Primeaux Cheese & Vino
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Photos by Jeff Thompson.
Primeaux Cheese owner Paul Primeaux
Paul Primeaux, owner of Primeaux Cheese and Vino, enjoys a coffee in the bar of his restaurant in The Summit.
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Primeaux cheese monger Christie Roach
Primeaux Cheesemonger Christie Roach presents the restaurant’s Fromage Plate, featuring three select cheeses.
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Primeaux food sampling
The restaurant’s Croque Monsieur, Mt Laurel Farms Salad and Fromage Plate.
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Primeaux wine
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Primeaux Cheese & Vino
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Primeaux owner
Paul Primeaux, owner of Primeaux Cheese and Vino
Primeaux Cheese & Vino
300 Summit Boulevard, Suite 104
623-5593
Sunday-Thursday, 11 a.m.-9 p.m.
Friday-Saturday, 11 a.m.-10 p.m.
Paul Primeaux grew up working for his parents in their New Orleans wine shop. The store opened in the 1970s when the primary beverages of the area were beer and bourbon.
“It was really a lot of fun for them, and certainly, as a kid, I loved it as a learning experience,” Primeaux said.
Through the years, Primeaux studied to become an anesthesiologist and drifted away from the family business. But last year, he came back.
Primeaux Cheese & Vino opened in The Summit in November, and both its fare and décor are reminiscent of Primeaux’s roots in Louisiana. However, it’s not a glimpse of New Orleans Primeaux hopes to bring to his customers — It’s the experience of gourmet.
“My favorite thing about this concept is that it can provide people with an introduction into gourmet foods at a very reasonable price,” he said.
Patrons of Primeaux become part of the “slow foods movement,” which isn’t as dull as it might sound. The concept originated in Italy and focuses on protecting not only the taste of the food but also the conditions of how it came to be on the plate. The movement focuses on fresh and healthy local offerings grown in environmentally sustainable ways.
Primeaux said participating in the slow foods movement was at the top of the priority list when the restaurant side of the shop was in design. So he started by stocking high-quality, handmade meats as well as cheeses bought from local creameries.
Next came the produce, which Primeaux said comes from local growers. One item on the menu is the Mt Laurel Farms Seasonal Salad that’s made from greens and vegetables grown just up the hill.
The idea of slow foods saturates the rest of Primeaux’s menu. To start, cheeses for the Fromage Plate are selected by Primeaux’s cheese monger, who assembles the choices with a variety of accompanying items like sliced sausage and apples or honeycomb.
Small starters include the Duck Stuffed Chicken Wings and Truffle Popcorn, and for the main course Primeaux has a list of sandwiches like Colorado Lamb Sliders and Croque Madame that are served with a fork and knife for a reason.
But one thing connects all the courses — the wine. And Primeaux invested heavily in providing an ideal selection. He said he recruited a sommelier when the restaurant was in its design phase and told her he wanted to make things easy on the customer.
“I told her we have enough square footage to be a wine shop, but we don’t want to do it because there are other people who already do,” Primeaux said. “So I asked her to make it easy on folks who don’t have encyclopedic knowledge of wine. People are accustomed to picking by label or price and might get home with something they don’t like. We want to remove that anxiety.”
So instead of 20 varieties of Bordeaux, the restaurant might offer two or three varieties by the bottle and one by the glass that were specifically chosen by the sommelier. Prices per bottle range from $10 to $100, and the option to have the selection with a meal is available for a $14 corking fee.
As the restaurant grows, Primeaux said he plans to offer four- to five-course wine dinners prepared by the chef that customers can register for online, as well as a wine club.
Primeaux Cheese & Vino
300 Summit Blvd. Suite 104, Birmingham, Alabama 35243
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