veggies. It’s over a decade later now and after years of talking about collaborating on a second business, Casey and wife Adrienne opened the Edgewood Cheese Shop in Cranston this past May.
 
It was not surprising to learn that Casey had spent a lot of time in Vermont, which he called “his second favorite state.” Indeed he attended the NE Culinary Institute in that dairy hotbed. “Cheese and charcuterie have always been our thing,” he explains, and he had been kicking around the idea of opening a cheese shop for years. As the idea matured, he and his wife seemed to keep passing a “for sale” sign on Broad Street in the midst of a small vibrant cluster of retail. Doing research into the area he thought a cheese shop could work.
 
His competition isn’t other boutique retail, but Whole Foods and similar upscale super markets. While Casey will of course offer some international cheeses – “I love French cheese,” he gushes – Edgewood will set itself apart with a comprehensive but curated selection of the budding Northeast artisanal cheese scene. In addition to our own local Narragansett, he offers far more cheeses from New England and New York than I can list, including Pineland Farms in New Gloucester, ME, Willow Hill Farm in Milton, VT, Nettle Meadow Farm in Warrensburg, NY and Smith’s Country Cheese in Winchendon, MA. 
You can try charcuterie plates on gorgeous wood boards in the store, with a rotating selection of cheeses and meat to pick from, and Casey is hoping that’ll inspire you to get more elaborate ones for your next function. There are cheeses available to sample every day in the store, if you are in need of help making a decision. And there is everything you could need for a picnic, a dinner party or just perhaps for that day when you sigh while looking at what has become of your life and only cheese can help (I call it Thursday). 
 
While suitably anxious about the prospect of running two businesses, Casey and Adrienne are excited about the prospect of investing and working in their own town. They live just down the street and “it’s where our whole life is based,” says Casey. “We love the area and it’s a great community, and we’re very involved.” 1828 Broad Street, Cranston. 941-2400

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