We discovered Fromage Fine Foods and Coffees after a visit to the the Florence Griswold House in Old Lyme, CT turned out to be more fun (and time consuming) than expected.

I had promised some Cato Corner farm cheeses to Annette for an event the following evening, but we were now unable to reach Cato Corner Farm before closing. A quick web search on my Kindle Fire showed Fromage right across the river - what a find!

Fromage is a long, skinny shop choc-a-bloc with goodies. The cheeses are way, way down back, behind racks of herbs, prepared sauces, cracker-matter and other essentials for fine entertaining. We got four Cato Corner cheeses, the famous Hooligan and his three hard drinking brothers: Drunken Hooligan, Drunk Monk, and Despearado (to be reported on in a few days). Where else can you find such a lineup?

Really, the challenge would be finding them among the huge list in their coolers. They have a great big blackboard listing their available cheeses. It is big enough to be scary; the quality suffers when cheeses sit too long. We'll know more on that tonight, but all indications are that they move a lot of product and they know how to keep it.

The staff was knowledgeable, helpful, and efficient. They understood my Cato Corner "vertical tasting" mission as soon as it hatched in my brain and offered helpful feedback.

Lorna has been recently disappointed in the availability of Epoisses, but they had a fresher and an older Epoisses to select from and knew more about them than your typical Whole Foods cheesemonger, so Lorna went away happy, too.

We'll be back to Fromage Fine Foods and Coffees the next time we explore the Lower Connecticut River.