Edmonds Restaurant News: Not to get cheesy, but thanks for the memories, Strom and Maria

As I’ve mentioned in many of my columns, one of the joys of writing about Restaurant News is meeting the people involved. I’ve had the pleasure to watch the development of some fine restaurants in Edmonds over the last 20-plus years. Even better — I was hired to dine on their delicious fare, and write restaurant reviews on these establishments.

The Cheesemonger’s Table is about to close. The space will morph into a new existence. My heart will hold dear many memories and the taste of grilled cheese oozing from crisp toasted slices of bread.

Strom Peterson’s impact on Edmonds’ restaurant community goes back way before he opened this last establishment. He and his wife Maria Montalvo pioneered and paved the way for the education of our collective taste buds.

Peterson, Montalvo and their friend Michael Young opened a restaurant in Edmonds in 2002 called Olives Gourmet Foods. They sold sandwiches to start, and cheese… lots of cheese. Products to go with cheese — crackers, condiments and olives, of course — enhance the gustatory experience. I worked as a specialty food broker and Olives Gourmet Foods soon rose to the top of the list of my accounts in Edmonds.

Strom split off from Olives and moved around the corner onto Main Street to become the Resident Cheesemonger. The shop offered even more room to merchandise specialty condiments and other items that complemented his selection of gourmet cheeses. Friends joked that I probably spent all of my commissions earned at the Cheesemonger on Capriole goat cheese, but as a former Hoosier, I felt proud to support the goat farmers in the southern part of the state.

Fast forward to 2012. The Cheesemonger moved around the corner, up 5th Avenue, and added the “Table” to its name.

In 2014 Strom Peterson — then an Edmonds City Councilmember — became a representative in the Washington State House. That same year I retired from the specialty food brokerage and I started my most favorite job, as a restaurant reviewer for My Edmonds News.

Excited to share my favorite spot with My Edmonds News readers, in my very first article I crafted a feature that extolled the crispy crunch of grilled bread that contained the liquid gold in the sandwiches that I’d enjoyed for the last three years at the Cheesemonger’s Table.

My editor mentioned that because Strom was in the middle of an election campaign, I might need to choose a different establishment, so my original submission was delayed until just after his election.

While we can obtain quality cheese elsewhere, nothing puts a smile on my son Nick‘s face like knowing he’s going to tuck into a grilled cheese sandwich and red pepper gouda soup from one of his favorite spots in Edmonds. Nick has enjoyed a few birthday lunches at Cheesemonger’s Table over the years.

Let’s not forget desserts: One year my birthday cake was a slice of a cake called Black and Bleu. Chocolate and bleu cheese? Oh yeah.

Fresh from the oven, still warm in their wrapper, cookies — our favorites are the chocolate chip. Those are a must purchase, anytime we dine in, or more recently pick up takeout. Comfort food, those cookies are.

As we burned through the Cheesemonger’s gift cards purchased in the last year, the quantities of cookies rivaled the packages of cheese purchased.

Grateful for the memories:

– Coaxing Strom to order in the 3-lb. logs of the Russian style cream cheese, and believed my family would consume it all.

– Strom trusting me on those Laguiole Jewel Colors Cheese Knife and Spreader Sets too…they did indeed sell…Ditto the fancy French Cherries in liquor!

– Conversations with Chef Michael on the pleasure of tasting freshly made cheese, still dripping brine water, served up in a little family restaurant in Italy.

I was also grateful for the last opportunity to taste Cheesemonger’s Table fare. The hardest decisions … try that new one called Arriba, with spiced cheddar and green chiles, or have one last bowl of a favorite: grilled gruyere and caramelized onion?

My hubby held firm on his caprese, but curiosity won out over the other old favorites:  Zoe’s turkey with sour cherry, cheve, and arugula, and the Arriba. The choices were so well received that I hardly got to take my photos. My family slurped their way through their last bowls of red pepper gouda, and bit into crisp crusty bread that contained a variety of cheeses, I grabbed the phone for a quick shot.

Thank you, Strom and Maria, for your decision to move to Edmonds almost 20 years ago. You educated our taste buds and enriched our local restaurant scene for the better.

Most of all, we learned to “Eat More Cheese!”

— By Kathy Passage

A specialty gourmet food broker for over 30 years, Kathy Passage has in-depth knowledge on food and the special qualities of ingredients used in the exquisite products she helped bring to market. Kathy brings this unique perspective from the “other side of the plate” to writing about the food and restaurant scene in Edmonds, Lynnwood and Mountlake Terrace.