By Lani Gering

“Irish foods and specialty cheese, you say? You have gruyere from two-time World Cheese Champion Michael Spycher and black pudding?”

These questions and all others who are looking for legitimate “specialty” cheeses from around the USA and Europe can be addressed by Fergus Kennedy and Mike Bapstisa at Ripe Specialty Foods here in Alexandria. Ripe Specialty Foods has been offering cheeses, meats and other food products sourced from small farms and dairies that import directly to them for about 15 years. You won’t find their offerings in any of the mainstream grocery stores. Their clients are specialty shops the likes of Cheestique in Del Ray, Unwined in Bellview Shopping Center, La Fromagerie in Old Town, Arrowine and Corso in Arlington and the newly opened The Cut in Hollin Hill Shopping Center – next to River Bend Bistro.

Fergus Kennedy has been selling Irish foods and smoked salmon to Irish bars and restaurants in the DMV since the beginning and incorporated Irish cheeses when asked by a local restaurateur if he could procure some specific cheeses as well. The following – taken directly for their website www.ripespecialty.com – gives you a much better description of what they do than I could write:

“Ripe Specialty Foods is a distributor of artisanal cheeses, meats, and fine Irish provisions located just outside of DC in Alexandria, VA. You can find our food in nearly every Irish bar in the DMV, as well as in many specialty food shops and restaurants. We began when Fergus Kennedy started connecting Irish bars with traditional Irish fare like black and white pudding, smoked salmon, bacon, sausage rolls, Crunchie bars, and Tayto crisps. One day, a customer asked Fergus if he could get Cashel Blue for his bar. Fergus tracked it down and became a cheese lover in the process. Soon Ripe was offering local markets and restaurants some of the world’s best cheeses from producers like Neal’s Yard Dairy, Essex Street Cheese, Herve Mons, and Meadow Creek Dairy.

Today, we offer a wide lineup of traditional Irish foods and some of the world’s best cheeses.”

Not to be overlooked, Ripe also sells olive oils from Italy and Spain not available to mainstream stores. Their inventory of “specialty” foods is ever evolving.

Ripe Specialty Foods relocated from Fergus’ home to space on Eisenhower Avenue 7 years ago, where he operated pretty much on his own until Mike Baptiste joined him in 2021. Baptiste came with a pretty impressive “specialty cheese and meats” resume as he spent time working for the well-known Zingerman’s Delicatessen in Ann Arbor, Michigan as well as working locally at Cheestique.

While they currently operate strictly on a wholesale basis, they are looking to being able to do some retail in the future. However, if you are hosting a large gathering and are looking for meats and cheeses that you won’t find at your local Safeway, Giant or Wegman’s, they would be happy to talk to anyone who is looking for said items. They also put together large cheese boards for catering events.

In addition to the local clients mentioned above, they make regular deliveries to Richmond, the Eastern Shore of Maryland and Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. They have come a long way from those first days 15 years ago.

Enjoy the images of some of their wares on this page. It was so much fun looking at all of the amazing cheeses and meats when I was at the warehouse. Mike was getting ready to deliver one of those huge rounds to a local restaurant and show them how to “cut” into it. It is quite the process.

If you know of or are a restaurant or specialty shop looking for some special cheeses and meats, contact Fergus at the number below.

Ripe Specialty Foods

4554 Eisenhower Avenue

(734) 474-4271

Ripespecialty.com

Email: orders@ripespecialty.com