Welcome to Zingerman’s Creamery’s Cheese Shop, the only place in town that you can get hand-made cheeses and gelato mere feet from where they were born.  We are proud to offer not only our own products but also great cheeses, dry goods, and charcuterie from our favorite producers around the world.

We truly believe that you can really taste the difference in the products we make and sell and invite you to come on down and see for yourself.  As always, we encourage you to taste anything you see that perks your interest and if you aren’t completely satisfied with your purchase, we will do what ever it takes to make you happy.

Things We Like to Eat

Here are just a few things in the Cheese Shop that we all are loving.

Bacon

We have much-love for bacon at the Creamery, so we dedicated enough space in our little case for 3 kinds from all around the Midwest.  There’s applewood-smoked Nueske’s from Wisconsin, hickory-smoke Benton’s from Tennessee, and peppercorn-crusted Ozark Trails from Texas.  They all have their own character, are thick-cut and full of flavor.

Martelli Pastas

The Martelli family makes these fantastic pastas in the tiny Tuscan town of Lari.  They insist on using only the hardest durum wheat flour and extrude their pasta through a traditional bronze die, allowing it to firmly grip the sauce.  The Martellis give their pastas plenty of time to dry thoroughly and this is one of the most important steps.  The slow dry makes the texture nice and chewy and the flavor more intense.  These pastas are not a mere vehicle for the sauce, but have wonderful flavor even by themselves.

Available in 1.1 lb. bags of i Maccheroni and gli Spaghetti for $10.99 each.

The Creamery’s Pimento Cheese

Okay, this isn’t a new one.  But, this rich and savory Southern tradition has laid some pretty deep roots in Ann Arbor over the past few years.  Made with 2-year raw milk cheddar, sweet roasted Spanish red peppers, cayenne, sea salt, and Telicherry peppercorns, pimento cheese is becoming quite the cult phenomena around town.  This is one of the few things you can find across several Zingerman’s businesses and rarer stll, each one of us makes it ourselves.  The recipes are simil

ar but each of us puts our own little spin on it.   Which is the best?  Only you can be the judge and nothing sounds better to me than going on a pimento cheese tour of the ZCoB.  Just be sure to arm yourself with enough Bakehouse soft pretzels to get you through the day…

The Ypsi

While this one hasn’t technically just arrived, the last several batches are probably the best we’ve ever tasted.  Everything seems to have come together thanks to a few tweaks made by our diligent cheesemakers.  The Ypsi is our take on the traditional French crottin.  They have a wonderfully creamy texture when young which develops into a firm, fudgey paste with a few weeks of age.  Definitely give this one a taste the next time you are in the cheese shop.

Mozzarella Classes are almost here. Beginning Saturday, 9/11, come learn from the masters of mozzarella how to make your very own fior di latte, from scratch. You will learn how to make curd from milk, which you will stretch into your own hand-made balls. You will also stretch three regional Italian styles of mozzarella from finished curd that will transform your notion of how mozzarella is meant to be eaten!

If interested, call the Creamery at (734) 929-0500 and we’ll get you all signed up!

Mozzarella Classes – Saturdays 12 – 2:30 pm – $60/person

September through May

August Cheese of the Month – Sharon Hollow

Sharon Hollow

Made from fresh local cow’s milk, there is no cheese quite like the Sharon Hollow being made anywhere else in the country.  The production technique is simple and traditional, a little rennet is added to the newly-arrived milk from Calder Dairy to set up the curd.  Once set, we hand-cut and ladle the curds into small round forms, interlacing scoops with fresh garlic and cracked Telicherry peppercorns, or garlic and chives, and allow them to drain.

Come on into the Cheese Shop on a Wednesday afternoon and you can treat yourself to a Sharon Hollow fresh out of the mold.  They are pleasantly tangy with a fresh, milky flavor perfectly accentuated by the herbs.  Try them stuffed into pasta shells and baked in homemade sauce, crumbled onto scrambled eggs or in an omelet, folded into mashed potatoes, crumbled on some Syaracuse salt potatoes, or simply on a toasted bagel.

All month long, get either flavor of Sharon Hollow for only $4.99!

Coming up in September, top honors are going to our first product, Real Cream Cheese!

Great Lakes Cheshire is Back

After a bit of a hiatus, our one-an-only raw cow’s milk cheese has made a triumphant return to our cheese counter.  These babies are just of legal age, nice and mild and easily accessible with enough character to please a hardened cheese afficianado.

Supplies are just a little bit limited as we wait for several more to reach the proper age, but I’m pretty sure if you are a fan of our first hard cheese, we’ll be able to help you out.  Only available at the Creamery right now, soon to be found everywhere!  $26.99/lb.

September 19th:  A Taste of Michigan!

Celebrate the bounty of Michigan-made and Michigan-grown foods with us on September 19th at 4pm.  There’s a small but burgeoning cheese-scene here in the Third Coast and this is your chance to taste what the state has to offer!  Michigan Cheese Makers Cooperative President, and gelato-whiz, Josh Miner will join us to discuss his role at the Coop and delve more deeply into the types of cheeses being produced in Michigan and the folks who make them.  And, of course, what’s great local cheese without some fine local fruits and other goodies to pair with them?  We will have a cornucopia of flavors from the Ann Arbor Farmers Market and and more to pair with some home-grown cheeses.

Reserve your spot: 734-929-0500
Sunday, September 19th, at 4pm.  $25 per person.

Coming next month – Apples & Cheese!

Farmer’s Market Season

There are few things more enjoyable than an early morning stroll through a bustling farmers market.  As markets become more and more prevalent around the country, we are reminded just how luck we have been to have so many great ones in Southeastern Michigan for so long.  From the beginning of the Creamery, farmers markets have been a huge part of what we do.  Well, tis the season for farmers markets, for sure, and you can find the Creamery or our cheeses at several around the area.

At our market stand, you will find a resplendent selection of our cheeses – Fresh and Smoked Mozzarella (with the occasional Burrata or Mozz & Myrtle, City Goats so fresh you could slap ‘em, cow’s milk Sharon Hollows, and a rotating offering of our soft-ripened cheeses.

Find us at:
- Ann Arbor Downtown Farmers’ Market (Kerrytown) – Saturdays in April through December, Wednesdays in May through      September
- Ann Arbor Westside Farmers’ Market (Jackson and Maple Rds.) – Thursdays in June through September
- Eastern Market in Detroit – Saturdays in April through December
- And you can find our cheese being sold at the Downtown Ypsilanti Market on Tuesdays and the Canton Farmers Market on Sundays!

The Word on Cheese…

The most recent issue of Culture Magazine has a wonderful piece about us that we just had to mention. Written by our friend Matt Rubiner of Rubiner’s Cheesemongors & Grocers in Great Barrington, MA, and entitled Not Business as Usual, the article delves into the unique opportunities creating cheese in the middle of an industrial park on the south side of Ann Arbor present. Surely not the first site or building anyone would probably choose to start up a cheesemaking business, our unique situation has afforded us the necessity to adapt to our environment in some pretty clever ways, both as producers and retailers. And we really wouldn’t have it any other way.

Matt is a great writer and his voice really shines through in this piece. There are some great photos of Cheshire-making and drool-worthy shots of cheese that can really get that cheese itch itchy. Hope you enjoy!