Cheese is so essential to the human culinary experience that no one even knows when it was invented. Researchers have found evidence of cheese throughout all recorded history. But never in all those thousands of years have we had access to as much cheese as we do now, nor has any place had cheesier food than does modern-day New York City. Read on for examples, rated for total cheesiness (explained in the key below).
The Cheesiness Scale
Courtesy, Murray's Cheese
Cheese Towers
Cheese purveyor: Murray’s Cheese
Keys to the cheese: In our vertical city, we’re all used to looking up at massive edifices of concrete, glass and brick. Murray’s does the architects who built our skyline one better by constructing soaring tributes to the spirit of milkfat like the “Triple Cream Lover’s Tower” and the “Tasty Truffle Tower.” Dairy jungle where dreams are made of. Our cheese will make you feel brand new. —Jonathan Zeller
Photo: Jordan RathKopf
Cheeseboat
Cheese purveyor: Cheeseboat
Keys to the cheese: Though the traditional name of this Georgian specialty is khachapuri, “cheeseboat” is an apt nickname for the doughy canoe of melted, mozzarella-like sulguni cheese, crowned with an egg and a generous hunk of butter and baked into bread. The eponymous Williamsburg restaurant serving it offers variations incorporating the likes of like bacon, scallions and spinach—but the minimalist OG version floats our boat just fine. —Gillian Osswald
Courtesy, Clinton Hall
Doughnut Grilled Cheese
Cheese purveyor: Clinton Hall
Keys to the cheese: This popular gastropub, a mini-chain with locations in Brooklyn, the Bronx and Manhattan, serves plenty of savory burgers and snacks that pair with its wide range of craft beers. The most unusual (and Instagrammable) is this wacky mash-up that splits a glazed doughnut in half, covers it with melted mozzarella and then smashes it back together to form a crunchy, cheesy delight. Served photo-ready on a banana hook over a bowl of tomato soup that catches all the oozing cheese, it’s a mix of sweet and savory that will definitely get you lots of likes. —Brian Sloan
Courtesy, Marco Polo
Fettuccine al Vino Rosso
Cheese purveyor: Marco Polo Ristorante
Keys to the cheese: This simple pasta is one of the most flavorful dishes at Marco Polo, an old-school Italian restaurant in Carroll Gardens. Made by combining (usually) al dente pasta with tomato sauce that’s been cooked with wine, Marco Polo’s version is tossed inside into a giant hollowed-out wheel of Parmigiano Reggiano, which turns up gooey factor. —CP
Photo: Jen Davis
Fondue
Cheese purveyor: Le Fond
Keys to the cheese: This French restaurant serves cheese fondue on Tuesday nights. It’s a pot of molten Gruyère with bread, vegetables and fruit for you to dip into it. You can keep it vegetarian, or pay a few extra bucks for them to throw in a steak. Tuesdays also bring half-price bottles of wine. Hot, cheesy tip: as long as you call 24 hours ahead, you can get fondue any night of the week. —JZ
Photo: Al Rodriguez
Fried Cheese Curds
Cheese purveyor: Long Island Bar
Keys to the cheese: Some may like their curds squeaky and fresh, some in poutine smothering a bowl of fries, but we’d proffer a different whey: deep fried, with house-made French onion dip, and accompanying an immaculately made cocktail—best enjoyed sitting at the bar of this Atlantic Avenue lounge. They’re surprisingly light, an ideal balance of crispy and chewy, and the dip is fairly addictive. May as well order another batch. —Andrew Rosenberg
Courtesy, Cafeteria
Mac ’n’ Cheese
Cheese purveyor: Cafeteria
Keys to the Cheese: Imagine if you will your perfect macaroni and cheese. It’s gotta have a combination of textures, a crunchy exterior masking a velvety interior. It’s gotta have loads of cheese flavor that’s not too one-note. It’s gotta use cheese that melts properly, both in the dish and in your mouth. It might just be Cafeteria’s traditional version, a cheddar and fontina combo that’s baked to a golden brown. And if somehow it’s not, well, perhaps you’d prefer it with bacon and gouda, or truffle oil, or as a spring roll? Cause they’ve got those, too. —AR
Courtesy, Big Mozz
Mozz Sticks
Cheese purveyor: Big Mozz
Keys to the cheese: These are not your freezer section’s mozzarella sticks. They’re handmade with expertly stretched mozzarella, which means each bite gives you a satisfying—yet not onerous—Fruit by the Foot–length cheese pull. The well-seasoned crust isn’t a throwaway vehicle for cheese, either; it proves its worth by never detaching from its filling to become a hollow shell of dairy-less disappointment. —GO
Photo: Alexander Thompson
Raclette
Cheese purveyor: Raclette
Keys to the cheese: In keeping with its name, this tiny storefront restaurant on Avenue A serves up a variety of raclettes. For the uninitiated, raclette is a Swiss dish that involves melting massive wheels of raclette cheese under a heat lamp and then scraping it onto meats, vegetables and baguettes. It’s kind of a backward version of fondue. They even offer a second tableside scrape later, for those with an especially acute thirst for cheese. —BS
