Village Cheese Merchant Pivots Its Way To 5th Anniversary

As Chris O'Mara celebrates the fifth anniversary of her gourmet shop Village Cheese Merchant, she is preparing more new additions to keep growing the small business.

O'Mara and Tom Paolillo, her business partner and cousin, plan to install an oven to start making hors d'oeuvres, use their tavern license to serve wine and beer, and place tables and chairs outdoors where a catchy mural advertises some of the shop’s 50 varieties of cheese.

The goal of the Rockville Centre mother of four children is to finally achieve the original vision she had for her shop. That includes hosting cheese and wine tastings, holding educational classes, and becoming an all-purpose market.

"I want my shop to be a one-stop shopping for all of your entertainment needs," O'Mara said. "Come here and you'll leave and have everything to hit the ground running."

Cheeses include Piave Vecchio from Italy, Raclette from France, Somerdale from England and Harbison from Vermont. The shelves are stocked with everything from Ines Rosales, a plain and orange-flavored torta flatbread from Spain, to honey from Sag Harbor and the rectory at St. Agnes down the road. Jars are filled with jalapeño cherry salsa and marinated olives. Homemade items include macaroni and cheese, mozzarella burrata, and chicken salad with cranberries.

"I really like to bring in what you're not going to find at King Kullen and every other supermarket," O'Mara said.

Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the shop has seen significant demand for its eye-catching charcuterie boards spread with such meats as bruschetta di Parma, Barolo-flavored salami and sweet-and-hot soppressata.

O'Mara made it to her fifth year in business thanks to an ever-evolving ability to adapt to change and a willingness to try new things, as well as to some good fortune, she said.

O’Mara was an amateur cheese connoisseur when she established her shop, at 28 S. Park Ave., in 2017 after recruiting cheese maven Patrick Ambrosio, a former New York City chef and owner of a cheese shop in Huntington. The duo got the business off the ground simply by supplying dozens of cheeses and, later, gourmet pantry items.

More than a year later, she launched the shop's website, and by February 2020 she had taught a fondue class, after which the pandemic hit. But she lucked out when the state deemed her market an essential business that could stay open.

She quickly adopted take-out and curbside services, and sales soon went up. That summer, she tested the waters by making sandwiches with the shop's cheeses and meats on fresh baguettes. By October 2020, patrons started to return to the shop.

"I think our customers appreciated us during COVID, and because of that they continued their loyalty," she said.

In early 2021, there came another change: she parted ways with Ambrosio and called her cousin in Boston to help manage the shop. A graduate of the Culinary Institute of America in Poughkeepsie and the former owner of gourmet shops, a catering business, and an inn and restaurant in Cape Cod, Paolillo arrived around Easter and helped bring the business to new heights.

Catering has since turned into a major source of revenue, the shop has more equipment, and the duo is conducting classes, starting with a mozzarella-making lesson.

O'Mara's plans to develop everything from the shop's social media presence to corporate gifting to an eCommerce arm of the business.

"Looking forward," she said, "I'm excited to turn the business into everything I envisioned from the start."