Wheel yourself into The Curd Nerd for personalized cheese experience
At The Curd Nerd, cheesemongers ask customers their go-to cheese grocery order and preferences between hard and soft cheeses. Then, customers sample variations of cheeses, similar to the ones they already enjoy. Cassie Roshu | Senior Staff Photographer
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Employees of The Curd Nerd see many customers come and go. Whether the patrons are regulars or new to the store, it can be difficult to keep track of customers’ names. But no matter what, they always remember every person’s cheese preferences.
“For some reason, my superpower is remembering what cheeses people like and don’t like,” Rachael Lucas, The Curd Nerd shelf manager, said. “I might not remember your name, but I know what cheese you like.”
The Curd Nerd in Eastwood sells artisanal cheese from all corners of the world, from the cows of Milton Creamery in Iowa to the Austrian Alps, in addition to charcuteries and cheese boards.
The idea of The Curd Nerd was born in February 2021. Owner Sarah Simiele moved to Syracuse a year earlier, when COVID-19 derailed her plans to become a traveling dairy farmer across Europe. With no plans, Simiele wasn’t able to find a career similar to her previous one as a cheesemonger in Brooklyn until her then-fiance suggested they start their own cheese store. Though it took a lot of convincing, Simiele gave in, opening the store in March 2022.
“We didn’t have a lot of money, but it was also COVID, and everyone was just kind of a little optimistic,” Simiele said. “After trying to figure out what we could do, we landed on the idea of opening our own cheese shop so I can work.”
In April, Simiele expanded her cheese ambitions to open The Wedge. Syracuse’s first-ever cheese-centric bar and restaurant, The Wedge is located right next door from The Curd Nerd. Its cocktail and food menu items use cheeses sold at the parent store.
As the only store selling artisanal cheese in the area, Simiele faced obstacles along the way. One of her main challenges was establishing cheese distribution networks from all over the world to Syracuse by herself. In the beginning of that process, Simiele personally ordered cheese pallets that weighed 400 to 700 pounds and had to get them shipped privately since there was no direct access to Syracuse.
Before The Curd Nerd existed, there weren’t any artisanal cheeses to be purchased due to the lack of distribution routes to Syracuse. By the time The Curd Nerd opened in 2022, those challenges disappeared thanks to Simiele’s efforts. As a result, Simiele is able to import lesser-known cheeses from different parts of the world; 60% are domestic and 40% international.
Jeanne Woodcock became a part-time cheesemonger at The Curd Nerd after seeing one of the store’s TikTok videos. Woodcock joined the cheese shop in September, after a longtime love for cheese. Cassie Roshu | Senior Staff Photographer
“We don’t carry a ton of Italian cheese because there are some great Italian markets in the area that have eight types of provolone and things like that,” Simiele said. “We focus a lot on French, Swiss and Spanish imports just because there’s really nowhere else in the area focusing on those.”
Some staff members — like Simiele and Lucas— have decades worth of experience, while others are simple cheese lovers.
Simiele’s cheese background was rooted from her time at Binghamton University. Amid her molecular biology classes, Simiele joined the school’s Cheese Club her junior year to take a break from her studies. By the time Simiele was a senior, she helped charter the club as an official school organization and became its first president.
Before moving to Syracuse, Lucas lived in Seattle. After her morning power walks, she often visited the city’s Metropolitan Market to sample cheeses. When Lucas’ then-boyfriend encouraged her to work in the market’s cheese department, where she fully embraced her love for cheese, marking a new career.
Jeanne Woodcock, customer-turned-cheesemonger of The Curd Nerd, does not have a formal education in cheese like Simiele and Lucas. Instead, she learned about cheese by soaking up the information around her. The store’s friendly embrace never changed, when she was a customer and now as a staffer, Woodcock said.
Though Woodcock’s background was in education, she became a part-time cheesemonger of The Curd Nerd after seeing one of the store’s TikTok videos. She said it’s part of her work in pursuing her “lifelong love for cheese.”
“I just really liked the customer service and the care that they took in getting to know me and my family. I’ve taken my granddaughter and my husband and (The Curd Nerd) was offering them different cheeses and samples and were just talking to them,” Woodcock said.
A key component of the store’s friendly nature is its community engagement, Woodcock said. Whether a customer is an Eastwood local or visiting the store for the first time, The Curd Nerd ensures customers are put first, Woodcock said.
The Curd Nerd hosts two to eight events per month to familiarize customers’ cheese preferences. Every March, they host “cheese madness” — customers get to try 16 of the store’s best cheeses from the previous year and vote on a winner.
“Grocery stores these days, you can kind of go into all of your shopping and never have to speak to another human. This is not that experience,” Simiele said. “We’re going to ask how your day is. We’re going to ask you what you’re looking for. I want to know about the party you’re going to and we get really into it.”
When Lucas first began sampling cheeses in Seattle, she admitted cheese could be “intimidating.” After all, with an estimated 1,800 different types of cheeses around the world and different types of notes to look for, sifting through one’s personal favorite cheese can seem like an impossible task, Lucas said.
The Curd Nerd personalizes customers’ in-store experience. First, they ask customers go-to grocery order and their preferences between hard and soft cheeses. The store’s cheesemongers, like Lucas, then allows customers to sample different variations of cheeses they’re already familiar with. Through constant communication between The Curd Nerd cheesemongers and its customers, cheese can be more accessible and inviting, Lucas said.
“We just try to make it really approachable,” Lucas said. “Cheese is for everybody. There’s no need to be snobby or pretentious.”
