by Sam Gugino

Looking for a place to eat before a performance at the Arden or a first Friday gallery tour? Like cheese? Wedge & Fig in Old City is your answer. This boite only has 22 seats, though the outdoor garden doubles seating in clement weather. So, if you have to wait, you can occupy your time admiring the dazzling cheese portraits by local artist Mike Geno.

The staff is quite knowledgeable about the cheeses in case you don’t know your Mimolette from your Morbier. Start with a cheese board that changes weekly. On my visit it included Red Lion, an ale-soaked cow’s milk cheese from the UK. Hearty and lightly spiced, it was a good foil for the other two – Prima Donna, a nutty, slightly butterscotchy Gouda somewhere between a super-aged Roomano and those infant red waxed supermarket Goudas; and Valdeon, the piquant and creamy Spanish blue made from cow’s and goat’s milk.

The board is actually a sheet of slate that makes colors pop and allows for chalking the names, in case memory fails. Fig cake, membrillo (quince paste), Marcona almonds, dried cranberries, and sesame crackers provide lots of texture and contrasting taste sensations.

You can also choose other cheese boards, such as Tour de France (e.g,, Pont l’Eveque and Forme d’Ambert); Euro Zone, with cheeses from Spain, France, Belgium and the Netherlands; and World Cup, where Old World (Quicke's Farmhouse Cheddar) meets New World (Humboldt Fog).

Naturally, there are cheese dishes galore, including mac & cheese, a must, especially when it’s encased with meaty strips of bacon. There’s a nice pie crust underneath too.

The restaurant is open continuously Tuesday through Saturday, which is great if you need a late lunch or early dinner, though dinner entrees like a half-roasted chicken over buttermilk biscuits and Bourbon and Coke meatloaf aren’t available until 5 p.m. Still, it’s hard to believe you could be more satisfied at any time of the day than with the grilled cheese sandwich, which is to other grilled cheesers what Stephan Curry is to other jump shooters.

Begin with a sextet of cheeses, such as brie and cheddar, then add on until your arteries cry for mercy – more cheese (gruyere et al) avocado, pesto, truffled honey, tasso ham or roasted turkey, all on a variety of breads. The chef then transforms your fromage montage into a masterpiece in which the rich innards are beautifully balanced by bread that is as light as balsa wood and as crisp as freshly printed dollar bill.

The daily pannini has similar characteristics except that you’re bound by the whims of the chef, who on this day decreed Cantal cheese melded with tomatoes, arugula, roasted onion, Dijon mustard and hot Weavers Way pickles on a mini baguette.

The two salads I sampled were less thrilling, though they were made with top-notch ingredients. Modern Waldorf pegs its modernity on novelties like fig cake and Rosenborg’s blue cheese, the latter a tangy, creamy Danish blue that dominated the package. Billy Penn is the restaurant’s take on cobb salad. Again, quality constituents (including addictive candied walnuts), but more like a mini buffet on a plate (as is the case with most cobb salads, to be fair) than an integrated salad.

Most of the desserts are brought in and none, nor the two house-made ones, were outstanding enough to save room from their cheesy antecedents.

Wedge & Fig, 160 N 3rd St, Philadelphia, 267-603-3090, wedgeandfig.com.

Tuesday-Thursday, 11 a.m.-8 .p.m; Friday until 9 p.m.; Saturday 10:30 a.m. – 9 p.m.; Sunday brunch, 10:30 a.m.--3:30 p.m. Reservations for dinner only. Credit cards accepted. Sandwiches and salads, $8.50-$15. Entrees, $11-$23.50.

Wines

Because we eat so much cheese with wine at cocktail parties and such, many people think almost any wine goes with any cheese. Not so. Heavy duty reds like Cabernet or Barolo only work a limited number of cheeses, specifically hard, aged cheeses such as aged Gouda or Dry Jack. Generally, when red wines do work with cheese, they are lighter, fruitier red wines that are low in tannins like Beaujolais (Vignobles Bulliat Cuvee du Colombier Morgon 2014, Code: 33935, $13.99)

Better choices are white wines, especially Sauvignon Blanc and Riesling. Shannon Ridge Sauvignon Blanc High Elevation 2013 (Code: 33322, $9.99) may be sold out but look for the even better 2014. J and H Selbach Saar Riesling Kabinett 2014 (Code: 47112; $16.99) shows the consistent quality of other Selbach Rieslings.