Local Cheesemonger Anne Saxelby Dies at 40
Saxelby fighting for the Essex Market vendors, March 2015
Local cheesemonger, Anne Saxelby, who peddled artisanal cheeses around downtown for more than a decade, died this past Saturday. She was 40.
According to the New York Times, Saxelby struggled with a heart condition.
Lower East Siders may recognize Saxelby from her tenure inside the original Essex Street Market. The eponymous cheese stall, located near the southernmost door, began operations in 2006. She became an outspoken advocate for her fellow vendors a decade later and helped organize to rally for better conditions in the Market, claiming at the time that the city’s mismanagement resulted in lost business. (It was at this point that the Lower East Side BID became more heavily involved.)
Two years later, in 2017, Saxelby upgraded to a larger space inside the Chelsea Market. Or, as the Times put it, “she took the daring position of selling only American-made cheeses.”
Saxelby’s longtime business partner, Benoit Breal, is now in charge of the company, continuing the mission of being a “bridge between local cheesemakers and the consumers for many years to come,” as Breal noted to the Times.
Another luminary, gone far too soon. RIP Anne Saxelby of @SaxelbyCheese
— Amy Sherman (@cookingwithamy) October 11, 2021
Recent Stories
Demolition Begins at Fire-Stricken Dim Sum Palace Building in Chinatown
Demolition started this week at 6 Chatham Square, which, until this month, housed neighborhood favorite Dim Sum Palace. Early morning May 1, a fire in the kitchen spread throughout the building, triggering a five-alarm response from the fire department. All told, five firefighters were injured battling the inferno over several hours. And according to Red […]
Eldridge Street Development Sells for $19.24M
A major real estate deal to report on Eldridge Street. It took three years, but the eight-story mixed-use building at 165 Eldridge traded last week for $19.25 million. Just under the initial 2019 asking price of $21 million. Buyer of record is Meng Lee and Karim Elsayyad of FREO Management. The transaction is not yet […]
The ‘Barrier Reefs’ Coming to Clinton Street Bike Lane
The Department of Transportation has chosen a winner to decorate the traffic barrier protecting the Clinton Street bike line. The city agency awarded artist Alison Cynamon as part of the ongoing Barrier Beautification mural project. The concrete slab runs from Delancey Street to South Street; an 840-foot stretch with roughly 1,980 square-feet of canvas to […]
Redlining the LES: How Discriminatory Lending Policies Solidified Pre-Existing Inequalities
The following was written by Anna Sargeantson. All photos courtesy of Anna Sargeantson, except where otherwise noted. Home to dimly lit restaurants and bars frequented by NYU students and young professionals, the Lower East Side remains in many ways the epitome of New York City’s youthful heart. Under the surface, though, the neighborhood has historically […]
Ed Higgins Gets ‘Mail Art’ Retrospective at Van Der Plas Gallery on Orchard Street
Fresh off featuring his art in Ludlow Coffee Supply, the Van Der Plas Gallery of Orchard Street is now dedicating a full artist retrospective to the late Ed Higgins. Higgins, known as a pillar of the “Rivington School” movement in the 1980s Lower East Side, and for his unique “Mail Art,” died last December at […]
