Here’s why Philadelphia is the best city in America for fine-cheese emergencies

It’s not a hometown brag to say that Philadelphia has a wildly diverse and innovative culinary community. Get a sudden craving for world-class cheese in the middle of the night and Yoav Perry, founder of Perrystead Dairy, has you covered. His 24-hour, automated cheese dispensary gives round-the-clock access to Perrystead’s four signature selections (three year-round and one seasonal), collectively representing 16 national and international awards received since 2022, including multiple Silver and Bronze at the 2023-2024 World Cheese Awards, and a 2024 trifecta from the American Cheese Society: Gold, Silver, and Bronze.

His stocked nine-shelf vending machine, housed in a shiny red booth topped by a compact neon “CHEESE” sign, is more than a novelty. Perry designed it as a practical yet hospitable solution to the interruptions he and his staff experienced daily when people knocked on the dairy’s glass doors expecting to buy cheese.

Because Perrystead is in Philadelphia’s historically industrial Olde Kensington neighborhood (which is slowly revitalizing into a modern urban residential mix after decades of economic decline), customers assumed they could stop by the dairy and buy at the source, as with the other makers settling into repurposed warehouses and factories. However, as a highly regulated, inspected, and third-party-audited place, a dairy is not set up for retail traffic.

“We are strict about what we can do here,” Perry says. “Also, when you are making cheese, that cheese is the boss. It has its own schedule and won’t pause while we finish up a retail sale. Bacterial cultures wait for no one.”

Say Cheese

For its sheer fun factor, the dispensary is an attraction for selfie-seeking food tourists. But most customers live within 15 blocks. “The shopping in this area has not developed at the speed of the apartment offerings,” says Perry, who also stocks the vending machine with the same charcuterie specialties he ships in his direct-to-consumer (DTC) gift boxes, packed with biodegradable natural sheep’s wool insulating the cheese at twice the value of 1-inch Styrofoam. “There are times when people stand in line to get to the booth, and we often refill several times over the weekends. I guess it’s something this neighborhood never knew it needed.”

Like most master craftspeople, Perry brings a lifetime of skills and interests to the work he does today. When his hobbyist passion for fermenting turned to cheesemaking, he applied his 17 years as a tech designer to launch an e-commerce resource for specialty European ingredients. “It was 2012, and there were cheesemaking supplies available—just not at the level of obsession I had gotten myself into,” he says. “I already had the tech tools to design and create DTC infrastructure, automate shipping, handle legal compliance, importing/exporting, and logistics. That was the easy part.”

More challenging was the rapid growth. By 2014, he was shipping to cheesemakers in more than 36 countries from the basement of his New York apartment building; he later rented a warehouse and hired a fulfillment company outside the city to take over. “I was tired of chasing packages,” Perry says. “DTC is lots of logistics, tracking, and customs. You must become an expert to survive, and it’s not exactly the creative fun of cheesemaking.”

Urban Creamery

By the time he closed the e-commerce business in 2017, Perry was fully immersed in the world of cheese as a respected consultant and maker. On request from Eleven Madison Park in New York, recipient of three Michelin stars and named one of the “Best Restaurants in the World,” he developed a cheese that stayed on the menu for three seasons.

Because the operating numbers didn’t support opening an urban dairy in New York City, Perry had moved his family to Philadelphia, located in a state that ranks second nationally in the number of dairy farms. “I wanted to start an urban creamery within the economy of my community, and there are so many incredible opportunities here,” he says. “From the beginning, my plan was to break new ideas and add new value to Pennsylvania-sourced milk by creating a business model beneficial to our farmers doing really hard work.”

Perry’s support of small family dairy farmers who prioritize regenerative and animal husbandry practices is essential for a long-term supply of the exceptional milk quality required for his demanding cheeses. “You cannot make world-class cheese without world-class milk. It might sound pretentious, but I call it a chain of goodness,” Perry says.

To reflect their value, he ensures these farmers are paid a premium for their milk, even if it means paying up to double the fluctuating regulated rate. “Then we create our Perrystead high-value-added products (the processing and enhancement of milk beyond its plain liquid state) here in the city where we have culinary talent, purveyors, newspapers and magazines, and restaurant tours to promote sales and build recognition,” he says.

Truly American Cheese

In building his business, Perry applied for and received two significant grants: The green light to start the dairy operation came via a Pennsylvania Dairy Investment Program grant, approved in 2020 for $126,000. Moving quickly, he then figured out a product line and market fit, received press, won awards, achieved national distribution, and established a DTC program. 

In 2023, he was awarded a Dairy Expansion Grant from the Northeast Dairy Innovation Center, receiving a $170,000 allotment in 2024, which allowed him to move from farmstead-style equipment to an increased-capacity setup with automated equipment for process efficiencies. “We can make far more with far less resources, fulfill coast-to-coast orders, and increase our DTC business,” he says. “Over the next 18 or so months, we are looking to accomplish five to six times our current volume, which also means bringing more farmers onboard, new packaging, and increased sales organization.”

Because America lacks the restrictions and benefits of a traditional cheese culture like Greece with feta or Italy with Parmigiano-Reggiano, Perry is free to find inspiration wherever it strikes. His Atlantis, a supple cheese washed with North Atlantic seawater and speckled with edible seaweed, reflects maritime biodiversity and gives the cheese a true sense of place. Intergalactic, a soft cheese set with cardoon thistle flowers instead of animal rennet, reinterprets an ancient Roman technique for modern America.

“It’s time to create our own cheesemaking tradition,” Perry says. “I love the Mona Lisa, but do we need to keep re-creating it?”