Salty. Smooth. Sharp. Smoky. Many of the words applied to the selections at Murray's Cheese could also describe its owner, Rob Kaufelt, the longtime proprietor of the shop that has been on Bleecker Street since 1940. That stretch of Bleecker in Greenwich Village, between Sixth and Seventh avenues, still includes Ottomanelli Brothers butcher shop, Faicco's Italian Specialties and Pasticceria Rocco's sweets. The block provides a taste of Old New York of which Kaufelt is very proud.
“We're taking the neighborhood national,” he said in November, on the occasion of the opening of the 241st Murray's cheese stand inside a supermarket—this one in Portland, Ore.
Murray's widest distribution is with Kroger, the Ohio-based supermarket chain, in 11 states. There are now mini-Murray's in 30 states, including its second New York outpost, in Grand Central Market, and the company's annual sales top $250 million. That's a significant share of the $3.7 billion gourmet cheese market, according to the Specialty Food Association, which pegs cheese at the top of the fast-growing, $100 billion artisanal food industry.
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