There's no doubt about it: The cheese boom is in full swing.

Over the past several years, specialty shops have blossomed across the country, from southern California to Maine (including Blue Fog Market, Fromagination and The Cave), all with super-dedicated cheese selections. This month renowned Brooklyn, N.Y., restaurant Franny's became the latest eatery to open its very own specialty food shop, Bklyn Larder, just down the street.

Aside from an array of prepared foods cooked by chef Travis Post, Bklyn Larder has its own cheese room, with an appropriate humidity and temperature for aging and storing cheese. "This will enable us to carry larger amounts of cheese," says Francine Stephens, who, along with co-owner and husband Andrew Feinberg, co-founded the restaurant back in 2004.

In September of 2007, Feinberg attended the Slow Flood cheese festival in Bra, Italy to seek out unique and tasty cheeses to eventually carry at the still-in-the-planning-stages Larder. They can all be spied through the glass window of the shop's aging room. (Food voyeurs -- you know who you are -- beware!)

Bklyn Larder is proof of the trend of cheese moving to the foreground of specialty food shops nationwide. Just two years ago, when Whole Foods opened up its Bowery store location, it became one of the first chain food markets to have an actual cheese room for storing and aging cheeses.

"Consumers are leaving the sanctuary of traditional cheese varieties, such as mild Cheddar and Swiss, to indulge in more artisan, farmstead, ethnic and organic type cheeses," wrote Marilyn Wilkinson in an article from Dairy Foods magazine.

The cheese room at Bklyn Larder will not merely create a unique fromage display, but will also function as an aging room, similar to the aging room at Artisanal and the cheese caves at Murray's and Formaggio Kitchen. In other words, apart from just selling cheeses, they're also going to engage in the aging process known as affinage.

"We're going to store most of our hard cheeses, such as our pecorinos, in the room," says Sergio Hernandez, Bklyn Larder manager.

We can't complain. Up with cheese!

To find out more about its cheese selection, call Bklyn Larder at 718-783-1250 or check them out online. Their hours of operation will be Tuesday to Saturday 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. and Sundays 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. And they look forward to opening on Mondays in August.