Great Barrington — Although “buy local” is a mantra for many Berkshire residents, there are occasions when a worldly choice is preferable. Cheese, for example. Yes, there are first-rate cheese producers here, such as Susan Sellew and her always-popular Rawson Brook chèvre. But the world of cheese is huge and complex, and getting more so every day. So much so that even food cognoscenti need a guide through the names and flavors and textures and possibilities of the best cheese for the occasion.
Which is why one should visit Rubiner’s, where Matt Rubiner holds forth seven days a week at his cheese emporium. Located on Main Street in Great Barrington, Rubiner’s is in the front part of an old bank building, while his café Rubi’s anchors the back. The two establishments opened within a few months of each other 10 years ago.
People are bemused to learn that Rubiner’s career path as cheesemonger began in his days in the defense industry. After graduating from the University of Michigan where he focused on Japanese military history, Rubiner got a job in the Washington office of a defense contractor doing work on Asian politics and the military. One of his first assignments? Upgrade the coffee program for the office.
Now this was not just making sure the percolator got cleaned out. After reading Boston journalist Corby Kummer’s “The Joy of Coffee,” Rubiner started educating himself about the many coffee estates famous for their beans. This was before the “espresso revolution,” so before long, his division became famous for the excellence of its coffee. Although this all happened in an atmosphere that required clearances to gain access to his office, it didn’t take long before uniformed general officers and admirals began to stop in for his coffee.
When not providing top-notch coffee for the military, he researched Asian military technologies, and worked on war games to help educate his division. This meant he could read through diplomatic cable traffic at the Pentagon for background research, the memory of which still evokes a big smile. After several years, he took a job at MIT to work on a large grant that studied Japanese corporate work for the military.
But food gradually became more of an interest and eventually a career focus. “The 90’s was a golden era for the food business,” says Rubiner. “People were wealthy, and there was a greater awareness of what we eat.” The hippy natural foods fan and the travel connoisseur were coming together, and the food media came into being. These were the early days of food television and the beginning of celebrity chefs. Cookbooks became Big Business. Rubiner kept learning about cheese — and wine — with the hope of eventually having his own shop.
Rubiner’s splashy entrance into the cheese world came at a charity event in Boston that hosted chefs from all over the country. He was asked to put together “the greatest cheese plate ever known,” which he did on a 4-foot long willow mat densely covered with cheese from all over the world, “so gorgeous that for weeks after the event I got calls from chefs all over the country.”
His timing was perfect for it was then that the American cheese business began to flourish. Rubiner began consulting for websites and stores trying to upgrade their cheese offerings, and moved on to consulting for wine importers.
In the late 1990’s Rubiner heard about the Heritage Breed movement in the Berkshires — a group of well-meaning wealthy landowners, headed by Tom Gardner of Richmond, who ambitiously started building breeding stocks. When Rubiner brought out a bunch of Boston people to see Gardner’s farm, they had lunch at the nearby A Mano Café, owned by Lauren Joy and Elyse Etling, Rubiner’s customers in Boston before they moved to the Berkshires.
Still searching for the right entry into the food business, Rubiner jumped at the opportunity to take an unused storage room at A Mano to sell cheese and wine “It was a sweet deal, and I was able to develop everything we now do at Rubiner’s there,” he says. After two years at A Mano in Richmond, Rubiner moved his business to Great Barrington, opening his eponymous shop on July 14, 2004.
The wide selection of cheese at Rubiner’s comes from “wherever there’s cheese to be had.” He likes buying from the farmers themselves, and does so whenever possible. But he also buys from importers and distributors. Although America was late in its cheese evolution, today American artisanal cheeses are readily available. And many of them come from New England. Indeed, Vermont is per capita the biggest cheese producer in the artisanal market.
Rubiner is a champion of local producers, with cheese from Rawson Brook, Cricket Creek, Old Chatham, Grace Hill, Berle Farm, meat from Dominic Palumbo, apples and pears from Windy Hill, milk and yoghurt from Leahy Farm, and a variety of seasonal items from Williamsville Inn. There are baked goods from Hudson Bonfiglio and shrubs from Hudson Standard.
“We love to support local producers, but we also love the bounties of the world, too,” says Rubiner. “The virtuous component of globalization is that it allows a small store like mine to support local traditions around the world,” he continues. He cites a variety of apricot that only grows within the confines of a national park in Campagna. “There isn’t enough interest in Campagna to support this venture and it doesn’t meet the specifications for the mass market, but by finding markets for such a product in this country we are preserving its tradition.”
The most popular dish at Rubi’s, the café behind the store, is the egg sandwich. “Most egg sandwiches are good things, but ours represents a certain triumph over physics.” If you’re interested in recreating his egg sandwich, here are a few hints. First bake or buy Pullman bread, then butter one side of a slice, put it down on a piece of parchment paper, and then with a gloved fist, make a depression into the bread. Then break an egg right into that depression, after which you will lay a slice of applewood smoked ham and then some Comte, and finally another slice of the Pullman bread with its outside buttered. Wrap this up in parchment paper, and put it on a grill. The parchment paper allows the cheese to melt and cooks the ham and eggs to a runny perfection.
This recipe did not just come to him in a vision. Many staff members contributed ideas as they tested and retested dozens of versions until finally coming up with the winning recipe. “It took everything we had to come up with this egg sandwich. I mean although it’s just a cooked egg, it’s not really simple.”
Despite its very limited prep space, Rubi’s allows Rubiner to showcase products he sells in the store. “The shtick here is classics improved through quality of ingredients.” He points out that they don’t do anything special to their grilled cheese sandwich, but “by using really really good bread, really really good butter, really really good cheese, and really really good salt we’ve created an outstanding sandwich.”
I got it about the quality of the bread, and butter, and cheese, but what is really really good salt? In Rubiner’s case, it is “sale dei papi” (salt of the Popes) that comes from ancient Roman salt pens in the Adriatic. Every year the first harvest is sent to the Pope.
So, after reading this if you’re still anxious about buying good cheese, Rubiner’s advice is “find a cheesemonger whose taste you can trust. If you can’t get a taste of what they’re offering, go to another cheese shop. And don’t buy more than you need.” Which is very hard to do with something as delicious as cheese.
