Grey’s Fine Cheeses will open May 18th, but guests at the May 16th soft opening of Jackie Mau’s and Kurt Mullican’s new shop at 709 South Mendenhall were among the first to see the beautifully designed space and taste equally beautiful charcuterie boards loaded with meat and cheese.
Grey’s will feature cheese cut to order and already made or custom-made cheese boards. And they will teach people who are bit squeamish when it comes to cheese about how to pair cheese with wine and food. They also will feature weekly menu items, including cheese plates and food specials. Customers can dine inside or on the patio.
“It felt amazing seeing how everyone there had contributed to our vision of Grey’s, from our very first customers and all those who participated in the building project,” Jackie says. “Kurt and I wanted to show our gratitude together in making our dream come true.”
Asked how he felt about seeing their shop come together, Mullican says, “It was a pretty humbling moment. Ever since I was a kid I wanted a place to get great cheese and unique product. And to see that we created all this, it was incredible.”
Adds Jackie, “Kurt and I wanted to show our gratitude tother in making our dream come true. And we can’t wait to host our Memphis turophiles.”
Remarking on cheese made to resemble Monet paintings, Avon Pathak says, “You wouldn’t want to cut that. It’s too pretty to eat.”
Pathak knows “pretty.” Owner of Domus Interiors, Pathak was the interior designer of Grey’s.
“They had visited some fromageries in Paris,” Pathak says. “And when they came to me they said, ‘We want to achieve that.’ When I did some research, they all seemed to be ‘of the Earth’ and had been there since the dawn of the time. A lot of wood, a lot of great use of shelving, and a lot of great areas for display.”
Pathak visited France a couple of years ago, but she also did online research of European fromageries, including some in Paris and Italy. “Those all are very timeless looking.”
But, she says, “I wanted to bring theirs into this century, and give it a very modern kick.”
She “used the concept” of the Grey’s logo color. “And that’s the blue you see everywhere.”
Pathak, who has a bachelor’s degree in interior design, also learned visual merchandising from working for several years for a luxury goods company. So, she also stocked the shelves at Grey’s. “It has to be arranged beautifully because you are a high-end specialty store. You are not a grocery store.”
And, she says, “They have the most divine products.”
Pathak and Matthew Wrage, owner of CityWood, collaborated on the design of the tables, bar, and shelving, all of which Wrage built. “Oh, my gosh, he is such a passionate craftsman. We collaborated so perfectly with this. He just felt what I wanted to do. And for a designer, that is a dream team. It was my design and he ran with it.”
Says Wrage: “She came to me with a digital rendering of what it is she wanted and I took her digital rendering and designed and built it. If we took her digital rendering and compared it to what we got, it’s spot on.”
The dramatic 10-and-a-half foot bar is made of “two slabs from one magnolia tree,” Wrage says. “And then we did what — in our world — is called an ‘epoxy river.’ So, there is a mossy, smoky gray river that runs between the two slabs. It’s all in the a style that is happening right now. A lot of epoxy rivers are happening now. They wanted to do a very large specialty piece of an epoxy river dining serving area there.”
The shelving is made with iron and hickory and pecan wood. “The tables are also live edge pecan from locally-sourced trees,” Wrage says.
The iron was made at Iron & Design, which is owned by Wrage and Zach Shoe.
Wrage, who attended with Kirsten Cannon, also was impressed when he entered the shop during the party. “It was beautiful. It was such and amazing spread. And they did such a great job on visual presentation of the whole place.”
Downing’s cheese and charcuterie boards fell under the category of “too beautiful to eat.” And, for a while, it seemed like guests were afraid to touch them, but, after someone got the ball rolling, cheese and meat began to disappear.
One of Downing’s cheeseboards included 24-month aged Mimolette French cheese, 12-month old raw milk, Manchebo DOP, Beemster young goat Gouda, Beecher’s Reserve four-year old clothbound cheddar. The charcuterie board included Bresaola, Capicola, and duck prosciutto. House ferments were sour pickles and spicy mustard. His dishes included whipped Bellwether sheep’s milk ricotta with lemon, pickled berries, brioche toast, and torn herbs. Another dish was house-made naan bread with handmade feta from Meredith dairy in Australia, cherry tomato confit, arugula and walnut pesto.
Wine was Pasqua pinot noir.
Kenya Arquello with Pamapas Floral did the flowers. She attended with her husband, Oseas.
Grey’s is part of Williamsburg Village, which is comprised of “Southeast and Southwest parcels of Mendendahll from the Half Shell down to Gus’s and (across the street) Southall all the way down to the Torchy’s,” says Jonathan Aur with the developer, Boyle Investment Co.
Asked what he thought about what Mau and Mullican did with the approximately 1,300-square-foot-space, Aur says, “I think they nailed it. The vision they described to me eight months ago when we started this process and then walking into this space Sunday was pretty wild because it was almost transformative from the conversation to reality. It was really neat. The details, the layout, the product, everything, was just beyond what we could have imagined.”