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New York circa 1948. "Window display of imported and domestic cheeses." Everything looks so ... gouda. 4x5 negative by John M. Fox. View full size.
Oh, how I miss cheese shops like this one and others that we used to visit in Greenwich Village when I was growing up. The smell could knock you down, but what a wonderful adventure. The cheese sections of even the higher-end grocery stories simply don't have the ambience of the neighborhood shop. As for Rheingold, we used to attend concerts (British Invasion groups mostly) sponsored by that very beverage. Memories!
How much for that stack of NY bagels on the left? Yum!
Born in 1946, I listened to the radio a lot from my earliest days, long before our family had our first television set. Much to my mom's chagrin, as a toddler the first song I learned to sing by myself was the Rheingold song, words exactly as tcrosse remembered.
... who immediately thought of the Monty Python Cheese Shop sketch?
Say IMPORTED cheese!!
In 1948 it had only been a very few years since the end of WW2, so IMPORTED cheese from Europe must have still been a delicacy.
from the country renowned for its cheeses, France, apart from the Roquefort. I wonder what the situation would be these days?
I don't drink beer, but I can still sing the Rheingold jingle. Echoes of my childhood.
The posted licenses offer a tantalizing clue as to the identity of this cheesemongery. Is there a higher-resolution version of the image?
[The "Grocery Store Beer License" was issued in June 1945. - Dave]
This one's crying out for colorizing - who's going to accept the challenge? Make sure you've got a fresh tube of yellow.
You are not allowed to post these kinds of images unless you are delivering (at the advertised prices).
The name of the town in Quebec (just outside Montreal) where Trappist monks began making this cheese at the Cistercian Abbey in 1893. Although now made by a commercial company, the cheese is still made in the town. Oka has a distinctive light orange rind and an instantly recognizable aroma and flavor.
They also sell Air-Wick for odor control.
To-day <(stet) all the deli displays show the cheeses already sliced and in a stack. A window display of the bulk product would make me gawk for a while like a tourist.
Some quick research revealed:
Bel Paese is a semi-soft Italian cheese. It was invented in 1906 by Egidio Galbani who wanted to produce a mild and delicate cheese to sell mainly in Italy.
Originally produced in Melzo in the Lombardy region, it is now made in both Italy and the US.
It has a mild, buttery flavor for which it has been popularly eaten with fruity wines, such as dry red or white. It melts easy for use on pizzas or in casseroles. Often a substitute for mozzarella cheese.
GENUINE Bel Paese cheese can be determined by the wrapping. It has an image of the Italian geologist and paleontologist Antonio Stoppani, whose geological treatise Il bel paese gave its name to Galbani's cheese, cheese made in the US has a map of the Americas.
This is the real Italian cheese, not produced in the US. My research did not establish when US production began.
I'll take a large pie with extra Bel Paese please!
My beer is Rheingold the dry beer.
Think of Rheingold whenever you buy beer.
It's not bitter, not sweet, it's the extra dry treat—Won't you try extra dry Rheingold beer?
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