Ideal Cheese
Sutton Place
942 First Ave.
at E.52nd St.
P: 212.688.7579
An excellent cheese monger with a commitment to quality, choice and service. In addition to its impressive selection of cheeses, they also sell an edited number of excellent grocery items, including olive oils, non-cheese dairy products like yogurt, crackers and crisp breads, olives, Marcona almonds, and cheese accessories and serving pieces.
What's great:
They sell many blue cheeses, from several different countries, some of which you may know but others are less familiar so be bold and try something new. Plus they keep all the blue cheeses separate in their own chilled case.
They offer a large variety of goat cheeses plus superior quality cow and sheep cheese, both domestic favorites and imported, from both major and small producers. For example, a recent offering was fresh ricotta from Dancing Ewe Farm in upstate New York.