Terrance Brennan
photo: courtesy of Picholine
New Yorkers can largely thank Terrance Brennan for the city’s cheese revolution. Because of his lauded cart at Picholine, his cheese-centric menus at Artisanal and the recently opened Bar Artisanal, and distribution from his Artisanal Premium Cheese Center, many learned cheese-making is a craft, not Kraft. We caught up with the Big Cheese recently to talk about upcoming projects in New York and Chicago, and about the stinky stuff, of course.
Zagat Buzz: When did you fall in love with cheese?
Terrance Brennan: I first fell in love with cheese when I was working and living in France and Italy. Every restaurant I worked in had a cheese cart. Or if you would go to a friend’s house, cheese was always part of the meal.
ZB: When do you feel the U.S. will finally catch up with Europe in terms of cheese culture?
TB: I like to say that cheese is the new wine. We’re not quite there yet in it being a part of everyday life, but we are getting closer and closer. That was part of my mission with the cheese center. Within the last 10 years, Americans have become much more aware and educated about artisanal cheeses.
ZB: Is the FDA finally moving toward loosening its standards on raw milk cheese? (The law currently prohibits production or importing any cheese that is not aged for 60 days or more.)
TB: It is still kind of stagnant right now. There was a scare about four years ago where they were going to make it 90 or 120 days. I think it’s just stagnant at 60 days.
ZB: What has to happen for the FDA to loosen up?
TB: There has to be a politician involved, I think.
ZB: At Bar Artisanal, I love the notion of pairing cocktails with cheese. How has it been embraced so far?
TB: It’s been great because no one has done it before and people are fascinated by it.
ZB: Did you have any hesitation about doing that?
TB: A little bit because it is beyond the norm – we’ve always done a lot of wine and cheese flights. A couple of years ago we did sake and cheese pairings. And we’ve paired cheese with beer and ciders. So we thought, what’s the next step? What hasn’t been done before? We started playing around with cocktails and the term bar because we are “Bar” Artisanal.
ZB: You came in and replaced the flailing Trigo with Bar Artisanal. What was your thinking behind the plan to transform the spot?
TB: Well, I have a new concept called the Artisanal Table. It is a pizzeria, tapas and wine bar, which is in development now. When the Trigo space became available, it didn’t fit the concept of Artisanal Table, which is more rustic. So I figured, call it Bar Artisanal to keep the Artisanal brand going. It’s like the French version of the Artisanal Table.
ZB: Is the Artisanal Table concept poised to grow?
TB: Yes. We have an Artisanal Table in Seattle already [opening September 12], and I plan on doing something in Chicago, which is getting very close. I want to do it in New York too, in several neighborhoods, like Chelsea, SoHo and the Upper West Side.
ZB: Will we see more Bar Artisanals as well?
TB: I don’t know. The brasserie is getting my French “ya yas” out, and the Artisanal Table is getting my Italian-Mediterranean “ya yas” out. I would never say no, though.
ZB: There is so much variety on the new prix fixe lunch menu – two courses for $21; three for $28? Seems almost impossible to make it work.
TB: Yeah, we thought we could separate out five apps, five main courses, etc., but then we thought, what if we did the whole damn thing as a prix fixe and adjusted the numbers? It’s a really great, great value.
– Kathleen Squires