Rounding out our week of rooting for the hometeam is Andrew Clark, the man behind the magic at Fromaggio Essex. Fromaggio Essex is the smaller NYC sibling to Fromaggio Kitchen based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Measuring in at just 225 square feet, Fromaggio Essex is a goldmine of culinary goodies from near and far -- olive oils, cured meats, jams, mustards, and plenty of cheeses of course.
So how did Andrew Clark end up behind the counter of this petite gem?
After realizing that educating the Massachusetts high school masses was not for him, Andrew walked into a Whole Foods Market in Boston and had his AHA moment! He started off working part-time at the cheese counter and wasn't expecting to fall in love with it but he sure did -- the people were interesting, intelligent, funny, and happy to be there making it a truly great workplace. Part-time led to full-time led to becoming the buyer and then led to him moving around to several different Whole Foods up and down the East Coast and suddenly eight years had gone by. When the Fromaggio Essex opportunity presented itself, it just made sense to Andrew -- the stars were aligning and things were coming full circle -- Andrew had spent plenty of time in Fromaggio Kitchen and had lived in Cambridge for quite a few years so here in New York he got to maintain a little bit of Cambridge in his heart.
Although Fromaggio Essex and Fromaggio Kitchen are their own entities with the Kitchen location being about five to six times the size of the Essex location, they have very fluid interactions and in fact a lot of the time Andrew gets to choose the cheeses from the larger more expansive selection up north. But here in New York, Andrew gets to spend his days talking to customers about cheeses from near and far and what could really be better right? When times are slow, Andrew has quite the vivid imagination and thinks of the voices that say a Sbrinz would assume versus a fresh chevre and even Smokey Blue. Think Homeward Bound meets the cheese world. I think its a pretty great way to pass the time and who knows the fantasies one could create.
So here's to Andrew rounding out our root, root, root for the hometeam week!
Hope to see you all at the Cheesemonger Invitational tomorrow!
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