New York Is Getting A One-Of-A-Kind Conveyor Belt Cheese Restaurant (And It's Anything But Gimmicky)

Imagine being a the center of a cheese universe where prized American cheeses by the Northeast's most prestigious and passionate producers, like the opulent triple cream St. Stephen and funkily fermented Intergalactic, revolve around you. Without leaving your barstool perch, embark on a tasting tour of milky way marvels from Philadelphia to Vermont, a pastoral parade on a one-of-a-kind conveyor belt. Adroitly arranged with cleverly paired condiments, coyly ensconced under glass cloches to entice by way of voyeurism, this cheese carousel on pleasingly pastel petite plates ferries a sensorial arc of flavors — mild to sharp — textures silky to crumbly. Drifting along, they murmur, "Pick me!" 

And Pick & Cheese you will, in spring 2026, when this hit cheese restaurant from London lands in New York. The interactive, artfully presented moving installation is Instagram bait: A feat of epicurean engineering inspired by kaiten-zushi, affordable dining on luxury sushi that's a brain chemistry-altering experience in Japan. But with its solid pedigree of oft-unheralded U.S. cheeses, it's anything but gimmicky. Dreamed (creamed?) up by Londoner Mathew Carver, the self-proclaimed "Cheese Man" who started constructing gourmet grilled cheese sandwiches with The Cheese Truck, he now champions British cheese territorial heritage and creativity with his Funk cheesemonger and other cheese-centric eateries: The Cheese Bar, The Cheese Barge, and Rind. He flies the same flag for German cheeses at Pick & Cheese's Berlin outpost, where the belt unfurls adventurous unions like raw alpine bergkäse with fudge, North Sea-salty deichkäse with sauerkraut, and goat cheese with Turkish delight. Expect the same ardent ambassadorship for American fromage at Manhattan's Shaver Hall food market, personally curated by Carver and his "Head of Cheese," Hero Hirsch, a decorated industry veteran who once purveyed cheese for British royals. 

From the Big Apple's urban core, your Midtown Pick & Cheese dairy-dim-sum whisks you, at least in appetite, to the region's verdant farmsteads. Here, ambrosial artisan cheeses are the natural byproducts of small-batch makers intent on responsible sourcing, whether cultivating their own herd or working closely with zero-mile suppliers. Mathew Carver's favorites include the multiple award-winning voluptuous goat-and-cow milk blend Kunik from Nettle Meadow Farm in the Adirondacks (also an animal sanctuary) and selections from Vermont's Spring Brook Farm, which interprets traditional French methods using small-batch Jersey cow milk. Come for the whimsical cheese flight of fancy, and dive into a deeper appreciation of exemplary cheeses you may not know exist in your backyard.

If this fourth Pick & Cheese follows the blueprint of its brethren, you'll be spoiled for choice with 20-something cheese choices cruising a 60-foot lap, with classic complements like charcuterie and pickles also along for the joyride. Beyond the belt, a menu presents grilled cheese sandwiches, desserts, and special concoctions (at the Camden Market location, it's a constantly sold-out whipped goat cheese doughnut). There are also tasting notes on all cheeses a-whirl, plus space to capture your own. Each cheese plate color is tagged to a price point, and together with an accessible drinks list with trending elixirs, it works out to a Tripadvisor mid-priced meal with return on indulgence like Meri L.'s "Cheese really does bring happiness!" Yelp declaration.

Beyond Pick & Cheese, globe-trotting cheeseheads can imbibe the same vibe at Kaasbar Amsterdam, the city's only cheese train bar featuring Dutch cheeses in all of their flavor profile glory, and for the udderly courageous, seek out the infamously stinky Appenzeller in Appenzell, a fairytale Swiss village sandwiched between Zurich and Innsbruck.