That deep purple haze submerging Belltown like a Slough of Despond may finally be lifting. Through my spyglass, I see encouraging changes: look, over there, just across Denny at a new shop in the high-tech Fisher Plaza, it's James Cook, standing behind the counter at The Cheese Cellar.
Once more dispensing expertise is the amiable gent whose abrupt departure from Belltown in the summer of 2002 plunged me [and many of my fellows] into a state of fromagic despair. And he's brought Blue Vinney back with him! Along with Wensleydale, Cashel, Lanark, and the best of Neal's Yard.
Taking refuge on the ancestral farm in Scotland, James came to realize he couldn't go home again after all. We're the richer for his enlightenment, and fortunate as well that a couple of associates from his past life, Dennis Nelson and Theresa Simpson, were still in Seattle and ready to embark on new careers. Somehow, one doesn't think of cheese as producing sparks, but The Cheese Cellar, in the shadow of the Space Needle, sure does.
