The Big Cheese | PHUDE-nyc | Food. Photos. 'Tude.

Big Cheese, The

The Big Cheese | 1566 First Avenue (bet. 81st & 82nd Sts.) | 212.249.5281 | thebigcheesenyc.com

MY VERY GOOD FRIEND, DANNY, gave me the heads up on this place—monikered with my lifelong nickname!—over the summer, and it’s become part of our almost weekly PHUDE-ie rituals. Besides having the best brie (Brie de Bourgogne) I’ve ever had, the have excellent selections and variety of local and international cheeses of types, cheddars, goat, sheep’s milk, blues, stinky, etc. If you ask kindly they’ll let you sample.

They also carry items that easily accompany these cheeses and make for great party starters or picnic baskets, with available meats such as proscuitto and hard salamis, or smoked salmon, or truffle butter, or fig jams, or water crackers, and fresh baguettes (you get the idea). Best of all, you can walk out with enough to feed 2 or 3 people for about 20 bucks!