Each cheese has a story – Wedgewood’s newly opened brick-and-mortar is ready to tell them
By Matt Lardie | Photography by John Michael Simpson
Stepping inside the new Wedgewood Cheese Bar, you’re immediately greeted by the three glass-front cases stuffed to the brim with a dizzying array of cheeses, prosciuttos, salamis and more. Here, cheese is the raison d’être, the singular thread pulling the operation together, the gooey, creamy heart of the whole thing. You’ll forgive me for waxing poetic about cheese, but spend a few moments talking to Michelle Webb and Stevie Lee Webb, the big cheeses behind Wedgewood, and you’ll be daydreaming about Délice de Bourgogne or yearning for Yorkshire blue as well. As they celebrate their transition from a small counter inside Glasshalfull to their very own brick-and-mortar location, I caught up with the duo to chat about all things cheese.
For Stevie, the head cheesemonger at Wedgewood, it was a simple side gig that launched his love for cheese. While working in emergency medicine in New York City, he got a job as a cheesemonger at Brooklyn’s The Greene Grape on his days off. “I remembered not just how wonderful cheese can be but also the fantastic stories that live behind all of them,” he recalls, referring to his time spent working in restaurants in Britain. “Telling those stories and giving people little bits of wonderful cheese made me realize how much I enjoyed it. It was the best day of the week – no one got hurt, no one died. You can’t really give anyone any other food over a counter and see them light up instantly and be rapt with its tales. Is cheese addictive? No, but that experience is.”
For Michelle, a corporate communications background fed into a desire to do something more hands-on. “I’ve spent my entire 20-year career in health care communications, but my aspiration was always to take the skills and rigor that I developed in the corporate sector and bring them to a small business,” she says. “Not necessarily a restaurant that we owned, but hey, here we are.
“My expertise in cheese has really been built working with Stevie and the team so closely over the years and being incredibly drawn to the stories that each one tells,” Michelle continues. “As a communicator by trade, I’ve taken these stories and tried to transform cheese as an afterthought or a garnish to a main character. You see that in our social media, our blog, classes, menu, to the way we train our staff. People will remember the stories – not the hard [cheese] facts.”
The partnership with Glasshalfull was the perfect beginning. After all, who doesn’t love a good wine and cheese night? But as the popularity of what was then known simply as The Cheese Shop grew, it was clear there was enough of a craving for cheddar to sustain the business as its own entity.
“Wedgewood was always the goal, but we knew it had to evolve incrementally,” Michelle says, explaining the evolution. “The counter was a hit, but we knew we had a broader range, which included making great cheese and ingredients the center of a diner’s culinary experience. We outgrew our location at Glasshalfull very quickly … so when presented with an opportunity to expand in Carrboro, to be a part of a Brewer Lane revival with Cat’s Cradle opening another music venue across the street, and anchored in a community that is demanding a more sophisticated food and beverage scene, we jumped at the chance.”
That dream of a dining experience centered on cheese has now come to fruition. With the new space, including an impressive cheese counter, horseshoe-shaped bar and intimate dining room upstairs, Wedgewood is poised to become one of the premier culinary experiences of the Triangle. “Visually, Wedgewood is a tribute to a modern twist on British Wedgwood porcelain,” Michelle explains. “The traditional blue-and-white toile is refreshed with bright cerulean and lapis blue.
“Wedgewood is our vision at full horsepower,” she continues. “Let’s be honest, you can grab a cheese plate and a glass of wine at any restaurant, but few, if any, can dive deep into the makers, terroir, origin stories [and] historical and cultural context that helped get it to your plate.”
Diners experience that thought and care in dishes like the Caesar salad showered with bright orange Mimolette, or the pimento cheese made with Quicke’s English cheddar. And then there’s the “omaqueso,” a nod to the Japanese omakase style of coursed dining, an offer that it’s safe to say exists nowhere else in the Triangle, let alone the state. “There are different kinds of people who will walk in the doors, and the omaqueso is for someone who wants to be adventurous or just wants to be relieved of choosing,” Michelle said. “The omaqueso is composed of uniquely off-menu selections that rotate monthly with the season and are truly a surprise when they hit the table.”
After all this time spent envisioning Wedgewood, you’d think that Michelle and Stevie would need a break from cheese, but you’d be wrong. They still have time to gush about their current favorites. Michelle prefers Jake’s Nettle Gouda. “This cheese is made by an Amish family in upstate New York and is what we call ‘chicken soup cheese,’ full of herbaceous notes from nettle, parsley, chives, celery, garlic and pepper.” Look for it on the menu this fall.
As for Stevie, it’s Quicke’s cheddar. “It’s grassy, mineral-y, punchy and even hits you with a touch of horseradish at the end. It’s everything I love about British cheese, and it’s fun to watch people react to it at the counter or the bar, or when they taste our pimento cheese. It’s completely unexpected – cheddar that bites back.”
