Cheese Shop, Curds & Co Open In Brookline Village

BROOKLINE, MA — Brookline Village just got a new co working space and a new burger joint and now it's getting a cheese shop. Jenn Mason, owner of Curds & Co is moving into the space right down from Cutty's. The opening of her shop highlights a trend that's happening in the village.

Mason, a Brookline resident, said she's excited about helping Brookline become a foodie destination - and help educate people about artisan cheese along the way.

"Our mission is bringing great cheese and happiness to the people," she said. "In a non intimidating way."

Mason, whose children went to Pierce and who are now about to graduate from Brookline High School, said she knew she wanted to open up shop in the village as long as she's known she wanted to have a cheese shop. And even when nothing was looking available in Brookline and folks were encouraging her to try opening up shop, in places like Newton or Wellesley, she held out.

"Brookline is my people," she said. "I love Brookline Village. I love that the crossing guard still remembers my name and she knows all of us and the dog's name. I love the pedestrian neighborhood," she said.

And now she's excited to walk the couple of blocks to work year round. "I can come open the cheese shop in the Winter, we live so close," she said.

(For more information on this and other neighborhood stories, subscribe to Brookline Patch to receive daily newsletters and breaking news alerts.)

How it started

The self proclaimed foodie said whenever she and her family have traveled —be it across the country to Seattle or across the world to Finland — they've tried to incorporate a culinary food tour, and the cheese stops had always been a favorite.

"We've been working our way up to 'cheese nerd' status," she said.

And along the way the businesswoman has had a goal in the back of her mind."Some people want to climb mount Everest, I wanted to start my own business," she said.

So the past few years she's been working to figure out what kind of business could she utilize her skills and be a topic could that would keep her busy, focused and challenged.

Cheese was a natural fit.

"Cheese is really a good place. There's no end to what you can learn about cheese, but also I think we're on the cusp of having a Renaissance here in the states. We're so behind Europe on how we eat it," she said.

Glorious cheese

She's learned by talking with people and doing consumer research, people tend to be intimidated by cheese. "We've talked a lot of people about what cheese stores they go to, what they buy," she said. The good news is that people love going to cheese stores and the idea of cheese stores. That's evidenced by comments on the Brookline Patch Facebook page whenever a store closes in town, invaribly a number of people ask for a cheese shop. But many say that when they go into a cheese store they feel overwhelmed and intimidated.

"So we want to turn that around and hopefully make all the local cheese stores benefit from it," she said.

Step one is helping take the jargon out when speaking to visitors. Another is helping to make it an experience equivalent to demystifying art.

"We have open studios for art, not really for cheese," she said. "Why not?"

She plans on hosting events and classes - not just to learn about cheese but also just for fun. "We're going to have a choose your own adventure sensory cheese class," she said. (Think: date night where instead of someone telling you what goes well with what cheeses, she'll set up a number of possibilities and you can figure out what works for your palate.

Neighborhood haunt

And more than that, she hopes the shop, which will seat about a dozen at a communal table, where they'll have cheese sandwiches for sale and cheese plates for a lunch crowd, will become a community gathering place. Her daughters both about to graduate this year from BHS, have been helping with the shop and she expects students from the high school will come hang out for the wifi and the grilled cheese at lunch time.

"I want people to say, oh let's go meet up at Curds & Co," she said.

She opens shop at a time when folks can also go to Allium Market or the Butcherie or Green Line Grown for cheese, not to mention Trader Joe's or Whole Foods. But she's not worried.

"We think we're not competing, we're really raising the tide. We're going to teach people how to eat cheese at breakfast and at lunch and how to work it into a snack. It's really a healthy thing to have," she said.

And she said she's excited about working with places like Foodie Asylum and the Olive Connection and other area specialty stores.

Expect in the shop, some 200 different food items that don't include the cheese or meat and she deals directly with the local business owners who make those items. The bread for her cheese plates and grilled cheese comes from Clearflour and she'll have some to sell, as well for folks who don't want to make the trip across town to the shop near Packard's Corner.

She's already been working with the owners of Cutty's and plans to be open once a month on Sundays, in conjunction with Cutty's Clucking Sundays with their own special event.

She plans to open the shop sometime next week and then the grand opening is slated for Sept 6.

In the mean time, she says she's had a lot of faces pressed up against the window looking in and has overheard them get excited about the shop and between those excited comments and the help she says she's received from the town, it's kept her feeling excited throughout the hefty process of opening her own business.

"I think it's just really our goal is to be friendly and bringing happiness and cheese to the people," she said. "And to be the least intimidating cheese shop on the planet. It's a big audacious goal but I think we can do it."

Mason, who's lived in Brookline for about a decade and was a board member at Brookline Arts, comes by way of University of Michigan, Startup Institute, and the Cheese School of San Francisco. brings an unusual set of skills she’s written 6 books and was an editorial director, she’s taught all over the US, on PBS, and has had her own television show. She’s also led video, book, website and immersion room projects.

RELATED:

• Allium Market Brings Specialty Grocery Store To Coolidge Corner
• Foodie Asylum Brings Artisan Food To Brookline Village
• Best Burger Open In Brookline Village
• Co-Work Space Expands to Brookline Village
• Cutty's to Become Bigger and Better
• Brookline Grown Now Open for Business

Photo: Courtesy of Jenn Mason