Sign In
Level Up: Sign In for a Shot at Exciting Rewards!
From aged French imports to domestic artisan favorites — Village Market’s cheese department is Metro Detroit’s most impressive, curated by a team that loves cheese as much as you do.
There’s a moment that happens to almost everyone who visits Village Market for the first time. You walk over to the cheese department, see the selection, and realize you’re not in a grocery store cheese aisle — you’re in a genuine cheese destination. Over 200 varieties, spanning every major style, origin, and milk type imaginable, curated by a team that has made cheese a serious practice.
For residents of Grosse Pointe Farms, Grosse Pointe Park, Grosse Pointe Woods, and the surrounding Metro Detroit area, this is something genuinely rare. The region doesn’t lack for good food — but a cheese counter with this range and depth, staffed by people who can actually talk you through the difference between an aged Comte and a young Beaufort, or explain why the funk in a properly ripened Epoisses is a feature and not a flaw? That’s a resource worth knowing about.
This guide is our invitation into that world. Whether you’re building your first serious charcuterie board, looking to explore beyond the familiar, or trying to recreate a restaurant experience at home, it starts here — at 18330 Mack Ave.
Cheese is organized by texture and production method, and understanding these categories makes navigating any serious cheese counter significantly easier. Here are the major families you’ll encounter at Village Market — and what each offers.
Young, high-moisture cheeses with gentle, milky flavors. Soft-ripened varieties like Brie develop a bloomy white rind and creamy, mushroomy interior as they age. Fresh chèvre and burrata offer pure, clean dairy flavor — perfect as a canvas for other ingredients.
Supple, often buttery cheeses that melt beautifully and carry mild to moderate flavor. Taleggio offers a washed rind with deep savory complexity beneath a gentle exterior. Fontina Val d’Aosta is nutty and earthy — a classic for fondue and grilled applications.
The backbone of any cheese board. Aged semi-hard cheeses develop extraordinary complexity — caramel sweetness, nuttiness, crystalline texture from tyrosine deposits. Village Market’s selection here is particularly deep, with multiple ages and origins available side by side.
Complex, pungent, and misunderstood. Great blue cheese is a study in balance — the sharpness of Penicillium roqueforti tamed by rich, creamy paste and careful curing. From the mild, buttery softness of Gorgonzola Dolce to the intense mineral character of aged Roquefort, the range is remarkable.
American cheesemaking has undergone a transformation over the past three decades. Today’s domestic artisan producers are producing world-class aged Cheddars, stunning goat cheeses like Cypress Grove’s Humboldt Fog, and washed-rind originals that rival European imports.
The kings of the cheese world. Long-aged, low-moisture cheeses with intense umami depth and complex crystalline textures. A genuine 24-month Parmigiano-Reggiano or a 5-year Gouda eaten on its own, with a drizzle of honey, is one of food’s great simple pleasures.
A well-composed cheese board is one of the most flexible and universally appreciated ways to entertain — it’s endlessly scalable, requires no cooking, and gives your guests something to explore and discuss. The fundamentals are simple once you understand the principles.
“A great cheese board isn’t about having the most expensive cheese — it’s about building contrast: soft and hard, mild and bold, familiar and surprising.”
For most gatherings, 3–5 cheeses is the sweet spot. Fewer than three limits variety; more than five can overwhelm. The key is range across flavor intensity and texture, not just quantity. A simple, reliable formula: one fresh or soft-ripened, one semi-hard with some age, one hard and complex, and one wildcard — something that starts a conversation.
The best cheese pairings share a region, a principle, or a complementary contrast. Matching a wine from the same region as a cheese is rarely wrong — there’s a reason Champagne and Brie, Sauternes and Roquefort, and Barolo and Parmigiano-Reggiano became traditions. Village Market’s 900+ bottle wine cellar is right there to complete the picture.
Pair with light-bodied, fruit-forward reds like a Pinot Noir, or a classic Champagne. The effervescence cuts through the cheese’s richness and cleans the palate beautifully.
Full-bodied whites like aged white Burgundy or Chenin Blanc, or a structured red with low tannin — aged Barolo or Nebbiolo. The nut and caramel notes in the cheese echo the wine’s complexity.
Sweet wines are the classic match — Sauternes, Barsac, or a tawny Port. The sweetness of the wine tames the sharpness of the blue and creates a genuinely transcendent contrast.
Crisp, mineral whites — Sancerre, Muscadet, or a lean Grüner Veltliner. The tangy, citrus notes in fresh chèvre sing alongside the wine’s acidity and mineral backbone.
A strong ale, Trappist beer, or an Alsatian Gewürztraminer matches the cheese’s bold, funky character without being overwhelmed by it.
Great cheese deserves to be served at its best. A few simple habits make a visible difference in the experience you put on the table.
Cold suppresses flavor. Every variety of cheese — from a fresh Brie to a hard aged Gouda — tastes significantly better at room temperature. Remove your cheese from the refrigerator at least 30–45 minutes before serving. For larger boards at a dinner party, an hour is ideal. You’ll taste the difference immediately.
Different cheese textures require different cutting tools. Soft, high-moisture cheeses like Brie or Gorgonzola need a thin, flexible blade — or a wire cutter — to avoid sticking and tearing. Hard cheeses like Parmigiano are best broken into irregular chunks with a wedge-shaped chisel. Semi-hard cheeses like Manchego and Comté slice cleanly with a broad, flat blade.
If you’re serving guests who don’t know what they’re eating, small labels next to each cheese transform a board into an experience. Name the cheese, its origin, and its milk type. It invites conversation and helps guests remember what they loved — so they can come back to Village Market and ask for it by name.
Village Market’s cheese department is one of the most impressive in Michigan — 200+ varieties of artisan, imported, and specialty cheese from around the world, curated by a team that is as serious about what they carry as our customers are about what they buy.
200+ Varieties — Our cheese selection spans every major style and origin: locally sourced and domestic artisan, French and Italian imports, Spanish classics, American originals, aged rarities, and seasonal selections that rotate throughout the year.
Curated Imported Selection — We import from France, Italy, Spain, Switzerland, the UK, and beyond — including AOC and DOP protected varieties whose flavor is inextricably tied to their place of origin. If you’ve tasted a great cheese abroad, we likely carry something equivalent or better.
American Artisan Champions — Our domestic selection highlights the best American producers making world-class cheese right now — from Vermont and Wisconsin to California and the Pacific Northwest.
900+ Bottle Wine Cellar — Complete your cheese board with the perfect pairing from our walk-in, temperature-controlled wine cellar. Our team loves a pairing conversation — come in and talk to us.
Same-Day Delivery via Instacart — Our cheese department is available on Instacart for same-day delivery to Grosse Pointe, Grosse Pointe Park, Grosse Pointe Woods, and surrounding Metro Detroit communities. Order by noon and you could be building a board by afternoon.
200+ varieties of artisan and imported cheese delivered to your door across Grosse Pointe and Metro Detroit. Board-ready in hours, not days.
Start with range, not difficulty. A reliable first board: a triple cream Brie for the crowd-pleasers, a 12–18 month Comté for those who want something with more character, and a mild blue like Gorgonzola Dolce for the adventurous. Add some honey, a fruit jam, and crackers. The Village Market cheese team can build this board with you in minutes — come in and ask.
Yes — Village Market’s team actively curates local and regionally sourced products, including Michigan-made cheeses alongside our broader domestic American artisan selection. Availability varies seasonally. Ask at the counter for our current local selections.
For a cheese board as an appetizer or cocktail hour accompaniment, plan for 1.5–2 oz of cheese per person total (across all varieties). As a standalone cheese course after dinner, 2–3 oz per person. For a party where cheese is the centerpiece and people will return for more, 3–4 oz. When in doubt, go slightly generous — leftover cheese is never a bad problem to have.
Yes — Village Market partners with Instacart for same-day delivery across Grosse Pointe and surrounding Metro Detroit. Our cheese department items are available through the platform. Order and receive your delivery in as fast as one hour.
With aged hard cheeses, small spots of surface mold can usually be trimmed off — the interior is still safe and delicious. With soft and fresh cheeses, trust your senses: any ammonia smell (beyond the expected slight pungency of a washed-rind), pink or black discoloration, or a texture that has become slimy rather than creamy are signals to discard. When in doubt, ask the Village Market team — we’re happy to talk through storage and freshness.
Visit our cheese department at 18330 Mack Ave, Grosse Pointe Farms — or order for same-day delivery through Instacart. Our team is here to help you find exactly what you’re looking for.