Catering by Cheese Plus

I learned about Cheese Plus early in my time living in San Francisco.   Cheese Plus is a fairly unique place, and a bit hard to describe.  It is part cheese shop, as you'd expect given the name, yes.  But it is also a small grocery store with highly curated artisanal goods, many local, but plenty imported from Italy and other countries.  I first visited when they were hosting one of their annual artisan's festivals, where they had the makers of all these nicely curated products there, doing samples, chatting with customers, etc.  Of course, the shop is fairly tiny, so this doesn't take place inside the store, but rather, up and down the sidewalks.  As someone who loves samples, and meeting and chatting with merchants, this was right up my alley.  So many cheeses, charcuterie, chutneys, jam, oils, crackers, sweet, caviar to nibble on ... yes!  It was at one of these festivals that I first was introduced to SF Cheesecakes (now, SF Cheesequakes), which I quite adore.

Anyway, in addition to being a retail grocery-ish, they also now operate a small sidewalk cafe during the day (added a few years ago), with coffee, pastries, sandwiches, and salads.  This cafe offers catering for breakfast or lunch, which is how I got to try it.  I was surprised by how much I enjoyed the items I tried, and would gladly try more.

Sandwiches

"Named for our unique San Francisco neighborhoods and made to order using the highest quality meats, cheeses, house-made spreads and local artisan condiments, our sandwiches are simply delicious!"

The sandwich menu features all the "best stuff available", most of which you can purchase in the shop.  There are both cold and grilled sandwiches, vegetarian or loaded with meat.  

Since this was for catering, we got sandwich trays of assorted sandwich wedges from the lineup.  These are $95 each, and feed 6-9 people.  The selections came from their standard lineup of cold sandwiches, although all came on soft baguettes rather than the specific breads normally used for each.  If ordering individually, the sandwiches are $14-15 each.

Happy Thanksgiving.

"Zoe’s Oven Roasted Turkey, Rich Double Crème Brie Cheese, Cranberry Sauce, Butter & Arugula served on Sliced Sourdough."

I grabbed this as it was labelled "Happy Thanksgiving", I spotted very beautifully ripe brie pouring out, and hoped it would have stuffing or something fun in it.  It was less fun than I was hoping, and had sliced roast turkey which I rarely eat, but, the other fillings were still appealing: the aforementioned brie, cranberry sauce, arugula, and, uh, butter?

The portion of brie was substantial, and as you'd expect from a cheese shop, it was fantastic brie.  Perfectly ripe, perfecting oozing its slightly funky goodness.  The cranberry sauce was good, nicely tart, slightly sweet.  It went well with the brie.  Arugula added a bit of crunch and bitterness, and there was plenty of turkey, for those who actually like turkey.  I didn't distinctly find butter in it, but, there did seem to be a creamy substance that I would have thought was mayo, but, maybe it was butter?  Anyway, overall, a nice sandwich, the brie was the star, as I expected. ****+ brie,  ***+ overall.

Like all the sandwiches on our platter, this came on a soft baguette, rather than the sliced sourdough it normally comes on.  The baguette was fine, lightly chewy crust, soft style.  But, it too was sourdough, and although it wasn't super strong sourdough, it was still sourdough, and thus, I wasn't into it.

North Beach.

"Niman Ranch Smoked Ham, Pistachio Mortadella, Genoa Salame, Provolone, Sweet Peppadew Peppers, Leaf Lettuce, Fresh Tomato, Mayo & Spicy Dijon Mustard. Served on Focaccia."

Next up, one I grabbed because I saw salami and mortadella, and was immediately excited.  I truly adore mortadella.  I was less excited about the provolone (never my cheese of choice), but, it made sense with the deli meats and sweet peppers, no question.

The North Beach was a great classic Italian sandwich.  The quality of the deli meats was clearly high, the provolone was thickly sliced so it held up well against it, and the peppers were super flavorful and elevated the whole thing.  Fresh tomato, crispy lettuce, and generous slathering of mustard and mayo, and this was a very tasty sandwich, I just wanted different bread.

****.

Desserts

The catering desserts are just cookies/bars, but I of course still tried several.  My sweet tooth is always interested in trying things.

Cookie Monster Platter.

"An assortment of cookies, brownies, and sweet treats."

I'm not sure which size platter this was, as they offer it in three sizes, for $80/$115/$140.  When I got to it, it clearly had been picked through, but I snagged at least one of everything left.  The inclusion of chocolates was a unique touch, great for those who just wanted a little something to end their meal. 

From the rubble, I saw that the platter also had lemon "snacking cake" on it before.  I assume it also had their chocolate chip cookies as well.

I tried the bit of the lemon cake that was remaining, and it was moist, pleasantly sweet, and had a good lemon flavor.  Easy to see why it was clearly a crowd favorite.  ***+.

I also tried a hunk of brownie, it was fine.  Dense, heavily chocoaltely style.  ***.

Peanut Butter Sandwich Cookie. $5.50.

"Sweet and creamy peanut butter, smooshed between two peanut butter cookies!"

The one I grabbed first, and then immediately grabbed another hunk of, was the peanut butter sandwich cookie.  One bite, and I thought, "ZOMG, NUTTER BUTTERS!".  While the shape was obviously different (triangle wedges rather than, uh, peanuts), the taste and texture were kinda spot on.  But, in a homemade way of course.

The cookies were soft, fairly strong peanut flavor.  Nice crumble to the.  Inside, smooth creamy sweetened peanut spread.  I hesitate to call it "peanut butter" as they do, as it was more like a peanut flavored Oreo cream filling, texture wise, if that makes sense.  Not like creamy nor crunchy peanut butter, more like peanut butter mixed with a little frosting.  Anyway, it was sweetened, creamy, and had more good peanut flavor.  Combine, yup, this was a soft cookie sandwich with creamy filling, all peanut flavored, essentially a Nutter Butter.  

This brought back great nostalgia for me, as I haven't had a Nutter Butter in many, many years, and they weren't something we had in my house growing up, but rather, they were always alongside my Dad's Oreo's in my grandmother's cookie jar.  I enjoyed it for those reasons, and I do quite like peanut butter flavored things, but, I did kinda wish it was dunked in chocolate too ...

****.

Jammies Butter Cookies - apricot.

"Sea salted butter cookies filled with apricots or raspberry jam."

The tray had two kinds of thumbprints, one with this orange hued filling, the other with something more berry looking.  I'm not sure why I grabbed this one.  I later learned it comes from Sweet Things Bakery, a local wholesale bakery that supplies many cafes, coffee shops, and small markets, which I've reviewed before.

It was actually a very good cookie, even if it looked a bit burnt around the edges.  A quite buttery shortbread.  Sweet.  Rich.  Very decadent.  

The jam was soft and fruity, nice apricot flavor.

Everything about this was just nicely done.  Perfect with an afternoon cup of tea.  ****.

Peanut Butter Cookie Flowerless. $1.75.

And finally, I grabbed one of the last cookie type on the platter, even though it didn't look my style at all, extremely crisp.  This turned out to be another very good cookie.  It had a great snap to it.  And ... it too was peanut butter!  It had little bits of peanut, and strong peanut butter flavor.  The menu lists this as "flowerless", which I assume means it is gluten-free.  A very surprising great cookie, I enjoyed dunking it in whipped cream, but it didn't really need it.  ****.

I think this is also from Sweet Things.