Blu — A Wine and Cheese Stop opens on Tucson's west side

Wine, craft beer and local breads are selected to complement the variety of cut-to-order specialty cheeses at the recently opened Blu — A Wine and Cheese Stop, located at the Mercado San Agustín on West Congress Street at Avenida del Convento.

The stand-alone shop features certified cheese mongers who know everything about the cheese they are selling — from the milk it’s made of to the cheese makers themselves — and pass that information along to customers as they try samples before they buy.

“It’s a way to give voice to the small farmer,” said Tana Fryer, cheese monger and owner of Blu.

Along with its retail cut-to-order cheese, wine and beer, the new shop offers sandwiches and salads, as well as a wine bar. It carries between 30 and 40 different cheeses at any given time, 85 percent to 90 percent of them domestic.

Fryer became passionate about the cheese-making process after working for Pastoral Artisan Cheese, Bread and Wine in Chicago, where she spent time with dairy farmers and cheese makers, learning the nitty-gritty of how cheese is made.

That passion turned into a business when Fryer moved back to Tucson and couldn’t find the cheeses she had gotten used to, and “people who wanted to give voice to the small farmers.”

Blu was born when Fryer took a catering job for an event at downtown’s Fox Tucson Theatre and she had to find the type of foods she wanted. From there, she began working with restaurants to help them understand and purchase better cheeses.

Reilly Craft Pizza & Drink was one of her first restaurant clients. Fryer does regular tastings with Reilly and adds to the list of cheeses on its popular chef’s board. She provides training to the restaurant’s staff on how to talk about the products. “Our goal is that the people serving the cheese can talk about it,” Fryer said. “Tell you more than it’s a bleu or a cheddar.”

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“Her product is exceptional ... just about better than anything we’ve tasted,” said Jay Zimmermann, general manager of Reilly. “We’ve gone through European imports and done a lot of tastings, so for us to think she has the best says quite a bit.”

Reilly’s customers like to have access to things that are from local businesses, Zimmermann added.

Blu’s next move was selling cheese inside of Alfonso’s Olive Oils on Sundays as part of the farmers market at St. Philip’s Plaza. In November 2013, Blu opened full time in Alfonso’s, offering artisanal cheese, specialty meats, accompaniments and gift boxes.

Since Blu was also selling its products at the Mercado San Augustín Farmers Market and working out of the Mercado Kitchen for catering jobs, it made sense to open a stand-alone store there. It opened at the end of January.

Just a few weeks after the Mercado opening, Blu opened a third location inside Alfonso’s Olive Oil’s new store at North Oracle and Magee roads.

Between the three stores, Blu employs 13 people.

Fryer said even though she stocks wine and cheese from all over the world, she also purchases products from local cheese makers and wineries, and has recently become a supplier of Southern Arizona’s Fiore di Capra goat cheese, which comes from Pomerene, near Benson. “It allows people to know what’s going on here.”

“It’s been a crazy, wonderful few months,” Fryer said. “We have kept walking through doors that seem to open up partnerships that make sense.”