Local Business Profile: Van Hook Cheese

528 Jersey Ave, Jersey City, NJ 07302

“Every neighborhood has its local heroes, the people who embody the character of the City. They’re the entrepreneurs, artists and catalysts that make up the heart of our community. This is their story.”

By Carl Chastain

I was raised in Massachusetts and moved to NYC after college. After 9 years living in Brooklyn, my wife Laura and I moved to Jersey City, NJ in search of a more stable place to raise a family. We fell in love with the first place we saw in Jersey City - a two bedroom brownstone condo on Wayne Street near Jersey Avenue in Downtown Jersey City . Small and a little creaky, but full of character and sunlight.

At the end of 2015 I noticed a lot of opportunity in the neighborhood Jersey City retail food scene. I’d been working at Local Bushel, a wholesale farm-to-table distribution company I’d cofounded, and feeling ready for the next challenge. I considered a few options – perhaps a butcher shop, or maybe a farm stand-in-the-city type place specializing in local produce, and of course a cheese-focused shop. I really wanted to maintain a connection to the local farms I’d been working with at Local Bushel, and felt that all three of those options enabled me to do it. I went with cheese in the end because I love it and love cheese stores.

Van Hook was originally going to be in a spot right on the border between Van Vorst and Paulus Hook, which is how we chose the name – by combining both neighborhood names. It’s also a common dutch name, people of Dutch heritage will sometimes wander in excited to meet another Van Hook, but I can cure their disappointment with Gouda. 

Opening Van Hook has made the neighborhood seem small, in a good way. We are more plugged in to the community than we were before, and have met so many more people. It still does feel like a city of course, but even on a day that I’m not at the shop, I’ll see dozens of people that I know. In general, I think Jersey City is a warm and welcoming place. People that live here seem to appreciate nice things and go above and beyond to support local shops and restaurants. Jersey City is also more laid back and less pretentious than neighborhoods in say, Brooklyn, that are otherwise pretty similar. As an uncool dad I can appreciate that.