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    Black Radish Creamery Adds Adorable Farm Store & Location in Dublin

    Black Radish Creamery has recently opened two new stores, a new farm store near Granville, and a stall at North Market Bridge Park in Dublin.

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    “With COVID, opening a new location in Dublin, and a farm store, we are looking forward to just fine tuning what we have created thus far,” says John Reese, culinary director and cheesemaker of Black Radish Creamery. “It’s been a whirlwind for the last few years so taking this time to get the details nailed is now our priority.”

    If you’ve spent time at the North Market Downtown, and visited the Black Radish Creamery stall, you’d know that details are what makes this food business stand out. The new farm store is a gorgeous extension of their brand, and the new stall in Bridge Park’s North Market continues the sleek look.

    The Black Radish Creamery Farm Store. Photo courtesy Black Radish Creamery.
    The Black Radish Creamery Farm Store. Photo courtesy Black Radish Creamery.

    The farm store is a 180 square-foot custom build from Weaver Barns in Sugar Creek that John and his wife Anne detailed with their signature dark look.

    “Essentially I make everything taste good, and she makes everything look good,” says Reese. “Anything beyond that is equally shared efforts.”

    The couple started on their culinary business adventure together in 2011, choosing a name that blended Anne’s heritage (her maiden name means ‘radish’ in German) with a play on ‘black sheep.’

    “I wanted to incorporate Anne into the name because none of this would have happened without her encouragement [for me] to go to culinary school,” says Reese. “We wanted our products to stand out in a crowd.”

    Black Radish Creamery's stall in North Market Bridge Park. Photo courtesy Black Radish Creamery.
    Black Radish Creamery’s stall in North Market Bridge Park.
    Photo courtesy Black Radish Creamery.

    The couple met in Dublin through a family-work connection, then moved to New York to pursue culinary opportunities.

    “We both headed to New York to immerse ourselves in the culinary world,” says Reese.

    Related reading on The Metropreneur: How living in the Hudson Valley area inspired the creation of the farm store

    He enrolled at The Culinary Institute of America (CIA) in Hyde Park and she took a job working in the commercial food photography industry in NYC, although she eventually ended up working at the CIA media department.

    Their individual experiences combined into an incredible business relationship.

    At first, Reese was headed toward specializing in butchery, but that opportunity fell through.

    “I kept hearing about cheese opportunities in the area,” he says, and landed a job at Sprout Creek Farm in Poughkeepsie, NY as an assistant cheesemaker.

    “From there, I was instantly hooked. I loved that it was based on science, it was in the culinary arts, it demanded focus and patience, and also had a great physical nature to it.”

    He continued his focus in cheese making and eventually the couple packed up and headed back to Ohio to start a cheese making company. But cheese would not be the first food product they made.

    “We moved back to Ohio in 2011 and began selling our “cheese friendly” fruit preserves that summer at the Granville Famers Market,” says Reese.

    A sample of Black Radish Creamery's products. Photo courtesy Black Radish Creamery.
    A sample of Black Radish Creamery’s products. Photo courtesy Black Radish Creamery.

    The ‘Billionaire’ preserve was the first product for the company. A blend of strawberry, rhubarb, Beaujolais wine, and vanilla bean, Reese made it to serve with cheese at their wedding.

    “It was a hit,” he says. “A perfect partner to Camembert cheese.”

    The cheese side of the company came along about six years later, the first product being fresh cheddar curds.

    He credits their start at the Granville Farmers Market with how they got noticed in the local food scene.

    The business grew and within a year or so, Anne was able to leave her food photography career and focus full-time on the creamery and everything else they dreamed of for Black Radish Creamery.

    “At that time, everything was made in super small batches in our kitchen and Anne handled labeling, marketing, and such as needed,” he says.

    It took some time before the cheese side of the company got going. Cheese takes time to make, their building was taking time to build, and it was taking time to find a good source for milk. When they were ready for their business to find a solid relationship with a dairy, Stone Wall Dairy came along.

    Cows from Stone Wall Dairy, grazing on the hillside. Photo courtesy Black Radish Creamery.
    Cows from Stone Wall Dairy,
    grazing on the hillside.
    Photo courtesy Black Radish Creamery.

    “This connection was serendipitous and the timing was nearly perfect,” says Reese.

    Stone Wall Dairy is a small dairy farm of mostly Ayershires, located outside of Cambridge, Ohio. Owned by Lewis Catlett, the sixth-generation farm has been in the Catlett family since 1888. The family farm was about to lose their relationship with their co-op that was refocusing to work with larger dairies. The higher fat content of the milk is perfect for the cheeses that Reese planned to produce for Black Radish Creamery and the two companies decided to work together.

    Cheese will continue to be the main focus of the business, but there are plans to continue to develop the line of fruit preserves. Reese grew up in Holmes County, Ohio and still utilizes connections he made during childhood to source fruit for their preserves.

    “All of the fruit we use is grown in Ohio and sourced when it’s at its peak for the best flavor,” he says. “Most of the fruit we source is grown on small family farms in Amish country. We get snail mail letters from the farmers telling us the fruit is ready come pick up in a couple days. When the fruit is ready, we make it our priority.”

    Creating food that creates memories is the best part of the business for Reese, although having award-winning products is pretty good too. It’s a challenging business, but “to be able to create a positive food memory for someone is truly rewarding.”

    He extends the same thought process for the products they choose to carry in the farm store and the North Market stalls.

    “If it brings us joy we think it will probably do the same for others,” he says. “We love supporting other local makers and this is a great opportunity for that.”

    Visit the Black Radish Creamery Farm Store at 3700 Morse Rd., Alexandria, OH 43001. Hours are currently 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. every day, and may expand during the summer. The self-service store accepts credit and debit cards, cash, and Venmo, but not checks.

    Currently in the farm store you can find products from: Seaworthy Bread, North Country Charcuterie, Hiland Farms Meats & Eggs, Latshaw Apiaries Honey, Fyffe Farm Organic Microgreens, Kokoborrego Cheese Company, Ludwig’s Kitchen Spice Blends, Weed Knob Acres Breadsticks, and Mackenzie Creamery Goat Cheese.

    You can also find Black Radish Creamery inside the historic North Market at 59 Spruce St., Columbus, OH 43215 (cheese shop) and inside the North Market Bridge Park at 6750 Longshore St., Dublin, OH 43017 (full menu coming soon with grab-and-go cheese plates, fried cheese curds, paninis, made-from-scratch soups, and seasonal salads).

    For more information, visit blackradishcreamery.com.

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    Anne Evans
    Anne Evanshttps://www.linkedin.com/in/anne-evans/
    Anne Evans is the Co-Founder and Director of Operations for The Metropreneur and Columbus Underground. She regularly contributes feature stories on both sites, as well as Mega Weekend each week. She has started and grown businesses, created experiences, forged community partnerships, and worked to create opportunities for others. She loves meeting new neighbors and those making an impact in our community. Want to connect?
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