Where to buy cheese in Rhode Island
Wedge cheese shop, on Water Street in Warren, opened in December.HANDOUT
Wedge
“We both moved here from the Boston area — and I definitely think the restaurants are better in Rhode Island than Boston — but it seemed like there was nowhere with a comparable quality to buy things to make things at home, and if you were going to have people over,” said Sasha Goldman, who met her future business partner, Chelsea Morrissey, through their daughters (Goldman has two, Morrissey three, ranging in age from 6 to 14). Goldman settled in Barrington with her young family, and soon discovered the diverse, bountiful flavors of neighboring Warren. “Warren felt like a culinary destination, and it felt like a hub of really interesting small businesses. Ninety percent of them are women-owned, which is very cool,” said Goldman.
When she and Morrissey spotted a commercial-use cottage on bustling Water Street, the cheese wheels started turning. “We basically saw the space for rent and thought it was meant to be. It just seemed like the perfect spot,” explained Goldman. Wedge opened in December, and while it stocks imported staples like Parmigiano-Reggiano, the two women have intentionally sought out curious, off-the-beaten path cheeses from small, Northeast-based makers. “We want people to come here and feel it is a place where they can make a culinary discovery,” said Goldman. She points to a cheese they source from coastal Maine, “Rockweed,” made by Lakin’s Gorges Cheese in Waldoboro. “[It] has seaweed down the middle because the woman who makes it, her farm is right on the water, and she harvests local seaweed and she wanted her cheese to have a sense of place, so that kind of thing.”
Wedge has also ventured into collaborative projects with cheesemongers. This spring, they partnered with High Lawn Farm, a family-owned dairy farm in the Berkshires, to create “Berkshire Road,” a limited release clothbound cheddar that will be available at the shop…
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