Artisan cheese purveyor Murray's Cheese and retail grocery chain The Kroger Co. announced the opening today of the new Kenwood Towne Place Kroger store in Cincinnati, Ohio, featuring a Murray's Cheese department. It is the first-ever Murray's location outside of New York City and one of three Murray's Cheese departments opening within Cincinnati-area Kroger stores in the next few weeks.

The Murray's Cheese department will be one facet of the new Kenwood Towne Place store, a "Fresh Fare by Kroger" concept. Fresh Fare by Kroger stores are one-stop shopping alternatives that provide customers with a broader array of services than traditional supermarkets. This Fresh Fare by Kroger will also feature a wine shop, a bakery, a full-service sushi bar and "The Bistro," a seating area where customers can enjoy chef-prepared meals -- or take them to-go.

The Murray's Cheese department at the Kenwood Towne Place Kroger will look much like the Murray's Cheese flagship store in New York City's Greenwich Village, and it will carry more than 500 items, including many of the same cheeses, crackers, dried fruits, and olives as the Bleecker Street original. This Murray's Cheese department -- as well as those debuting in the coming weeks at the existing Hyde Park and Liberty Township Krogers in Cincinnati -- will be staffed by Kroger employees who have received rigorous cheese service training. Murray's employees created an encyclopedic 300-page cheese service guide exclusively for the partnership and spent a month in Cincinnati further educating their Kroger counterparts.

To offer customers value and service, Murray's and Kroger created a unique direct-to-store cheese distribution system that ensures both optimal condition of the products and competitive prices.

There are plans for more Murray's Cheese departments to open in Kroger supermarkets in the future.