Cambridge, MA | Cheese Shop & Specialty Importer | Monthly Cheese Club

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Key Results

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• Cheeses proven with members first, then added to the store permanently once demand is confirmed
• Import risk offset, as cheeses committed by boat months ahead have a guaranteed audience waiting on arrival
• Delivery reach across Greater Boston which the shop's own van could never match
• A collectible format (member trading cards) that turns tasting notes into something people share

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Forty-seven years of caretaking

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Formaggio Kitchen has been a fixture in Cambridge since it opened in 1978 as a small, European-style specialty shop, favoring curated selections and direct relationships with producers over anything you'd find in a supermarket aisle. In 1996, owners Ihsan and Valerie Gurdal built the first cheese aging cave in a U.S. retail shop, a below-ground room that turned the store into a genuine destination for affinage rather than just a place to buy wedges. Julia Hallman worked alongside them for years before taking ownership in 2022, and today the Formaggio Kitchen family includes stores in Cambridge, Boston's South End, Kendall Square, and New York.

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What hasn't changed amidst all the growth is their philosophy. "A core value for us is caretaking," Julia says, standing in the Cambridge cave. That applies to the cheese itself, tended at the right humidity and temperature, as well as the people behind it. "We work one-on-one with our producers. We're oftentimes the only hands that touch a product from producer to consumer. So for us, we feel a really strong value to be able to share their stories and be able to talk about why what they do is so, so special."

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It also means treating cheese as what it actually is. "I think a lot of people don't realize that cheese is a living, breathing thing," Julia says. "The ebbs and flows of the seasonality of the cheese, based on what the animals are eating or the techniques that the cheese makers are employing, are what make these small production artisan cheeses so special." Opening a new wheel, for her, still carries a small thrill after decades in the trade: she may be the first person in the world tasting that particular batch.

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The distance between the dock and the driveway

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Formaggio Kitchen's cheese comes largely from small European producers the team has spent years building relationships with, and a meaningful share of it arrives by boat, planned months in advance. That timeline creates a challenge for a specialty shop: committing to a container of delicate, small-batch cheese long before knowing whether it will move fast enough once it's actually on the shelf.

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There was also a geographic ceiling on how far Formaggio's expertise could travel. Julia knows how tricky Boston traffic can be, and that plenty of would-be regulars in Somerville, Arlington, and beyond might decide a trip into Cambridge or the South End just wasn't worth the drive on a given week. Her shop had immaculately-sourced product and a wealth of stories, but it didn't have an easy way to put either in front of people who couldn't make it through the door.

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Creating a monthly proving ground

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Working with Table22, Formaggio Kitchen built a monthly Cheese Club that functions as both a subscription and a testing lab. Each edition brings three cheeses selected for that particular moment, chosen from the network of producers and affineurs Formaggio has spent decades cultivating, paired with tasting notes and the story of the maker behind each wheel. Members can add a bottle of wine chosen to complement the month's cheeses, or add on charcuterie and accoutrements for a full board.

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The club has become the fastest way for Formaggio to introduce cheeses the store has never carried before. A recent shipment featured four Quebec cheeses, three of which had never been sold in the store prior to going out to members.

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"It's just such a great way to introduce them to people and get immediate feedback. And we're excited about it. And then everyone else gets excited about it, and then we can bring it into the store more permanently."

— Julia Hallman, Owner, Formaggio Kitchen

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That built-in audience also changes what Formaggio is willing to import in the first place. Because the club guarantees a group of members who will taste and enjoy a given cheese, the team can commit to selections that would otherwise feel too risky for open shelf space.

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"Being able to have a group of people that we already know are going to be enjoying these cheeses, it provides us flexibility to bring in a lot of new and interesting cheeses without the pressure of saying, oh, this is a really delicate cheese that has to sell really fast. We can give them a cheese that they might never otherwise try in the United States."

— Julia Hallman, Owner, Formaggio Kitchen

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On the logistics side, Table22 handles the delivery network that lets Formaggio reach members well outside the range its own in-house delivery could ever manage. "The delivery service is just epic, “ Julia says. “Typically we do our own in-house delivery and we could never reach that number of people. That was absolutely amazing for us."

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Leaning into the creative process

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Every shipment includes a small card for each cheese, its name, a photo, and a description written the way Formaggio's cheesemongers talk about it on the floor. Members have started collecting them, ranking their favorites, and comparing notes with friends and family over the cheese itself.

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Julia describes this behavior as the best form of positive feedback. “The fact that something that we're doing is bringing people together and sharing this sort of special moment, that's everything," she explains.

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When asked about the biggest surprise around her club experience with Table22, she brings up how little friction there's been in running it. "Honestly, it's been surprising how easy it is," she says. “...More than anything, it's just been so fun and rewarding coming up with the themes every month and making the cards. We're all really invested in it.”

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Because Table22 takes on so many of the back-end logistics that would normally bog the process down, the team is free to get creative and focus on the storytelling they value most.

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More stories on the horizon

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Julia and her team keep using the club as the first stop for new, direct-import finds, letting member response decide what earns a permanent place in the case. That built-in audience means Formaggio can keep chasing the harder-to-justify cheeses, like the ones aged in repurposed forts and train tunnels, made in batches so small they might not come around again for a year. Thanks to their club, there's already a home waiting for them before the boat even docks.
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Our platform, your specialty wedges. Welcome to the club.