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Most Saturdays at the Midtown Farmers Market, you might find Elise Jarrett, the owner of Wedge and Slice Charcuterie Co., standing behind a cheese and charcuterie cart she constructed herself. She’ll create a single-serve box on the spot filled with the customers’ favorites: cheese, meat and accompaniments like olives, sweet treats, fresh fruit, crackers, jam and honey. 

“People have been very curious about it as they’re walking by,” she says of the pop-up, which she launched in August 2024. “They backtrack and be like, ‘What is this?’”

So what is charcuterie? The word has roots dating back to the 15th century and derives from the French phrase “chair cuit,” meaning cooked flesh. Today, it usually refers to the higher end of European-style cured meats, like prosciutto, jamon iberico and rillettes. Spreads featuring various meats, cheese and accoutrements have been party staples for centuries, but they started coming back into the spotlight in the 2010s, when influencers saw their aesthetic potential and began posting artistic meat arrangements on Instagram. 

Charcuterie boards gained national attention from the business crowd in 2022, when Aaron Menitoff and Rachel Solomon Fascitelli, co-founders and co-CEOs of the online cheese and charcuterie gifting business Boarderie, appeared on “Shark Tank,” eventually walking away with a deal from Lori Greiner and generating $70 million in revenue.

Since then, many other businesses have jumped on (the charcuterie) board, with the National Restaurant Association naming it the no. 1 appetizer trend of 2023. Anyone can buy some sausages and arrange them on a cutting board, but what sets charcuterie businesses apart is their attention to detail and design. In the right hands, an array of cracker toppings can be an impressive centerpiece that lights up the room and exudes elegance. 

The charcuterie couple

Charcuterie businesses range from mobile carts like Wedge and Slice all the way to brick-and-mortar restaurants like charQterie in Natomas. Co-owners Jeffery and Lydia Belaski, who call themselves The Qute Couple, opened the restaurant in July 2024. CharQterie is a build-your-own concept where customers can choose up to 27 artisanal accompaniments and have a board within 10 minutes or less, depending on the size. “We just came upon something that does not exist yet (in the region),” Jeffery says. “It’s like being the first McDonald’s.”

Originally, the Belaskis considered starting a charcuterie food truck and crafting the boards on-site at wineries. However, two weeks after buying the vehicle, they abandoned the idea when Lydia discovered a Manhattan restaurant in New York on social media doing a Chipotle-like model of charcuterie. The restaurant, which offers both dine-in and take-out, also sells hot sandwiches, small bites, “elevated” tater tots, desserts, wine and beer.

The co-owners employ students with work permits from six local high schools and college students, who are ServSafe-certified in their teaching kitchen, where they provide training in customer service, food safety, teamwork, cleaning, marketing and cooking. Jeffery says it’s about giving back to the community and credits his wife for the restaurant concept.

“This was her vision, this was her design, this was her mark in the restaurant world,” he says. “Her recipes, her name, it’s all Lydia.”

The dancer’s delight

For award-winning retired competitive ballroom dancer Chelsea Farrah Koptke, opening The Dancer’s Pantry in October 2020 was a response to losing her job as a coach, choreographer and guest judge at competitions during the pandemic. As a traveling creative with exposure to many food experiences, Koptke had a recipe blog, also called The Dancer’s Pantry. So it was natural to let her dormant culinary talents blossom into a boutique catering company focusing on charcuterie and high-end grazing experiences. 

It all began when Koptke’s best friend recommended she create “date night boxes for people who were socially distancing” or those who wanted to share something “fancy” during the shutdown. She started delivering and selling these boxes at pop-up events, salons and boutiques. Koptke posted professional images on Instagram and received an overwhelming response. “It just kind of blew up overnight,” she says. She credits her success to her ability to pivot, and being one of the first, if not the first, to offer vegan and plant-based charcuterie in the Capital Region.

“Sacramento hadn’t quite seen that version of it yet,” she says. “And there was a whole demographic of people that were like, ‘This is something I’ve always wanted. I get left out at parties.’” Since then, her business has grown at an accelerated pace. Her husband, Eric Koptke, also a retired dancer, left his position at an Oregon-based winery in February 2025 to support the Pantry full-time. Even though she says it puts pressure on the Pantry to succeed, they believe this collaboration is the final trajectory to further the business’ growth.

“Hopefully, for the first time in my life, I can put my job away and just fully come back to my life,” she says. “But who knows, I thrive on the chaos of working hard.”

Farm-to-board 

When chef Jessi Moreno got laid off during the pandemic from an event center, she founded Pavi’s Creations in 2020, specializing in cheese and charcuterie boards. The business reconnects her with her roots, since her parents and paternal grandparents were farmers and cheese makers in Mexico who influenced her passion for food. She is now rebranding Pavi’s to expand to broader forms of catering, including grazing tables, hot and cold appetizers and private home-chef experiences in addition to individual, seasonal boards, to support her professional vision as a chef.

Moreno, who has worked in the food industry for over 13 years, says charcuterie has been a part of the Sacramento food scene for a while but has only recently gained momentum, particularly during COVID-19 because of social media. As people started entertaining again, these boards offered visually appealing presentations of textures, colors and flavors that can easily ignite a conversation.

Today, charcuterie has also become popular because consumer tastes have changed. Moreno says people now “like a little bit more effort and attention to detail to their food.” She says the farm-to-fork and cheese and charcuterie movements represent the “best of everything,” since Sacramento is about community and supporting local businesses.

Grazing and growing

Marina Volkovas, the owner of Grazing Gouda and a licensed CPA, was studying for her accounting exam in 2020 when she craved a creative outlet. After seeing pictures of charcuterie on Pinterest and Instagram, as well as watching videos on YouTube, she became curious about how people created these stunning displays, even though she grew up in the kitchen with her parents, who owned a catering business in Sacramento for 15 years. Volkovas catered a grazing table — a sort of supersized charcuterie board — for her brother’s wedding, and it “snowballed” from there, she says. In October 2020, she started taking orders through Instagram. 

While creating exquisite boards is one aspect of the business, it’s about building an experience and connection for Volkovas through her offerings and classes, similar to the other entrepreneurs. Volkovas also prioritizes “community over competition.” She says there are many charcuterie vendors in Sacramento, and they have formed a close-knit bond, “where, if I can’t help a client, I send them to somebody else.”

Many aspiring entrepreneurs have also come to Volkovas feeling discouraged about their first board, but she encourages them to get their names out there anyway. “I mean, looking back on my first boards versus what I make now, right?” Volkovas says. “We all grow, but you really don’t get that experience until you just jump in first and just kind of figure it out as you go.”  

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