Surfas fills hole with cheese counter

You know that gaping hole that used to greet you near the registers at Surfas in Culver City, where the coffees used to be? Well, it was filled, finally, last week -– with cheese. After weeks of construction, a gleaming new cheese and charcuterie counter is now open for business, its own island in the expansive specialty food and restaurant supply store.

Tucked near the freezer case, it’s staffed by cheese-o-philes eager to give you a taste of any one of the 80 cheeses in stock, including ripe Delices de Bourgogne, a cocoa-rind Cardona goat’s milk cheese from Carr Valley Cheese in Wisconsin, and my current favorite, a smoky, nutty Gouda-style called Vlaskaas, from the Dutch company Beemster. A small selection of charcuterie, which includes Fra Mani salumi and jamon iberico, will expand in the coming weeks.

Plenty of those cheeses and meats were employed in Surfas Cafe, which is where they had been displayed until recently. “Yeah, they sort of got lost in there,” says executive chef Brandi Quinn. “It made much more sense to have them in the store; the flow seemed better.”

After you’ve tasted a dozen or so samples, wander over to the restaurant supply section of the store, and consider which handsome cheese board you may wish to arrange them on for your Christmas spread, and which tool might be best suited to slice them with.

Surfas, 8777 W. Washington Blvd., Culver City; (310) 558-1458; www.surfasonline.com.

–- Patrick Comiskey

Photo credit: Surfas

Comments

[Alice Ormstead]

What I hate about buying cheese, is having some know it all counter person shoving information down my throat. At first I thought the new cheese counter at Surfas would be the same.

Boy was I wrong. I stopped by Surfas just to get a few jars of Italian Tuna. As I entered the store a nice young man named David asked me if I wanted to try a something amazing, that tasted like caramel cake frosting. Oh my God! He introduced me to triple creams, I bought two. Then I tasted an aged gouda he said tasted like butterscotch. It did! I bought that too. I also bought a goat cheese covered in rosemary, and a little tiny morsel of provolone, he called "gateway cheese". Like a gateway drug. Lol!

We then went shopping for wines to pair with the cheese. Again, no hard sell, just flavors that work well together, at very reasonable prices!

I can't wait to go back!

The funny thing is, when I got about halfway home, I realized I had forgotten to get my tuna.

[FoodieInDisguise]

I was at Surfas on Friday, November 21st and the cheese counter was up and running then. Wonderful cheeses and knowledgeable people behind the counter. I love Surfas and try to get up there from the OC as often as I can!