Thinking of Tad's Cheese Shop, I Fell Into A Dream

  

      Someday Tad Hasse will have his cheese shop in a revitalized downtown Brownsville right next to La Movida Nueva.  Tad will not run the shop though.  The shop will be under the direction of the loquacious and charming Joseph Walter Hasse, yes the guy in lederhausen, although Joseph would curse me now at that suggestion.  Daughter Becky will not acknowledge the existence of the shop, but will consider her dad a retired city mogul.
    Cheese will be the star, but not without a support team of soft German pretzels, beers from all over the world, corn beef, pastrami, Spanish chorizo, prosciutto, bratwurst,  Danish ham, salami and all the major and minor breads.  Actually, the soft pretzels are visible from the street on a rotating rack inside a glass case with salt crystals glistening.  The options of port wine or garlic cheese, pickle chunks, hot mustard, red cabbage roll off the cheese associate's tongue.
     China, Korea, Costa Rica, the Czech Republic, Mexico, Canada, Germany and of course Holland have beers that beg for you to release them from Tad's cold beer dungeon.  Joseph will gladly mix and match them in a takeout six-pack if you prefer.
     Most customers prefer to take their customized pretzel, fried pickle spears, onion soup or German potato salad along with their world beer to one of the small tables with a view to the historic Market Square.  It's all bicycle and foot traffic now around the building housing the Brownsville Historical Association and the Market Square Research Center.  Retired professor Tony Zavaleta sometimes rides the West Loop Bike Trail to downtown for a cold one at Tad's.  Maybe it's the beer selection or maybe the remastered Led Zeppelin or the proximity to the longstanding herberia on the ground floor of the Fernandez y Hermano Building, but Tony is one of large group of regulars who trade barbs and anecdotes with Joseph and staff.