Who stole my cheese?

By Randall Turk

Transcript Business Editor

If someone stole your cheese, now you can get it replaced with something far tastier.

Forward Foods, a downtown convenience store for “cheese heads” and other gastronomes, opened at 123 E. Main St., last weekend. Owned by the man and wife team Suzy Thompson and Steve Reynolds, the store already has drawn more than its share of curious browsers.

Besides stocking more than 200 cheeses from throughout the country and the world, Forward Foods offers hand-pulled Italian pastas, heirloom beans and grains, Farrell Family Bread from a Tulsa artisan baker, extra virgin olive oils and even fresh flowers and clever “Cardiology” greeting cards.

“Customers who’ve been in tell us it feels so European or New York to them,” Suzy said of the store. But the couple’s pride and joy comes from contented cows. “We are bringing only the best cheeses here,” said Suzy. “Norman is home to many people from around the world who miss their cheeses, imported and domestic.”

Besides the obvious draw of its merchandise, the store is proof of where the “smart money” went. The business was financed by Steve’s winnings from the “Jeopardy” TV game show in 2003. Maybe cheese is brain food.

A former banker, Steve said he is grateful for the chance to do something he loves. “I won enough money to change careers,” he said. “The opportunity to go into business for myself was too exciting. I am extremely lucky.”

The store, described as “more of a neighborhood store instead of supermarket,” is located two doors west of First Fidelity Bank in a building formerly occupied by Cindy’s Resale clothing shop. The landlord gutted and rebuilt the interior expressly for Forward Foods. Some of the fixtures were custom built by a Norman friend.

The neighborhood food store may also be a trend-setter. Small local businesses like “Fancy That cafe-bakery-takery” are beginning to move back to historic downtown Norman. (Fancy That shut down its west side store Thursday and is scheduled to reopen at 215 E. Main St. by Oct. 9 or sooner, says owner Robin Allen. The new address is next door to Forward Foods.)

Suzy and Steve, both University of Oklahoma graduates, developed careers that took them to New York for more than five years. Suzy was with the Food Network and Martha Stewart Living magazine. Steve was a Wall Street banker.

“You can have a nice quality of life in New York, but you have to make a lot of money to have any kind of space,” Steve said.

When the couple returned in 2001, Suzy ran a cafe at Opolis, a talent venue that books local and touring rock band appearances in Norman. Steve went to work for BancFirst. After Opolis, Suzy said, she was approached by a group of OU professors yearning for the cheeses they knew were out there.

“They were looking for a way to get the cheeses they had in places like France, New York and Austin,” she said. “I agreed to have a cheese sale and see how it went.”

The response was overwhelming. “These cheese sales became events, with lines out the doors. I doubled the quantity of cheese ordered and sold out — every time.

“The decision was made. The demand is here for a specialty food market.”

Besides 30 varieties of high-end pasta and as many versions of heirloom beans and grains not commercially grown, Forward Foods has a little bit of everything, much of it organic. Himalayan red rice. Purple sticky rice. Bamboo rice, green because it was soaked in bamboo juice.

There are fruit spreads and preserves, pasta sauces, bargain exotic spices selling for $1, a large variety of cookies and crackers, gourmet teas and chocolates and many interesting cookbooks from both renowned and not so famous masters.

The store has the “Meyer’s Clean Day” line of aromatherapeutic cleaning supplies like laundry and dishwasher detergent, cleaning sprays and bar soaps in lemon, lavender and geranium fragrances.

Check out the vintage soda pop selection of many flavors from Boylan Bottleworks, a family-run New Jersey company operating since 1891. The sodas are made with pure cane sugar. The rainbow of flavors includes the likes of popular citruses and black cherry. Then there’s the Goose Creek brand of handcrafted sodas from Chicago. The orange cream is a smash hit.

Starting any small independent retail operation is risky business. SBA statistics show only about 20 percent survive the first five years. So it is ironic this one sprang from “Jeopardy.”

“The show had tryouts in Oklahoma City in 2003, and I got on a few months later,” Steve recalls. “I won four games, all in one taping session.” Steve says he regrets not studying the game before his appearance on the show. A knowledge of history and trivia is only one aspect of the Jeopardy game, he said. “You have to know how to wager. And because two people will probably know the answer, the buzzer is 35 to 40 percent of the game.”

Steve was finally stumped by missing the buzzer for John Fremont in the presidential candidate category. “It was emotional, a lot of adrenaline under the hot TV lights,” he said. “I miss the excitement of being there.”

His consolation prize is the cheese. Among favorites are the organic cheeses from Cowgirl Creamery in California, consistent award-winners in American Cheese Society (ACS) annual competitions. One of them, as Suzy describes it: “Cowgirl Creamery Mt. Tam, organic. A smooth, creamy, elegant 8-oz. triple-cream made with tasty organic milk from the Straus Family Dairy. Mt . Tam is firm, yet buttery with a mellow, earthy flavor reminiscent of white mushrooms. Mt. Tam won first prize in the soft-ripened category at this year’s American Cheese Society competition.”

Another domestic cheese is the Cabot cloth-bound cheddar, which Suzy says is “aged in a little cave in Massachusetts.” This cheese won best in show from this year’s ACS judges, she said.

Made in Oklahoma food has not been forgotten. For instance, the store is offering butter and yogurt from Wagon Creek Creamery near Helena in Alfalfa County.

“They’re the only people in Oklahoma who make butter now,” Suzy said. Oklahoma-based Braum’s Dairy has quit making its own butter, she said.

Among other of the couple’s favorites are all the Spanish cheeses and those produced in France, Switzerland and other European dairy regions. Some are costly, running to $15 or even $20 a pound. Perhaps that makes it more likely someone really will steal your cheese. But many say the sensual taste experience is worth it all. Of course, patrons are allowed to sample cheeses before buying.

The Forward Foods grand opening is expected sometime this month, after the store gets its awning installed out front, Steve said. “Our emphasis is offering only the best,” he said. “Every product is picked by Suzy, who cares about quality. The best cheeses from around the world are flown in.”

Steve and Suzy say they attend “fancy food shows” in New York and Chicago to sample new products. They are working with several gourmet food distributors, as well.

Perhaps most importantly, operating a business of this sort is a constant learning process. So is shopping there, Steve said: “This is a really fun place to learn about things.”

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