Let There Be Cheese - Wheelhouse Cheese & More

Wheelhouse Cheese & More in Maplewood, NJ is a vibey and fun cheeseshop in a neighborhood that has become a foodie destination. And they have DJs!

I recorded this late in 2025, when this podcast was still just a twinkle in my eye, but I was also writing an article about the Wheelhouse for Montclair Local News. So give it a listen to get some background and be sure to follow them on social media to stay on top of all of the tasty fun that happens over there!

Instagram: @wheelhousecheeseandmore

Website: www.maplewoodwheelhouse.com

* Montclair Local News: Maplewood Wheelhouse Cheese & More is a Vibe

Do you have a cheese question? Please send an email to askacheesequestion@gmail.com and I will respond and also include it in the next episode.

Follow me on Instagram @MarieFromage 

“Let There Be Cheese with Marie Fromage” is written, hosted, produced and edited by me, Mary Connolly. 

Super Special thanks to Kathryn Counsel and Margo Bruton for their podcasting guidance. 

The intro announcer is my dad, Dave Connolly.

The theme song “Right Along the Way” was written by me and Jack Licitra for the album “Blue Desire”, and it is performed by me on vocals, Jack Licitra on keyboards, Mark McCarron on guitar, Paul Page on bass, Mike Feldman on drums and The Peux Boys on horns. It was co-produced by me and Karl Hereim and engineered by Jim Malone at Little Big Horn Studios in NYC (now called "Little Big North" in Catskill, NY).

Transcript

Speaker 1 0:12

Welcome to Let There BE Cheese with your host, Marie Fromage. Late in 2025, when this podcast was still just mists in my mind, I sat down with the delightful Wheelhouse Cheese and More co-owner Leigh Friend for an article I was writing from Montclair Local News. The equally wonderful co-owner, Aaron Kurtz, was unfortunately not there that day. On this podcast, we do a deeper dive, so please give it a listen to learn more about this fantastic dynamic cheese shop that has DJs located in the culinary hotspot corner of Boyden and Jacoby in Maplewood, New Jersey. Hi Lee.

Speaker 1:02

Hi, thank you for coming in today.

Speaker 1 1:04

Thanks for taking the time to talk with me. So I first became acquainted with you in New York City. You had developed a name for yourself as the Queen of Cheese pairings. It was you did these fascinating pairings when you were uh cheese and pastry monger at uh Casellula in Hell's Kitchen.

Speaker 1:27

So how long were you there? Oh my gosh, I was there for a total of about 14 years. We were located in House Kitchen. We pioneered what I would consider the pairing of the cheese plate in New York City at the time in 2007.

Speaker 1 1:43

Absolutely.

Speaker 1:44

I happened to be lucky to come onto the team creatively early on and really just fall in love with cheese. I come from a pastry chef background, and cheese naturally kind of fits with all sorts of fun pairings. So I really got to utilize my culinary background as well. And then from there, you know, get involved with American Cheese Society beyond, but you know, there's nothing like New York City.

Speaker 1 2:12

Oh my gosh. And it was right off of 8th Avenue. Ninth Avenue. Ninth Avenue. It's right off of Ninth Avenue. I went there a lot, and it was this pocket-sized place that had so much energy. It was great. And you also wrote a book when you were there.

Speaker 2:25

I did, yeah. I co-wrote it with Brian Kaiser, the owner of Casellula, and we sell it in the shop here today. I still meet people who say, Oh my gosh, I have your book, or this will be a great gift. It's ended up all around the world. It's uh it's kind of wild because I wouldn't necessarily consider myself uh a writer, but to have a book and a physical, you know, recipe collection has really been an honor to share for years and years to come.

Speaker 1 2:53

People can recreate the experience at home.

Speaker 2:55

Yeah.

Speaker 1 2:56

That's great.

Speaker 2:57

Or at least and or at least get ideas on how to have fun with cheese. You can even just use it as a reference guide if you're not crafty in the kitchen. I always say pull out whatever's in your fridge or whatever's in your cupboard.

Speaker 1 3:09

Right. Yeah. There's the go-to's parents, the fig jam, you know. But you had some really interesting ones, like uh it was a pickled tomato one and popcorn, caramel popcorn and things like that. It was fascinating. Yeah. I learned so much just going there. It was such a great place. Thank you. So when did you transition from there to New Jersey?

Speaker 3:33

So this I'm a New Jersey native, and I had been working in Manhattan but living in Jersey City for a while. And then when the pandemic hit, I really sunk my roots and moved a little farther west and decided to make some changes that didn't include Manhattan anymore.

Speaker 1 3:56

I understand.

Speaker 3:58

Same.

Speaker 1 3:59

Yeah.

Speaker 4:00

I mean, I love to go there and play and and have fun and experience all the other creativity, but life was moving fast and you know, a little bit more space and to be closer to family was the goal.

Speaker 1 4:17

And your co-owner, the co-owner of this is Aaron Kurtz. Kurtz. How did you meet up with him? Uh well, the cheese world is quite small. Yes.

Speaker 4:28

And he and I met up at a cheese food show in October of 2019. Um, just kind of saying hi. And you know, we had known each other through different avenues. And we stayed in contact. And when the pandemic hit, you know, you kind of gather around. I reached out to a few other cheese professionals in New Jersey and said, What are you doing? I'm, you know, I'm kind of sitting at home. I don't do well idle. Can I come help? And Aaron, you know, said, Oh my gosh, I just started this little company called the Maplewood Wheelhouse, and I'm saving the cheese. Do you want to come spend some time with me? And so, you know, it just kind of naturally blossomed. Aaron has extensive knowledge in importing distribution, and I kind of come more from the creative side of things. So our brains really balance off each other and offer different skills. So perfect parent of it, exactly. Uh and so yeah, it's been about five years now that we've both been working together. And it's really blossomed in ways that I don't think I could have imagined becoming a small business owner now.

Speaker 1 5:50

Right.

Speaker 5:51

Yeah.

Speaker 1 5:51

That's amazing. Now he's he lives in Maplewood.

Speaker 5:55

He does, yeah. He's been in Maplewood for uh about 10 years now.

Speaker 1 5:59

And he started his cheese, he started the wheelhouse at the General Store and Shops on Springfield Avenue in Maplewood. And then you joined around that time? Exactly, yeah.

Speaker 6:11

The general store was a wonderful uh kind of jumping off point for us. Uh it's a co-retail space. It was a really uh still is a very creative, supportive energy for a small business and allowed us to kind of get our feet wet without investing too much financially, um signing leases, five-year leases, ten-year leases, big step for business. And you know, during the pandemic, we just all weren't sure what was ahead of us. So it's a great opportunity, and we really expanded from there.

Speaker 1 6:44

You moved from there over to South Orange to the Co-Lab.

Speaker 6:47

Uh actually, we had both places at the same time. Oh wow. So um, and the Co -Lab is a a little bit different model that was more of an incubator style.

Speaker 1 6:57

Uh-huh.

Speaker 6:57

So during that time there, we kind of really knew that we weren't supposed to be there forever. And we should start looking for real estate if that was in our future. So, and we already knew that we loved the area of Maplewood and South Orange. So we really just kind of started to put our feelers out and look around, see what retail space was available. Turns out there's not that much. Right. Right. But, you know, once we started really putting our feelers out, you just meet so many people in the community, and we were fortunate to meet the landlord here through some mutual friends who are now our neighbors. The Corner Slice, Pearla, Porta Rossa. They're all cheese lovers.

Speaker 1 7:44

Nice. So it's it seems like a foodie hub. Yeah. What is this neighborhood called?

Speaker 7:50

We uh we haven't come up with a name yet.

Speaker 1 7:52

Okay.

Speaker 7:53

I don't know. I mean, people have thrown her out a few, but I don't think anything has stuck really.

Speaker 1 7:58

Right.

Speaker 7:58

Um we're just kind of saying, you know, it's somewhere off of Newark Way or Boyden and Jacoby.

Speaker 1 8:03

Right. Yeah. I've heard Boyden and Jacoby.

Speaker 8:06

Yeah.

Speaker 1 8:06

Yeah. But it's great. I mean, you could go shopping, get your groceries, get some cheese, grab a slice of pizza, pick up dinner at the Italian place, or get some oysters.

Speaker 8:17

Yeah. Often when people come to this area, they're visiting multiple spots, which is uh kind of goes to the rising times, you know, exactly traffic. Yeah.

Speaker 1 8:28

That's great.

Speaker 8:29

It's been great.

Speaker 1 8:30

It's it's I love the area, so it's just kind of like this own little nook. Another part of Maplewood that I wasn't really aware of.

Speaker 8:38

Yes, yeah, downtown is crowded. And there's great business up, you know, down there. Yeah, totally.

Speaker 1 8:47

So the Wheelhouse I find is a little different from other cheese shops. It's got a little different energy, it's got the and more going on and a great sense of humor. So, like, I love when you walk in, you see the stand up for lactose tolerance board. That's fantastic.

Speaker 9:08

Yeah, we like to have fun with cheese. Yeah. I I think that having fun in what you do every day is really necessary. And while I um would consider myself a cheese expert, you know, I don't necessarily take myself too seriously. And I've always looked at that through food. But I think it's just a really, really fun industry in general. And why not be able to share that with our customers? So in building the shop, we wanted to make it a little bit more entertaining and uh, you know, welcoming, comforting when you walked in.

Speaker 1 9:48

And you could get more than cheese here.

Speaker 9:50

Yes.

Speaker 1 9:51

So you can get charcuterie, you can get sweets, different gorgeous chocolates. Those are Thomas Keller chocolates. That's another thing. And ice cream, and what is that Georgian candy?

Speaker 10:05

Uh, called Churchkhela.

Speaker 1 10:07

Yeah.

Speaker 10:08

Uh, I had discovered this living in Greenpoint Brooklyn in the Polish delis there. Uh, I mean, I had found not very good versions, and I thought, well, there has to be some good versions that aren't full of preservatives and colors. But it's a very popular kind of Middle Eastern candy, usually. And it is strung walnuts dipped in fruit jelly. And the fruit jelly comes in a couple different flavors, and it's more of like a portable fruit and nut snack.

Speaker 1 10:38

It's so unusual. I've never seen it anywhere else. And it goes so well with cheese. I paired it with a Stag cheddar recently. I'm like, this is perfect. The salty sweet kind of played off of each other.

Speaker 10:51

And the textures.

Speaker 1 10:52

Yeah, the textures, the crunch from the nuts.

Speaker 10:55

Yeah.

Speaker 1 10:55

It was it's so cool. So, you know, you have unusual things here too. But what else you do is different from regular cheese shops is the dine-in cart. Can you tell me more about that?

Speaker 11:08

Sure. So that really lends to my background in Casellula. You can come in, dine on a cheese plate, a charcuterie board. We do all day sandwiches, and then we do a couple seasonal items. We're starting to expand our toasts, savory and sweet. Um as an ex-pastry chef, we have quite a bit of sweets here and desserts. Um we serve a chocolate cafe soaked in heavy cream from three daughters bakeries. And then we have a specialty toast right now that is buttered toast with uh whipped ricotta, lemon curd, and champagne grapes. Wow. And those types of things, you know, we like to change in season with what's available. Uh, and that makes it fun. We don't have a lot of seeding, uh, but when you come in, it should feel very special and unique. And I think the community is very excited about it.

Speaker 1 12:01

I know I was when I came in here for the first time, I was like, oh my gosh, I could get one of her cheese plates paired with interesting things and sit down, and I could bring a bottle of wine and have that. Yeah, that's fan. And you've got this great patio in the back. So it's very cool. But I have a place to go with a friend that's unusual, and we can have a really nice evening.

Speaker 12:26

Thank you. Yeah, and it's you know, I do I think uh cheese and wine bar is uh kind of messy in the area.

Speaker 1 12:32

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 12:33

There's there's restaurants who do wine well and have cheese plates, but that kind of special little nook where you can bring your own and cozy out eat some cheese.

Speaker 1 12:44

Yeah, eats and cheese. Always an excuse to eat some cheese and the charcuterie. And I also had recently the melon. I didn't, the burrata was out, so I had it with the fresh ricotta. The melon and the prosciutto. Oh my gosh. We we killed that plate. It was so delicious.

Speaker 13:01

Thank you.

Speaker 1 13:02

So delicious. I'm gonna have that again today. I'm gonna you have an interesting melon I saw, like an orange honeydew.

Speaker 13:09

Yes, yeah. I've never had an orange honeydew before this, but I had had a green cantaloupe, which then once I saw the orange honeydew, I was like, yeah, extracts. Uh but yeah, we we change it up pretty often, you know. Seasonal is good, and we only have really kind of maybe five of these seasonal dishes at a time, in addition to our cheese plates and charcuterie boards. But it allows us to stay fresh and and fun, and they're usually very simple. I believe that if you start with great ingredients, you don't need to do much to doctor them up, you just let them shine.

Speaker 1 13:44

Exactly. Yeah. How do you find out about the unusual produce? Because you had an Italian melon the weeks ago. Like where did you find out about that stuff?

Speaker 13:54

Well, our purveyors really kind of showcase these things. Also, we do have uh some things from like the local farmers markets, uh not necessarily uh coming from other countries, but local is great. You know, we just do a little shopping. If you weren't able to make it to the farmers market, you can right now in season we have heirloom tomatoes and peaches and plums, and beautiful cherries.

Speaker 1 14:17

I saw also. Yeah, and you have those snack packs. Speak the cherries are in the fridge, and you also have these snack packs, these grab and go snack packs, which are cheese and something crunchy and yeah, little fixings, just yeah, you know, something that you could grab and go take, uh, even have a light lunch.

Speaker 14:36

We sell those snack packs also at Pallet Brewing, which is up the street, so they become really popular for people to just stop in and go to the pool.

Speaker 1 14:44

Right, exactly. It's perfect. And today I saw you had the chocolate cake as a takeaway. We always had the chocolate cake. Oh my goodness, that looks amazing.

Speaker 14:54

Yeah. That's actually a a nod to Casellula as well. We had a signature chocolate cake there. Really? Yeah, that we would pour heavy cream over. Oh so when we uh we opened up here, I said, I have to get somebody to recreate this for me. It was just decadent and delicious. And Erica, a three-daughters bakery, and I met at the General Store about five years ago, and I just love her desserts. Yeah, I just love her desserts, they're not too sweet.

Speaker 1 15:25

Right. Yeah, please. Yeah, wonderful. And another thing that you do different is you have a DJ feature. When did that start?

Speaker 15:36

Well, Aaron is a DJ as well. He always has been. He actually, before he was in cheese, he was in the music industry.

Speaker 1 15:44

Oh, really?

Speaker 15:44

Yeah. Oh, we know. And so he's always carried that passion. And when we saw this space, we had some room to play with, and I said, well, let's bring in turntables. And it has been a really, really kind of surprisingly fun, underlying, kind of cool thing to have in the business. Um, vinyl DJs are really excited. There is a difference, you know, of course. Digital DJs and vital DJs. And so that's Aaron's specialty. And turns out there's lines on locally.

Speaker 1 16:21

That's you have a whole series planned for the rest of August.

Speaker 16:25

We do. Yeah.

Speaker 1 16:26

Is that gonna carry on?

Speaker 16:27

It will carry on until the rest of the year. And then we'll also incorporate it in some of the events that we'll be doing. Have DJs during those events as well.

Speaker 1 16:36

That's great. And speaking of events, do you are you gonna be doing classes?

Speaker 16:42

Yes. We are just finalizing our fall calendar. One thing that is gonna be a five-part series is with Lum Cellers. We're gonna do an kind of all you can eat and drink cheese happy hour. That's less of a class, but more of a come have fun dance if you want to. There will be a DJ there as well.

Speaker 1 17:05

That sounds amazing.

Speaker 17:06

And then we'll have a huge spread of food and wines to just drink and mingle and social exactly.

Speaker 1 17:12

Oh, wonderful.

Speaker 17:13

Little instruction on that one, but that's okay. It's more about fun. Yeah.

Speaker 1 17:18

Learning and fun. Yeah. That's wonderful.

Speaker 17:20

And then we have a few uh winemakers who are gonna come into town with Hank Zona. He is a local uh wine uh guru, really. He's got a wine club, he does many classes, he travels, does wine conventions. But it's been really great to have him here. We've we recently did a Virginia winemaker event with him.

Speaker 1 17:40

Really?

Speaker 17:41

And so he's got another upstate New York producer coming in. Okay. So we'll do some events with him. And who else knows what will happen in the calendar?

Speaker 1 17:51

Well, how do you stay on top of that? How will people know about what's happening?

Speaker 17:54

Um social media, and then also we will be uploading these events on our website.

Speaker 1 17:58

Okay. Is there a mailing list that people can sign up for?

Speaker 18:02

Yes, and that is on our website as well.

Speaker 1 18:04

Okay, perfect. So finally, is there anything else you'd like people to know about the wheelhouse?

Speaker 18:11

Oh my goodness. Um it's just really that, you know, we're happy to be here. Thank you for all the love so far. It's been very organic and um really wonderful to share all of these special producers with our community. Um that's really where our passion comes from. So thanks for for letting us keep it wheel as we sit here at the wheelhouse and continuing to let us, you know, do more of it. So this is just the start.

Speaker 1 18:43

Well, thank you so much for sitting down, and I'm hoping that everybody comes running here to check you out, especially the events, the DJ events, that that sounds amazing. The social coming up. I'll be here, I'll be there for that. Yeah, thanks a lot, Lee.

Speaker 18:59

Thank you.

Speaker 1 19:02

That's it for now. Thank you for listening. Do you have a cheese question? Please send an email to ask a cheesequestion at gmail.com, and I will respond and also include it in the next episode. Let There Be Cheese with Marie Fromage is written, hosted, produced, and edited by me, Mary Connolly. Super special thanks to Katherine Counsel and Margo Bruton for their podcast and guidance. The intro announcer is my dad, Dave Connolly. The theme song Right Along the Way was written by me and Jack La citra for the album Blue Desire, and it is performed by me on vocals, Jack Lacitra on keyboards, Mark McCarron on guitar, Paul Page on bass, Mike Feldman on drums, and the Po Boys on Horns. It was co produced by me and Karl Hereim and engineered by Jim Malone at Little Bighorn Studios in New York City.