Celebrating our #CamdenInspire runners up — The Cheese Bar

On December 6th 2018 at Camden Collective, we celebrated the best of Camden and Euston’s local independent businesses whose every day jobs are to offer a unique service, attract new customers and stand out from the crowd. It’s not easy, but what they do make our towns the special places they are. Running your own business in London means high rents and a hugely competitive market. But every day, these business owners continue to astound us with their commitment, innovation and fresh ideas. Putting it to the public vote, we asked you to show your appreciation. 70 businesses took part this year across 6 categories and we had an amazing 6,000 votes, which we only hope to double next year! We’ve celebrated the winners, but now it’s time to catch up with the runners up, and we’re kicking it off with a spotlight on The Cheese Bar, our runners up in our ‘Star Market Trader’ category…

The Cheese Bar began life on the streets. They made a name for themselves as The Cheese Truck, melting British cheeses to produce some of the UK’s best grilled cheese sandwiches.

Mathew Carver, Owner of The Cheese Bar said,

“What began as just a few sandwiches to our friends and family at Maltby Street Market, quickly grew into something much larger. We traded events all over the country, provided food for some of world’s most famous brands and even took our trucks all the way to Dubai and Istanbul!”

After a few years, they decided that it was time to take things to the next level, and to bring British cheese to people in even more new and exciting ways. After their first successful crowdfunder, they opened The Cheese Bar in spring 2017…

Mathew said,

“Opening The Cheese Bar has been our hardest challenge yet! Going from a business which operates mainly at weekends to one which is open seven days a week, every day of the year (except for Christmas day!) — it’s just a completely different ball game. Because we were already so well known, there was a lot of pressure right from the start. It’s been almost two years now, and we’ve really got into the swing of things. We can finally focus on all the things we wanted to develop but just never had the chance!”

Since then, there’s been lots of ups and downs and memorable moments for The Cheese Bar, but Mathew spoke of a warming moment that particularly stood out,

“I’ll always remember when we first opened, and the queues around the corner. We did a Sandwich Amnesty, and were able to donate around 250 sandwiches to local homeless charities.”

So…how did they manage to craft an entire menu of cheese-based dishes?

With an extensive amount of research, trial and error, they looked for inspiration from both the UK and further afield, figuring out which of the many amazing British cheeses could be best showcased in each dish.

And which ones are the best?

Mathew recommends trying the delicious Queso Fundido — Mexico’s answer to Fondue — which they make with two different cheeses made by Gringa Dairy, in Peckham; or their Mayfield Gougères (more affectionately known as cheese puffs).

Considering they’re relatively new to the Camden community, it’s a fantastic achievement to come second in our ‘Star Market Trader’ category…and, in Mathew’s words,

“Hopefully in years to come, we might just give the older Camden institutions a run for their money. 2019 is set to be our biggest year yet. We’re planning to open another couple of restaurants in London, with some exciting variations on the concept we had for Camden (all top secret at the moment!). In Camden, we’ll be holding lots of cheesy events — from Bottomless Raclette nights to pairing evenings with some of our favourite British cheesemakers — as well as working on some new seasonal dishes for the spring/summer!”

We’re looking forward to what 2019 brings for our well deserved runners up and cheese gurus! They were a fantastic business to have in the #CamdenInspire awards and we hope to see them taking part next year with the same incredible commitment and determination.

- Until next year!

Follow the Cheese Bar:

Twitter: @thecheesebarldn

Instagram: @thecheesebarldn

Visit their website: https://www.thecheesebar.com/