New York City is home to countless restaurants, but nowhere can diners pluck plates from a slow-moving parade of artisan cheeses—each paired with a clever little accompaniment like tomato and chili jam or rose Turkish delight—as they float past under glass domes. That changes in early 2026 when Pick & Cheese, the London cheese conveyor belt restaurant, crosses the Atlantic. The beloved British concept will open its first U.S. location at Shaver Hall, an ambitious new food hall taking over the former Lord & Taylor flagship on Fifth Avenue in Midtown Manhattan.
The concept is the brainchild of Mathew Carver, founder of the Cheese Bar, a London-based, cheese-centric restaurant group. After launching the Cheese Truck in 2014 at London’s Maltby Street Market, Carver spent years slinging gourmet grilled cheese sandwiches at U.K. music festivals. While dreaming up recipes for the truck, he discovered something telling: when he asked friends about their ideal cheese sandwich, they mentioned French Brie and Italian Parmesan, but never cheeses made closer to home. Spotlighting British farmstead cheeses became central to Carver’s mission.
He went on to open his first brick and mortar restaurant in London’s Camden neighborhood, also called the Cheese Bar. Inspired by the first sushi conveyor belt restaurant—created to make luxury more accessible and approachable—he set out to do the the same for cheese. When the first Pick & Cheese opened at Covent Garden’s Seven Dials Market in 2019, it was an instant hit, expanding to Berlin in 2025 and now, New York.
While London’s Pick & Cheese celebrates British farmstead producers and Berlin’s features German producers, the Manhattan menu will spotlight American cheesemakers, especially from the Northeast.
“We definitely felt like New York was the right fit—the restaurant scene is so similar to London,” Carver tells Travel + Leisure. “I just wanted to make sure it was done with the same values—sourcing really good American cheese and caring about where it comes from.” The cheese has to be delicious, he says, “but it’s also about who’s making it.” He searched for passionate farmstead cheesemakers, using milk from their own animals, or with a close relationship to their farmers.
To find the best options for America’s first Pick & Cheese, Carver has been tasting his way through the Northeast’s thriving cheese scene. His research has taken him deep into New York state, where he’s met with makers like Four Fat Fowl, a Hudson Valley creamery known for St. Stephen, a luscious triple-cream cow’s milk cheese made with local milk, and Nettle Meadow, an Adirondack creamery and farm animal sanctuary, famed for Kunik, a triple-crème cheese blending goat’s milk and cow cream.
His cheese hunt also brought him to the Fancy Foods Show in New York City, where he sampled cheeses alongside Hero Hirsh, the Cheese Bar’s Head of Cheese and an industry veteran who’s on track to become the first Master of Cheese in the UK. They tasted Spring Brook Farm Cheese from Vermont, and Intergalactic, a World Cheese Awards gold winner from Perrystead Dairy, a Philadelphia-based urban dairy.
“I was pleasantly surprised by how good the American cheese scene is now,” he says. “It’s incredible.”
For many, the term “American cheese” conjures images of electric-yellow processed slices. But Carver’s showcasing something entirely different in terroir-driven, small-producer cheeses that can rival European counterparts. And beyond just delivering diners a revolving bounty of choices from these stand-out cheesemakers, there’s an educational component also woven into the experience.
“Pick & Cheese attracts people who love the idea of an endless conveyor belt of cheese—that’s what gets them through the door,” Carver says. “But once they’re here, they realize they’re learning about local producers and regional cheese in a really fun way.” The goal is for guests to leave with a sharper appreciation for regional American cheesemaking happening in their own backyards, be it a Hudson Valley Gouda or a clothbound Cheddar from Vermont.
Pick & Cheese will join an impressive roster at Shaver Hall, operated by The Food Hall Co., the team behind Legacy Hall in Plano and Assembly Food Hall in Nashville. Spanning 35,000 square feet, Shaver Hall will feature 11 chef-curated eateries, including F&F Pizzeria, the duo behind Brooklyn favorite Frankies 457 Spuntino, Butter Chicken Social from Sujan Sarkar, the chef and owner behind Chicago’s Michelin-starred Indienne, Chick Chick by Bib Gourmand Chef Jun Park, and the first midtown outpost of Tompkins Square Bagels. Also on site: two full-service restaurants, two cocktail bars, and a modern bodega, featuring a 20-tap beer wall with a range of self-serve beverages sold by the ounce.
The space is named in honor of Dorothy Shaver, the groundbreaking former president of Lord & Taylor who believed timeless design should be accessible to everyone—a philosophy that feels right at home with Carver’s mission to democratize artisan cheese.
When Shaver Hall opens its doors in early 2026, New Yorkers will finally get to experience what Londoners have been lining up for—an interactive cheese restaurant that just might introduce them to their new favorite maker. “If someone walks out thinking a bit differently about what they buy at Christmas, or decides to support a local cheesemaker,” says Carver, “that’s success to me.”
