The super-bright, oh-so-recognizable emblem on this robust Alpine-style wheel depicts a rather Rubenesque woman reclining in a milky bubble bath al fresco, eating cheese. (Her wood-fired copper tub, of course, is a nod to traditional cheesemaking practices.) Produced by Vermont’s Spring Brook Farm and aged in the subterranean Crown Finish Caves in Brooklyn, N.Y., the round is named after 19th-century urban architect William Bunker Tubby.
“We think it’s pretty fitting,” Crown Finish Caves co-owner Benton Brown says about the moniker and imagery. “It’s a fat cheese at 30-plus pounds with rounded, pudgy sides. And it’s made from fatty Jersey milk.”
Brown tapped local Crown Heights artist Mike Perry—best known for his graphic title sequences for the Comedy Central show Broad City—to create the playful label, which first appeared on Tubby wheels in December 2015. While most people are on board with the bathing beauty, her state of undress (read: nip slip) has turned off at least one shop owner who feels “it’s misogynistic,” Brown says. Then again, he adds, “you can’t make everybody happy.”
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