WEST OCEAN CITY — The West O Bottle Shop, located off Route 50 in West Ocean City, has recently unveiled an expanded artisan cheese market stocking cheese, specialty crackers and charcuterie products.
For over 22 years, owners Dave and Sara Hambury have made a business of specializing in beer, wine and spirits. When the store was expanded to its current size, the Hambury’s began selling cheese out of a small area in the shop. The new market area is now centrally located in the renovated bar area.
“The pandemic forced the closure of daily operations of the on-premise bar,” said Sara Hambury. “Then we entered two years of a labor shortage and needed all-hands-on-deck to fulfill our retail obligations. The bar space is prime real estate within our shop to expand the cheese and food market into.”
The new addition at the bottle shop is a direct reaction to a changes influenced by the pandemic. Instead of making elaborate meals, Americans embraced the idea of grazing on well-made cheese and charcuterie and this trend has significant staying power.
“Our focus is on artisan and farmstead produced award-winning selections,” Sara Hambury said. “These are products made by passionate people much like many of our beverages are. Just as winemakers take care with their vineyards and every step along the way to a gorgeous bottle of wine, so do these cheese producers. With the farmstead labeled cheese, the raw milk comes from the producers own herd of animals. So yes, these are the people up early in the morning overseeing the grass, which feeds the cow, cutting the curds, making magic happen to create amazing cheeses. Artisan products simply taste better because every single element and process matters to them.”
The bottle shop stocks convenient sized one-ounce preserves, honeys and dips as well as charcuterie items such as Italian prosciutto, Spanish jamon, and Denver made il Porcellino artisanal dry-cured salumi. Being Maryland proud, offerings also include baguettes from Crest Hill Bakery (Glen Dale), cheese from Firefly Farms (Accident) and Chapel Country Creamery (Easton).
The bottle shop still has seating to accommodate 25 guests and plans to offer cheese and wine pairing classes in the future. For now, guests are invited to join the team at the bar most every Friday evenings for free tastings.
“It’s been fun to reach out to small producers and say ‘I want to bring your products to our customers,’” said Sara Hambury. “I have a store full of adult indulgences, the expanded cheese market only adds to that. Elevated snacking, whether it’s for Netflix-and-chill, or an impromptu happy hour with the neighborhood, we now have that to offer.”