There is something irreplaceable about a man who plates every serving by hand, right before your eyes, in a space no larger than a captain’s quarters on one of Port Jefferson’s old wooden schooners. Joseph Ciardullo did exactly that for nearly a decade at C’est Cheese, a cheese tavern he opened in September 2011 on the lower stretch of Main Street—that narrow, harbor-sloping artery of Route 25A that has carried the village’s commercial heartbeat since Captain William L. Jones first built his causeway across the salt marsh in 1836 (Historical Society of Greater Port Jefferson). From its modest 216B storefront, wedged into the kind of building that has changed hands a dozen times since the shipbuilding boom, Ciardullo built something rare on Long Island’s North Shore: a genuinely European-inflected dining experience rooted in the obsessive pursuit of a single ingredient. Cheese. Every variety, every origin, every pairing treated with the attention a jeweler gives a loose stone. The shop earned distinction as one of the only establishments on Long Island to employ two American Cheese Society Certified Cheese Professionals—a credential that demands a minimum of 4,000 hours of industry experience and the passage of a rigorous 150-question examination covering everything from microbiology to affinage (American Cheese Society, 2023). For a village of roughly 8,000 residents, that level of professional certification was nothing short of extraordinary.

The Vision: Le Style Français on the North Shore

Ciardullo’s concept was deceptively simple. He wanted a place where you could sit with a glass of boutique wine or a pour from an eight-line craft beer tower, and eat cheese that was cut to order from a case holding upward of 150 varieties at any given time. He studied at the Culinary Academy of Long Island and the French Culinary Institute of New York, and those dual educations fused into a single animating philosophy: that cheese is not merely food, but culture—a living, breathing product of terroir, season, and human patience (Patch, 2011). The name itself was a bilingual pun—pronounced “say cheese”—that captured the spirit of the place. It was playful enough to disarm the casual visitor, yet sophisticated enough to signal that what waited behind the glass counter was serious. The opening menu featured cheese-focused sandwiches, salads, quiches, poutines, and mac and cheese plates, all scrawled across charcoal-colored chalkboards in a space designed with sleek, chic European lines. Ciardullo did not merely stock cheese. He curated it. His selections ranged from Cypress Grove Chèvre and Consider Bardwell Farm’s offerings to one of his personal favorites, Jasper Hill Farm’s Constant Bliss—a raw milk, bloomy-rind cheese from Greensboro, Vermont, that he described with the kind of reverence most people reserve for fine wine. He spoke of its mushroom, truffle, and butter flavors the way a sommelier might describe the terroir of a Burgundy vineyard. Jasper Hill Farm, founded by brothers Andy and Mateo Kehler, has since won multiple American Cheese Society Best in Show awards and operates a 22,000-square-foot underground aging facility—the largest of its kind in the United States (Jasper Hill Farm; Wikipedia).

The Craft of Pairing: Beer, Wine, and Fromage

What separated C’est Cheese from a standard specialty food shop was Ciardullo’s insistence on pairing as an art form. He understood that the interplay between a cheese’s fat content, acidity, and rind character demanded a beverage of equal complexity. His eight-line craft beer tower rotated constantly, pulling from Long Island producers like Port Jeff Brewing Company and Greenport Harbor Brewing Company, as well as nationally recognized breweries like Other Half, Evil Twin, and Grimm Artisanal Ales—names that reflected the craft beer renaissance reshaping American drinking culture (Untappd; Benedict Beer Blog). His boutique wine list was equally deliberate, emphasizing small-production bottles that most patrons would never encounter at a standard North Shore wine bar. Ciardullo hosted private group tastings designed to educate customers on the mechanics of pairing—how a crisp Sauvignon Blanc could unlock the lemony tang of a fresh chèvre, or how a barrel-aged stout might stand up to the salted intensity of a Roquefort. The Edible Long Island publication noted that C’est Cheese also supplied artisanal cheese selections to neighboring restaurants including Ruvo East and The Fifth Season, as well as Restaurant Mirabelle in Stony Brook—an indication that Ciardullo’s curatorial eye was trusted by some of the North Shore’s most respected kitchens (Edible Long Island, 2015).

Certified Cheese Professionals: The Standard Behind the Counter

In 2018, C’est Cheese achieved a milestone that cemented its place in the regional food landscape: two members of its staff earned the designation of ACS Certified Cheese Professional. The CCP credential, administered by the American Cheese Society—a nonprofit trade organization founded in 1983 by Cornell University professor Frank Kosikowski—is widely regarded as the most rigorous professional certification in the American cheese industry (American Cheese Society; Wikipedia). Candidates must demonstrate mastery across every domain of the cheese business, from production science and safety protocols to retail service and sensory evaluation. For context, the ACS currently has approximately 2,400 members worldwide, and only a fraction hold the CCP designation. The fact that a small tavern on Main Street in Port Jefferson achieved this distinction speaks to the depth of Ciardullo’s commitment. It also reflects a broader movement in the American artisan cheese industry—one that has seen the number of artisan creameries in the United States grow from a handful in the early 1980s to several hundred by the 2020s, driven by consumer demand for products with provenance, transparency, and genuine craft.

The Grilled Cheese Philosopher

Culture Magazine, one of the cheese industry’s most respected publications, profiled Ciardullo in a 2014 feature titled “Cheesemonger Tales,” dubbing him the “God of Grilled Cheese.” The profile revealed a man whose creative process was simultaneously intuitive and rigorous. With 100 to 150 varieties in his case at any given time, Ciardullo was never short on inspiration. He described experimenting with halloumi, pickled red onions, and sun-dried tomato pesto on grilled bread, or crafting a blue cheese melt with raspberry-cranberry relish—combinations that balanced sweet, salt, acid, and fat with the precision of a Marcellino NY stitch pattern on English bridle leather (Culture Magazine, 2014). Perhaps most telling was his approach to skeptical customers. When someone claimed to dislike blue cheese or goat cheese, Ciardullo treated it as a personal challenge—a puzzle to solve through careful selection and tasting. That disposition mirrors what I’ve learned after twenty-five years running The Heritage Diner in Mount Sinai: the best operators don’t argue with a customer’s preference. They expand it. They find the bridge between what a person thinks they want and what might genuinely surprise them. It is the same philosophy that guides the Marcellino NY workshop—the conviction that most people have never experienced the genuine article, and that once they do, they cannot go back.

Port Jefferson: The Village That Shaped the Tavern

To understand C’est Cheese, you must understand Port Jefferson. Originally known as Drowned Meadow, the village was first settled in the seventeenth century and transformed into a significant shipbuilding hub by the 1830s, constructing massive wooden vessels that contributed to the booming maritime industry of the nineteenth century (Wikipedia; Historical Society of Greater Port Jefferson). The shipyards declined by the early twentieth century, but the village’s deepwater harbor and picturesque Main Street ensured its reinvention as a year-round tourism and dining destination. Today, the Port Jefferson Village Historic District is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and the village supports more than thirty restaurants within its compact geography. The Bridgeport-Port Jefferson Ferry connects the North Shore to Connecticut, the Long Island Rail Road delivers visitors directly into the village, and the annual Dickens Festival—running every December since 1996—draws thousands of visitors to its Victorian-themed streets. Ciardullo, a resident of Port Jefferson since 2005, saw his shop as both a reflection of and a contribution to the village’s evolution. He wanted to be part of Port Jefferson’s transformation from a seasonal summer destination into a year-round culinary community. That ambition placed C’est Cheese alongside establishments like The Fifth Season, Pasta Pasta, and Danford’s Hotel and Marina in the effort to make Port Jefferson’s dining scene competitive with anything on the North Shore.

The Closing: July 2020

On July 8, 2020, C’est Cheese announced on Facebook that it would close its doors permanently by Sunday, July 12, at 6:00 p.m. The post was gracious and reflective, noting that the friendships made within those walls would always be cherished. Ciardullo acknowledged that the COVID-19 pandemic had impacted the business—forcing staff layoffs, the creation of a delivery service, and constant reinvention—but he was candid that the decision ran deeper than the virus. The daily operational demands of running a food-service business in a “fickle town” had become overwhelming (TBR News Media, 2020; Greater Long Island, 2020). On the shop’s final Friday, customers formed a line that stretched along the Main Street sidewalk, waiting to say goodbye, to buy one last wedge, to share one last glass. That image—a line of people on a summer evening in Port Jefferson, waiting for cheese—says everything about what Ciardullo built. He did not simply sell a product. He cultivated a community. The phrase the team used in their farewell captures it precisely: “In this industry we have a saying—the cheese fam is the best fam.”

A Legacy of Craft on the North Shore

The story of C’est Cheese is, at its core, a story about what happens when a single person decides to pursue a craft at its highest level in a market that does not always reward that ambition. Ciardullo brought French Culinary Institute training, ACS certification, and an uncompromising palate to a Main Street storefront, and for nine years he proved that Long Island’s North Shore could sustain a genuinely world-class cheese experience. From a diner operator’s perspective—twenty-five years at The Heritage Diner, watching businesses come and go along Route 25A between Mount Sinai and Port Jefferson—what Ciardullo accomplished was the food-service equivalent of building a bespoke briefcase from a single side of J&E Sedgwick English bridle leather. Every detail intentional. Every pairing considered. Every plate composed by hand. The space at 216B Main Street may house a different tenant now, but the standard Ciardullo set—the idea that a neighborhood establishment can operate at a level of professional certification and sensory sophistication typically reserved for Manhattan—remains an aspiration for every independent operator on the North Shore. If you find yourself walking the harbor stretch of Port Jefferson on a summer evening, past the spot where C’est Cheese once stood, raise a glass to the man who proved that the unseen details are what define a masterpiece.

Address: 216B Main Street, Port Jefferson, NY 11777 (Permanently Closed — July 2020)

Founder: Joseph Ciardullo — Culinary Academy of Long Island, French Culinary Institute of New York, ACS Certified Cheese Professional

Years of Operation: September 2011 – July 2020

Yelp Rating: 4.5 Stars (257 Reviews)

DoorDash Rating: 4.6 Stars (50+ Reviews)

Specialty: Artisanal cheese, craft beer, boutique wine, cheese-focused cuisine

Notable Distinction: Two American Cheese Society Certified Cheese Professionals on staff — among the only establishments on Long Island to hold this credential

Related Viewing:

The Big Cheese (2025) — Documentary following American cheesemongers competing at the Mondial du Fromage in France. Streaming via DOC NYC and screening at the 2026 Santa Barbara International Film Festival.
Cheese: A Love Story — Six-episode series available on Hulu, exploring cheese traditions across Switzerland, France, Greece, and Canada.
Shelf Life (2024) — Winner of Best Cinematography at the Tribeca Film Festival, exploring the parallels between cheese aging and human aging.

Port Jefferson Village Resources:

Port Jefferson Chamber of Commerce: 631-473-1414
Port Jefferson Village Hall: 631-473-4724 | www.portjeff.com
Bridgeport & Port Jefferson Ferry: 631-473-0286 | www.bpjferry.com
Long Island Rail Road: 631-231-LIRR | www.lirr.org

Published on The Heritage Diner Blog — heritagediner.com/blog Written from Mount Sinai, New York — where Route 25A connects our kitchen to the harbor villages of the North Shore.