Get ready to say cheese.
West Philly’s Third Wheel Cheese Company—a beloved wholesaler to your favorite restaurants, gourmet charcuterie-cheese shops and farmers markets—has opened an intimate warehouse-storefront space to the public to sell its locally sourced, farmstead cheeses, direct, along with a selection of salumi and other crunchy edibles.
Located at 705 S. 50th Street, Third Wheel Cheese’s dealer-owner Ann Karlen and her son Caleb are the perfect hosts for your tasty trip into Plymouth farm’s black truffle cheddars, nutty, spicy Cayuga Blues made with goat’s milk and soft ripened organic Champlain Triple crème brie with bloomy rinds. However, how the Karlens got to the cheesy goodness in the first place is not so simple.
The Karlens grew up at 46th and Osage, not far from Third Wheel, but do not have roots in the culinary business world. Instead, Ann Karlen spent 20 years in nonprofit advocacy as the executive director for Fair Food in promotion of local, sustainable agriculture.
“As part of that work, we had a stand in Reading Terminal Market, selling area farm products from like 100 local farms,” she said. “Through Fair Food, I got to know many dairy farmers and cheesemakers. When 12 years ago, this region shifted from ordinary cheese to artisan cheese, I had a front row seat to that movement, buying cheesemaker products and selling them to the public.”
Learning about farming and agriculture, Karlen additionally discovered how “impossible” it was for dairy farmers to make a living selling milk.
“The dairy pricing system is really screwed up for the famers,” she said.
It was only when dairy farmers widened their scope to include value-added products like cheese to their arsenal that they stood a fighting chance. From there, Karlen figured out what a quality dairy product was, and what an inventive cheese could be.
“When I started Third Wheel as a wholesale distributor six-years-ago for regional and artisanal cheese solely for restaurants, I got a feel for what a great cheese was from the chefs — that was the need in the marketplace,” said Karlen. “I saw that gap when I was at Reading Terminal. Philly chefs needed someone to do the aggregation and communication with farmers’ products. They needed a one-stop-shop.”
During a recent visit to Third Wheel, multi-venue Philly chef Damon Menapace was seen leaving with his weekly stash of goods. Harper’s Garden recently held a tasting dinner based around Third Wheel’s cheeses days before. And Tria’s several cheese-eateries are regular customers, as is the upcoming Poison Heart space on Spring Garden.
“I sit with each individual chef and learn what’s important to them, and their menus,” Karlen explained. “We talk about flavor, texture, what they’re familiar with and what they need. I do find that they go for the more adventurous cheeses than the average person, beautiful washed-rind cheeses, even really stinky cheeses.”
Everyone, according to Karlen, likes the sweet and salty Jake’s aged Gouda, but not everyone gets a pungent Burt’ washed-rind goat cheese from Vermoint, or the smelly Cato Corner Farm Hooligan or the Chaseholm Farm’s triple crème bloomy rind Nimbus.
Now, local consumers can get in on the Third Wheel action with cheeses from the area, as well as, now, the East Coast.
“We are a cut-to-order cheese shop who make a point, now, of adding items such as honey, nuts, charcuterie, crackers and other things that people want to eat with cheese,” said Karlen. “Savory mustards, sweet jams, we have it. And as our wholesale business is going strong – our core – having this walk-in space filled with beautiful cheese, wheel-upon-wheel, just lends itself to something more public. To not offer it, and be more accessible, seemed wrong.”
As part of Third Wheel’s expanded retail business, Pandemic Pantry buying clubs and Farmers Markets Fridays, now everyone can see inside Third Wheel, with Karlen placing new cheeses on pantry shelves or display coolers while her son slices cheese on a massive butcher block.
“I love this job, its interaction and now, after six years of doing this, feel, very connected to the food that I’m eating and serving,” said Caleb, who, at 21, urged his mom to open Third Wheel to the public. “We have access to all this amazing cheese, it just felt selfish to keep it all to ourselves.”
