East End Market original La Femme du Fromage closing up shop
La Femme du Fromage has been a part of East End Market since Day One, 12 years ago.
“That’s an entire school career for our children,” says Tonda Corrente, La Femme herself. “It’s time for La Femme to graduate.”
And so by roughly month’s end, this original of the Audubon Park Garden District food hub that helped put Orlando on the world’s culinary map, will shutter its downstairs operations.
It’s a decision she struggled with for the past two years, she says, but one that will ultimately help her grow in ways both personal and professional, to move into other realms that a seven-day retail operation simply won’t allow.
“It’s not the end of La Femme du Fromage, though,” notes Corrente, whose La Femme du Fromage Upstairs has quietly taken over the space formerly held by her boutique.
Indeed, La Femme is Corrente herself, not the market stall, and she’s set to focus on her upstairs dining room, a new, not-quite-undergound cheese club she calls “The SpeakCheesy,” and a burgeoning culinary travel business that will see her bringing guests across the ocean to discover for themselves the cheese- and winemakers with whom she’s developed relationships for roughly two decades.
“My travels abroad this summer included a lot of soul searching,” Corrente told the Orlando Sentinel, “and I knew when I came home, I’d be making significant positive changes… I’m so excited to share these places and people, to develop La Femme du Fromage and see it transcend into something new.”
Spain and Portugal are already on the calendar for 2026 with Italy, England and France behind that, but even before the year’s end, fans will see lots of action upstairs as the Goddess of Gouda continues operations in an all-new way.
Each month, she says, The SpeakCheesy will have a selection of exclusive cheeses that fans will not find anywhere else in town. Guests need only sign up for her newsletter via the pop-up on her website’s landing page (lafemmedufromage.com) to stay in the know, pre-order and set a pickup time.
Popups, featuring her beloved Grilled Cheese Happy Hours, will continue, as well, once the chrysalis of the shop has shaken free, but at Upstairs, guests at her dinners “will really get to know me,” she promises. She looks forward to getting back to the intimate dinners she hosted at the start of her career with Tonda’s Kitchen.
Opulent furnishings initially meant for her pre-pandemic planned foray into Orlando’s North Quarter have been relocated, finding purpose in this 12-seat space that “will be like having dinner in my home,” says Corrente, whose family’s own china graces the broad, beautiful table from Washburn Imports.
“I look forward not only to creating curated dinners where I get to pour the wine, where we expand our palates and get into more refined dishes,” she says, “but also having other chefs in the space to use it as their own chef’s table and incubator space. East End Market has a beautiful kitchen, and there are so many talented people in the city who’d like to embark on their own private dinner series, but don’t have a place to host it.”
Corrente, meanwhile, is still taking orders for the holidays: cheese selections, charcuterie boards, all the things for which she will continue to be known. And those looking for deals on phenomenal cheese take note: There’s about to be a fire sale of sorts (because her many, highly exclusive selections are fire).
She’s full of appreciation, too, and looks forward to seeing familiar faces come by as things wind down.
‘Somebody Feed Phil’ features ‘The REAL Orlando’
“I have so much gratitude,” says Corrente, her voice colored with emotion.
“I didn’t expect to be here this long, and the number of people who still come through, to say they saw us on Netflix and are here for ‘the Phil tour,’, and the ones who remind me how much they’ve always loved my store and don’t live nearby anymore but have to come back for their cheese fix … it’s been so beautiful to have so many people, and all of Orlando, continue to support and encourage me over the years. It means everything.”
She could have waited through year’s end, she notes, but it’s better to rip off the Band-Aid.
“Over the years, I’ve tried to expand in other ways,” she says. “And the longer I stayed, the more I was almost afraid to leave.
“We’re sad when that happens,” she notes, again likening the stall to a child ready to fly the nest, “but we’re also excited for them, to see them explore, to see what they will become.”
Stay connected to La Femme du Fromage via her website (lafemmedufromage.com) and social media accounts (facebook.com/lafemmedufromage; instagram.com/lafemmedufromage).
Find me on Facebook, TikTok, Twitter or Instagram @amydroo or on the OSFoodie Instagram account @orlando.foodie. Email: [email protected], For more foodie fun, join the Let’s Eat, Orlando Facebook group.
Originally Published:
link
