Every year, die hard cheese experts—and the devotees who take their advice at cheese shops—gather for the Cheesemonger Invitational, an industry competition for cheesemongers...and an excuse for everyone else to eat a truckload of cheese.
Now in its eighth year, the Invitational is a weekend's worth of roundtables and cheese discussions (you are not invited), followed by preliminary competitions for cheese professionals (you are also not invited to this), concluding in a giant cheese party (it's go time, baby!).
The party on the evening of June 24th includes station-upon-station of cheese-centric items. In previous years that's included a raclette station, which organizer Adam "Mr. Moo" Moskowitz promises again for 2017 along with grilled cheese, sliders, and fondue—plus plain old cheese in the raw. There'll also be free-flowing, unlimited beer, wine, and cider.
The final rounds of competition also go down at the party. Mongers have been tasked with cutting the perfect 1/4, 1/3 and 1/2 pound portions of cheese on the fly at previous events; attend to find out what fromage magic they'll be getting up to this year.
The Cheesemonger Invitational closing party takes place on Saturday, June 24th. GA tickets are $70 with access at 6 p.m. or $100 for VIP access at 5 p.m. The event takes place at the charmingly-named Larkin Cold Storage at 4755 27th Street in Long Island City.
