In our wanderings last week, petitesoeur and I also found Beecher's Cheese. I love the smell that hits you upon walking into cheese shops. I had heard of Beecher's, but I had no idea the place was so huge! In addition to the cases of cheese and shelves of food accompaniments and gifts, there's also a lunch counter that serves grilled cheese sandwiches (naturally), salads, and other prepared foods with an upstairs mezzanine seating area. They also make cheese on the premises.
And downstairs, there's a bar called The Cellar with clever cocktails named for notorious New York miscreants (click to enlarge the menu) to read the descriptions, with bar food -- mac and cheese (again, naturally), charcuterie, and small plates.Of course we couldn't help tasting some cheese and taking some home. Coffee junkie petitesoeur naturally gravitated toward the Beehive Buzzed -- a cow's milk cheese rubbed with coffee and lavender. What a unique flavor! The combination was really striking -- after more tastes, you could taste the 2 separate flavors of coffee and lavender, but the blend really worked and was surprisingly delicious. The Carr Valley Cocoa Cardona also caught my eye - goat cheese rubbed with cocoa powder and aged 2 months. I went home with a chunk of each.
Beecher's Handmade CheeseFlatiron District
900 Broadway
New York, NY 10003
212.466.3340
Another fine addition to the Four Seasons in Baltimore is LAMILL Coffee, originally from LA. While the coffee is excellent, an added bonus is that pastry chef Chris Ford is responsible for most of the items on the menu.
One of my favorites is hot beignets with your choice of dips. I end up getting the Meyer lemon curd all the time.
I also recomment the delicious cinnamon brioche.
I have been dreaming of an amazing sandwich we had recently at Touch of Italy in Rehoboth Beach over Memorial Day weekend. The Joe Special was simple, yet perfect -- just prosciutto with fresh ricotta and extra virgin olive oil on semolina bread. At Touch of Italy, they bake their own bread, and we were lucky enough to get a sandwich on a freshly baked still warm loaf. It was probably the best thing I've eaten in a long time.
So when I saw fresh ricotta from Salvatore Bklyn at Beecher's, I grabbed a tub with the idea of making the Joe Special at home. Salvatore Bklyn makes their ricotta by hand in small batches daily -- the texture is dense and creamy, the flavor is of rich whole milk with a hint of lemon. It's absolutely amazing and I could have probably eaten the whole tub with a spoon. But semolina bread and cured meat was calling.
Coffee fanatic Petitesoeur had read about this place on Serious Eats -- a one-man vertically-integrating coffee roasting operation run by 24-year-old César Martin Vega. He imports the coffee (all from Nicaragua, where his family is from), roasts it, delivers it (on his bike!), and serves it cupped to order at his Café Integral, located within American Two Shot -- a clothing store in Soho.
Intrigued by the other blends we bought a sampler set. He sells his coffee in 12-ounce Ball jars - which are refillable and more sustainable than paper bags. For the sampler, you get three 4-ounce Ball jars - one of each varietal. Petitesoeur took home two, and I took home the jar of Maracaturra, which was very a delicate coffee. I could drink it black (and I am not generally a black coffee drinker).
I had a conference to go to in Gettysburg, PA, so on the way home we made a point to stop at Stoudt's Brewing Company and Black Angus Restaurant, which is right off Route I-76, between Reading and Lancaster PA.
I was happy with housemade cheese from their own Wonderful Good Market. We got three to try -- the Elderbritch, an aged cow's milk cheese (from local pasture grazed cattle) named after a PA Dutch prank in which grown-ups would send kids out to hunt for the elusive imaginary Elderbritch; the Ferdinand, a trappist monk-style cheese steeped in Stoudt's own Fat Dog Stout; and the best one -- the Fresh Eliana, a soft Italian-style cheese like a brined Mozzarella. The cheeses were served with walnuts and a spiced apple chutney (which, though tasty on its own, was a little overpowering for the cheese). The homemade bread, also from their own Wonderful Good Market was also great.
The Stoudt family have a full complex on their 62-acre farm there with the brewing company next to the Black Angus Restaurant and Pub. There's also a banquet hall for large events like weddings. Behind that is the Wonderful Good Market and Black Angus Antique mini-mall, and across the street from the market is Stoudtburg Village -- modeled after a Bavarian hamlet, with shops and 60 residential units. Must be a nice place to live if you're a big Stoudt's beer drinker to just stumble right home.
Saro Bistro is a tiny place in the Lower East Side serving old world Balkan cuisine. The restaurant is named after the chef's Bosnian grandmother Saro. The place is charming -- the wait staff like to tell you about the chef and his grandmother, and the type of rustic cuisine they serve. Perhaps they're even part of the family - they certainly don't seem like pros. 
For main dishes, we shared the kale pappardelle, which had both kale in the pasta and sauteed kale and snap peas and plenty of white truffle oil. The fresh homemade pasta was really nice, and the greens were wonderful. We also shared the rabbit duo -- smoke pork crusted loin, braised rabbit legs, braised red cabbage, and root vegetable puree with rabbit jus. I also liked the homey dinnerware that everything was served on.
The food is simple, but delicious - I would definitely go back.