Could this be the perfect marriage of wine and cheese? To celebrate Ratafia’s nuptials, longtime friends Robin Madeline and Valentin François gave up their jobs as architects and consultants for a life of banon cheeses and other stinkers. After training under Alexandre Renault at COW and a few stints at Vin au Vert, the (not so) rookies launched their hybrid lair right next to Mokonuts, filling it with impeccable cheeses: Langres from Remillet, Meaux brie from the aptly named dairy Bries-de-Saint-Rémy, Trèfle du Perche, and pérail des Cabasses… Which go into mischievous sandwiches at lunchtime, with charcuterie and crudités or as a grilled cheese, or onto cheese boards in the evening, that have us hook, line and sinker when paired with a wine plucked directly from the shelves. // Éric Taylor

THE HIDDEN GEM: A fine Shropshire Blue from Neal’s Yard Dairy, the leading name in British cheese (€49 per kilo).