Season's eatings! The weather may be getting colder, but Dining Month on OnMilwaukee is just cooking up, dishing out your winning picks in this year's Best of Dining poll. Dining Month is brought to you by Fein Brothers, your premier food service equipment and supply dealer in Wisconsin since 1929. Congratulations to all of the winners, and happy eating for all those who voted!
As the proud son and grandson of West Villagers, I have a circuit I do whenever I go home to New York for a visit. One stop is always Rocco’s pastry shop where Leroy Street dead ends into Bleecker. Another was Zito's Bakery, where my uncle worked as a kid– before it closed. Yet another is Murray’s Cheese Shop, just a hop, skip and a Gouda away.
A fourth is the legendary Kettle of Fish tavern, which is now where Wisconsin meets the Village.
Now, I won’t have to go nearly as far, because Murray’s – now owned by Kroger, which has launched more than 400 stores – is opening a cheese shop inside the Metro Market in Menomonee Falls, N95 W18351 County Line Rd.
A second Falls location will open in the Appleton Avenue Pick 'N Save later in autumn.
Murray Greenberg opened his cheese shop a couple doors down from my grandparents’ apartment on Cornelia Street in 1940, the same year my dad was born and it was a place he grew up with. In the ‘70s, Italian immigrant Louis Tudda, one of Greenberg’s employees, bought the shop and ran it until 1991, when he sold to Rob Kaufelt.
Over the years, as the Village and the urban retail landscape has changed exponentially, Murray’s has endured and is, of course, an incredibly scented feast for the eyes, nose and taste buds. It is an artisan cheese shop and an old-world-style throwback. It is also a tourist attraction.
It’s a place you can find anything you desire and a whole lot you didn’t even realize you desired. And now, it’s nearby (though, trust me, you still want to visit the store, which is now across Bleecker from its original location).
"We are excited to bring the first Murray’s Cheese Shop to the Dairy State for our shoppers to enjoy the quintessential cheese experience that Murray’s provides. Murray’s Cheese has allowed consumers all over the country to experience the uniqueness of Wisconsin cheeses," said Roundy’s veep of Communications and Public Affairs, James Hyland, in a news release.
The store officially opens Wednesday, Oct. 10 at 1 p.m. Stop in to welcome an American cheese landmark to America’s Dairyland.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
