Artigiano

What's in the box: A curated cheese board selection built around different award-winning cheese producers each month, likely drawing on the shop's cheeses and accompaniments.

Artigiano is an independent artisan cheese shop at 815 Saginaw St. in Bay City, Michigan, and its Monthly Cheese Board-in-a-Box is the subscription side of the business. Shoppers looking for a cheese making kit should note that this is not one: it is a curated box of finished cheeses, featuring different award-winning producers each month. The shop's wider range gives a sense of what to expect, with traditional European cheeses, American originals, cured meats, pates, artisan crackers, small batch preserves, and olive oils and balsamic vinegars. The site does not spell out how much comes in each box, what it costs, whether you can skip or pause, or where it ships, so confirm those details before signing up. The advantage of buying from a real storefront with posted hours, a phone line and a contact email is that you can ask a person directly. The shop also handles catering, custom cheese and charcuterie boards, and in-store events such as wine tastings, which points to staff who know how to pair and present cheese. The tradeoff is thin online detail and a small operation that may not offer the scale or flexibility of national cheese clubs. If you want to learn to make cheese, look elsewhere; if you want a rotating board from a local specialist, it is worth a call.