Getting Started
In 2003, Dammeier launched the Seattle flagship store in Pike Place Market. By 2008, when that business began to reach capacity, Dammeier began thinking of what he could do next that would have maximum impact. "Because of our mission, I wanted to go where people were," Dammeier recalls, and thus came the unlikely idea of dropping a creamery in the heart of Manhattan. In 2011, using the successful Seattle
model, current and former Beecher's employees were sent to New York to estab- lish the business and make it their own. Among the recruits was Sarah Jennerjahn, then general manager at Bennett's, who eventually became general manager for the full Manhattan operation. Dan Utano, a trained cheesemaker who had worked under the original Beecher's lead cheesemaker, Brad Sinko, signed on as production man- ager. Beecher's doors opened, in the land- mark Goelet Building at 900 Broadway, on June 24, 2011. What began as a larger copy of an
existing store quickly became its own. "We basically spent the first six months we were open working through every single kink that came up," says Utano. Having found its footing, the new store has become more of a collaborator with the original, rather than an outpost, and the two locations are
STORE STATS
Beecher's Handmade Cheese 900 Broadway
New York, NY 10003 212.466.3340
beechershandmadecheese.com
Store size: 8,000 square feet Sales distribution:
55% café, 45% The Cellar Total SKUs (excluding cheese): about 100
Average transaction at retail: $10–$13
8 oz. boxes of our best selling products! 10% Off
Any Wholesale order placed in Nov/Dec.
Source code 12WHSF11 WHOLESALE ORDERS: (888) 482-NUTS (6887) t FAX (757) 899-2281
www.vadiner.com t wholesale@vadiner.com 322 Main Street t Wakefield, VA 23888-2940 USA
Winter Fancy Food Show Booth 1673 NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2012 35
in constant contact. "We borrow, take and share ideas so that we can both be as effi- cient as possible."
Little Creamery, Big City Glass walls and windows surround the cheesemaking equipment on all sides, giving
patrons (and even passersby) full view of the operation. The production team demon- strates, day in and out, a practice that is as pure and meticulous as it is ancient, dating back 5,000 years. A bar lined with stainless steel milk lunchgoers to
cans–turned-stools invites