BY TINA BENITEZ-EVES | English blue Stilton, Huntsman, Danish blue, Chimay butter, Saga, Norwegian Jarlsberg — their names all handwritten on square or rectangular white paper signs — these imported and domestic cheeses, and other dairy delicacies, have drawn visitors and residents alike into 40 Third Ave. for nearly 20 years in search of the perfect fromage.
However, this cherished local cheese shop will close this month — but not for good. On July 15, East Village Cheese will move to 80 E. Seventh St., between First and Second Aves. They hope to reopen by month’s end.
The relocation comes after the building’s landlord declined earlier this year to renew the shop’s lease following plans to expand the Duane Reade at 46 Third Ave. East Village Cheese neighbors P&P Convenience Store (42 Third Ave.) and Project 36 clothing boutique (36 Third Ave.) have already closed shop, making way for Duane Reade’s growth.
The drug-store chain will gobble up the storefronts from 36 Third Ave. northward, including Excel Art & Framing, at 38 Third Ave., which has been at the location for 21 years, along with East Village Cheese. Naturally, it was all about the “cheddah” — not hard cheese, but hard cash.
Duane Reade, which is owned by Walgreens, declined to comment on the Third Ave. store closings, the drug store’s upcoming renovations and the actual size of the expansion.
Excel Art & Framing, which also didn’t have its lease renewed, recently found a new location nearby at 81 Third Ave., between E. 11th and 12th Sts. — the former location of Everything Bagels, which closed earlier this year — and will reopen by mid-July.
Spared from the chain’s growth are the UPS store, at 34 Third Ave., Thread hair-removal boutique, at 32 Third Ave., and Organic Ave., a juice shop, at 30 Third Ave.
A Tibetan expatriate, Thupten Tenphel started working at East Village Cheese in 1998. Lobsang Tsultrim, who also fled Tibet in the 1990s and later met Tenphel through other expats, came onboard in 2001. Both former Buddhist monks, Tenphel and Tsultrim fled their homeland over their political views — their opposition to China’s control of Tibet.
East Village Cheese’s founder, Alvin Kaufman, a Jew turned Buddhist who died three years ago, took the pair in and taught them everything they had to know about brie (the store’s most popular seller), Gouda, Camembert and the hundreds of other cheeses the shop sells. When Kaufman retired in 2005, he asked Tenphel and Tsultrim if they wanted to buy the little cheese shop, and they’ve been its co-owners ever since.
“He taught me how to run a business,” Tenphel said. “He changed my life.”
Not much has changed since then. In addition to cheese, the store’s patrons can find fresh bread, domestic and imported crackers, cookies, olives, jams and condiments. The pair have hired several other Tibetan immigrants over the years.
The man to thank for keeping the iconic cheese shop in the East Village is Conrad Bradford. A real estate agent at Miron Properties who specializes in “ghost spaces” — properties that are not officially on the market — Bradford located the new 1,000-square-foot space, which includes a basement. Tenphel and Tsultrim signed a 10-year lease for 80 E. Seventh St. on June 15. Bradford, a Greenwich Village resident, helped the owners find this “ghost space” after a failed attempt at another location, the former Kim’s Laundromat at 208 Avenue A.
“New Yorkers never had chain stores years ago,” Bradford said. “The independent retailer is what gave the neighborhood its particular flavor when tourists came looking for something unique, or something they can’t find anywhere.”
Tenphel said he is not going to miss the old space much and plans to make the big move by July 15. He said that most of East Village Cheese’s customers are already asking about the new location. Although it’s smaller than the cheese shop’s current 2,100 square feet, the new space includes a basement, which will give them enough room, since nearly half of the store’s old space is used for storage and refrigeration.
Other than where the storage and fridges are located, nothing else will physically change at East Village Cheese, following the move. However, a third owner, Penzen Soepa — yes, another ex-Tibetan monk — has joined as a shareholder. Otherwise, the same employees will be on board.
After they settle into the new space, they are even considering opening a second, maybe even a third location, in the future. Prices, though, will stay the same, and may even go down because of the lower rent, according to Tenphel.
“We’re famous because of our prices,” he said. “Nobody can beat the prices of our cheese.”
