Chestnut Hill Cheese Shop: It’s the Cream of the Crop

SAY CHEESE: Adam Serfass (from left), Jessie Beer and co-owners John Ingersoll and Dan Weiss preside over the multi-award-winning Chestnut Hill Cheese Shop, a Hill landmark that draws customers from far beyond the immediate area. (Photo by Jimmy J. Pack Jr.)

By DEVON GRIEB

“Good things are never cheap and cheap things are never good.” — a philosophy shared by Dan Weiss, 55, of Wyndmoor, and John Ingersoll, 48, of Chestnut Hill, co-owners of the Chestnut Hill Cheese Shop, 8509 Germantown Ave. Dan’s father, who started The Cheese Shop 42 years ago, previously owned a grocery store much like Caruso’s on Germantown Avenue. The grocery store was open from 1927 to 1964, when Dan’s father decided he wanted to run a smaller store in an area that was starting to develop a strong business economy.

According to Weiss, “Customers who come to our cheese shop have a sense of what quality food is, and with most of them being travelers they know what food is considered to be the best, and then what is considered to be everything else.”

After seeing the walk-in refrigerator, and an employee, Adam Serfass, carry out an 80-pound block of cheese, slice the whole thing right in front of me with a skillful hand and then add it to the display, you can believe the cheese is fresh.

“Our store is the perfect size 10-and-a-half months out of the year,” said Weiss, explaining how the holiday season can make the store extremely crowded, but the employees, who also include Sarah Davies and Jessie Beer, still find time to accommodate all customers as long as they aren’t speaking on cell phones. A sign posted on the cash register even makes it clear that customers talking on their cell phones will not be waited on. Talking on the phone at your house is one thing, but come on, people, no one in the store wants to hear all about your plans for next Friday night.

Weiss basically took over the store in the ‘70s until his father retired in 1981. Although his father still helped around the shop until 1990, Ingersoll stepped in as Weiss’ partner in 1981. “I started cooking when I was eight years old. Growing up in a Sicilian family, I was always exposed to good meals, and after working for a restaurant I knew I wanted to work with something I was already familiar with — food,” said Ingersoll.

The shop has won the award for the Best Cheese Shop in Philadelphia four years in a row from the Philadelphia magazine, and they have appeared on The Food Network’s show called The Best Of, having two10-minute segments about their business.

“If a business area struggles, then the neighborhoods around it struggle as well,” said Weiss. Which brings up a good point that needs to be acknowledged. Small businesses not only in Chestnut Hill but in other communities are closing or being bought out by bigger chain stores, taking away from the people who shop or walk up and down the Hill. There are reasons stores like The Cheese Shop and other specialty stores, like the Paperia, Chestnut Hill Sports and Byrne’s Fabrics are still in business — because they are exactly that, specialty stores. If you walk into any supermarket and ask for items like Dubliner Cheddar, aged one year, from Ireland, or Parrano from Holland, the deli workers will look at you as if you just spoke Martian. You wont find any government-pasteurized American cheese wrapped by the slice in this Chestnut Hill icon, only quality imported cheeses such as Gouda from Holland at $8.98 a pound, Black Diamond Cheddar from Canada at $13.98 a pound, or Grafton Cheddar from England aged 6 years, at $17.98 a pound. The store also carries a vast selection of coffee beans, nuts, spices, cooking wines and almost everything from jellybeans to the Godiva Chocolate located at the register.

Look for the Cheese Shop folks on Sunday, May 1, at the annual Chestnut Hill Home and Garden Festival and every day of the week in the store. For more information call Dan or John at 215-242-2211.