Cheese Please: La Foumagerie

I'm really fond of Westmount. I went to school there for a couple of years, and I love browsing the tiny Japanese grocery store Miyamoto on Victoria Avenue. There isn't a lot of good food on the few streets I haunt, but La Foumagerie never lets me down. It's a little cheese shop that also sells sandwiches. In the summer, they set out chairs and umbrella stands on the patio, and it's always hard to find a seat. Sometimes, you can even see people lining up outside to order delicious lunches. 

The inside of the shop is crammed to the brim with goodies. Every shelf and counter displays sauces, jams, digestive crackers, imported chocolates and fancy sweets. There is, of course, a cheese counter with dozens of choices. Yum! But that's not what we're here for...

Here, we have A Well-Dressed Turkey, for 7.25$. Pesto rosso (aka sun-dried tomato pesto) smeared onto a good chunk of baguette bread, then piled neatly on top: a generous portion of turkey, one slice each of mozzarella, provologne, and swiss cheese, and finally dressed with fresh lettuce and tomato. This sandwich was quite a delight. The different cheeses provided fragrance and texture to every bite, and the pesto added a subtle woody aroma that slowly emerges as you chew.

This is the Smoking Goat, for 9.25$. It contains quite a bit of creamy goat cheese and a few slices of smoked salmon, topped with capers, black pepper, lemon juice, and the Foumagerie sauce. This sounds like a delicious combination of ingredients, but the lemon juice really overpowers all the other flavours. Yes, even the cheese.

I didn't have high expectations for the Beef Blues, priced at 6.50$. It has roast beef, Stilton sauce (a type of blue cheese), celery rémoulade, red onions, and lettuce. I have very little experience with blue cheese. Twice, I tried it in burgers. Twice, I was disgusted with the overwhelming sharpness and stink that invaded my mouth and stayed there. But Beef Blues was a wondrous revelation! The sauce was creamy, and actually paired well with the rest of the ingredients. It was sharp, but in a smooth way rather than in a stabbing me in the mouth way. The roast beef is pink and perfect, and my only complaint is that there should have been more of it! Don't be stingy with that yummy, tender beef...

Here is the British, for 6.95$. It looks like there is a lot of roast beef in this one, but I still found it to be less than enough. There is also tomato, Monterey Jack cheese, celery rémoulade, and Spanish onions, but the Foumagerie sauce masked all those flavours with its sweetness. It tastes like the honey mustard from Subway, honestly, and while I could see it working with other combinations, it disappointed me in this particular sandwich. The single slice of Jack, although tasty, didn't help. 

All in all, this is a lovely place for a light lunch or dinner. Some of their sandwiches need work with sauce toppings, but there is no disputing the quality of their cheeses, which are clearly the stars of the show. Next time, I'm going to buy from their cheese counter -- can't wait!

4906, rue Sherbrooke O.
Westmount, QC, H3Z 1H3
http://www.lafoumagerie.qc.ca/
(514) 482-4100