From Oprah To ‘Shark Tank,’ Cheese And Charcuterie Board Company Boarderie Is On A Roll
It has been an outstanding end to a successful year for the locally owned cheese and charcuterie board company Boarderie, which offers beautiful and taste-tempting products for the holiday season and all year round.
Boarderie has truly been a group effort on the part of four partners — Aaron Menitoff (co-CEO and managing partner), Rachel Solomon (co-CEO and partner), Julie Larson Menitoff (co-COO and partner) and Angel Jerez (co-COO, partner, sommelier and cheesemonger).
The team operates very much like siblings who have strong opinions and rely heavily on each other for guidance and assistance to make it through the long days and stressful decisions. They laugh, agree, disagree, support each other, and at the end of the day, they love each other as siblings do.
Boarderie was honored by Oprah Winfrey in November on her exclusive “Favorite Things” list and featured on ABC’s “Shark Tank” TV show on Friday, Nov. 18, where they sealed a deal with Shark Lori Greiner. Boarderie is the first and only company shipping completely pre-assembled, catering-quality cheese and charcuterie boards overnight, nationwide.
Aaron Menitoff and his wife Julie Larson operated a gourmet catering company in the Palm Beach area for 20 years. With deep roots in Wellington’s equestrian community, and working with clients like Prince Harry, Ferrari International and StubHub at the Super Bowl, they were at the peak of their career.
However, when the pandemic hit, all events were canceled overnight, and they needed to pivot to keep their staff employed and business afloat. They knew cheese and charcuterie was one of the fastest-growing culinary trends, and that e-commerce was the only way to adapt to the new COVID-19 world, so they set out to create the first-ever completely pre-arranged cheese and charcuterie boards that could be shipped overnight from coast to coast.
Aaron and Julie literally bet the farm on Boarderie. They used all of their savings, took a home equity line against the farm, a Small Business Association loan and a line of credit against the catering business.
They used the money to retrofit their catering facility to accommodate board production, keep the staff paid and buy inventory. The company launched its first online sales channel with Goldbelly in October 2020, and by December of that year, they were one of the top-selling products out of 1,000 competitors!
The focus has been providing hassle-free, catering-quality displays that could be shipped overnight directly to customer’s doors… taking catering into the e-commerce space, where it has thrived.
But even after a storied life and career to date — including having built and operated a surf and yoga hotel in Nicaragua; living on a farm with chickens, goats, bunnies and horses; and having served thousands of meals doing disaster relief food service post hurricanes in Florida for the past six storms — they did not know or really anticipate that Boarderie would fill a major gap in the edible gifting market.
Traditional food gifts have fallen behind, Aaron Menitoff explained. They underserve their customers with inefficient, outdated and impersonal products. Boarderie, he said, serves customers whether they are hosting at home, sending a spectacular gourmet gift or simply want to indulge on their own. The company even does custom logo engraving on the keepsake wood boards for corporate gifting, which has been a big hit for companies looking to send a unique experience.
“One board has dozens of flavor combinations, so mixing and matching various ingredients in different assortments gives endless pairings for guests to experience,” Menitoff said. “We like to call it ‘Eventertainment,’ which we think is an experiential activity based around the sharing of food and friends, which are our two biggest passions in life.”
He is particularly proud of the wonderful boards available for this holiday season.
“This holiday season, we have our best boards yet and are shipping overnight nationwide all season long,” Menitoff said. “Don’t forget to schedule your holiday orders as soon as possible. At Boarderie.com, you can select delivery dates up to 365 days in advance and ship all of your holiday orders to multiple addresses in one simple order by selecting ‘ship to multiple addresses at checkout.’”
Visit www.boarderie.com to see the full range of boards available from Boarderie.
