Village Cheese Shop offers a bite and a sip with your shopping

A cheese shop doesn’t just sell cheese these days.

The Village Cheese Shop in Wauwatosa, the area’s newest store focused on American and European artisanal cheeses, offers a bite to eat, as other cheese shops do, such as Larry’s Market, Wisconsin Cheese Mart and West Allis Cheese & Sausage Shoppe.

It also pours wine or beer to go with a snack, salad or sandwich; soft drinks include a German soda. And customers can find gifts beyond cheese and bottles of wine for food-and-drink lovers, like a kitchen towel that declares "Everything happens for a Riesling," wooden or slate cheese boards, cheese markers, cheese books and a cheese journal, to jot down tasting notes and other details.

And in case of emergency, there’s a combination cheese slicer and bottle opener that slips onto a key ring. You never know.

Shelves are stocked with gourmet goodies, such as small-batch jams, tinned Spanish tuna, organic crackers and fancy cherries, foodstuffs that might appeal to people in search of out-of-the-ordinary cheeses.

The shop, which Sabina Magyar opened in summer at 1430 Underwood Ave., focuses on farmstead cheeses of the Midwest in particular but carries notable cheeses from around the United States and from Europe, like Chãllerhocker, a nutty washed-rind cheese from Switzerland.

Shoppers can sample any cheese before they decide which to buy. Another way to try one, three or five cheeses is to order a cheese board ($5, $13 and $22), served with baguette, honey and spiced pecans, and lately with pomegranate seeds.

Food is ordered at the register and brought to customers at the shop’s several tables or its counter seating. Customers can order just a snack, such as mixed olives ($4), or try cured-meat boards (each meat $4 or $6) or sandwiches, served on crusty baguette and sourdough.

The Village Cheese Shop smears creamy butter on bread before layering it with meats and cheeses. The Original ($9.99), for instance, combines sopressata, mortadella and provolone with stone-ground mustard and salad greens.

Grilled cheese  ($7.99) recently joined the menu. Two cheeses are for flavor — Widmer cheddar and Chällerhocker — and one for its creaminess, fontina. Chutney gives the sandwich an extra jolt of flavor.

The Village Cheese Shop is open from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday to  Thursday, 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday.