Keith Dickey joked with his wife that he likes to reinvent himself "every ten or fifteen years." In fact, it was his time in Greece and Turkey that taught him to like exotic foods.  It would take a decade-long detour to health care investment banking before he would have a chance to put that love for food into action.  Today, he runs a successful gourmet food store in downtown Concord, NH, and he agreed to sit down for an interview with Cork & Knife TV.

Butter's Fine Food & Wines meets a need Dickey saw in the community for access to ingredients for good home cooking.  He has a special passion for cheese that comes through in the store.  In preparing to launch his own gourmet food store, Dickey managed to convince Murray's Cheese in New York to allow him to intern with them behind the counter for three weeks.  It was there that he experienced a sort of boot camp in food retailing and the intricacies of artisan cheese selection.

Dickey's commitment to a less frantic life is clear.  He and his family moved to New Hampshire more than a year before he quit his job in health care investment banking.  For nearly eighteen months, Dickey found himself commuting between the Big Apple and apple-picking country. 

Though he enjoys cooking, he doesn't consider himself to be a serious home cook as his parents were.  But home chefs in central New Hampshire no doubt appreciate the fact that they now have a resource for quality cheeses beyond what the local supermarkets offer and fine wines that cannot be found in the ever-present state liquor stores, not to mention choice charcuterie and exotic ingredients that would normally require a trip to Boston or a phone call to a mail order source.

The past year has taught Dickey a lot about the gourmet food business and retail sales.  With his first anniversary now under his belt, he admits he finds the back office work to be more intensive than he had imagined.  "Retail is hard work," he says. But he wouldn't trade the experience for anything, as he serves not only local home cooks and tourists, but also an increasing number of local fine dining restaurants. 

The product selection may not be as broad as what one might find in Manhattan, but Dickey finds that overall a gourmet food store in New Hampshire isn't that different from a big city.  His passion for his product shows, as every cheese and wine in the store is something Dickey has personally tasted (his wife tells him "it's a real tough job, but someone has to do it").  Using a network of local and national suppliers, as well as going directly to some producers, Dickey has built up an impressive selection of products to meet the needs of a diverse variety of cooks.

European butters, dried mushrooms, hand-crafted pastas, fresh-made bread, Belgian beer, and countless other hard-to-find ingredients can be found throughout this storefront, located along a classic New England downtown street.  A converted Radio Shack store, Butter's incorporates old-time charm through exposed brick walls and hardwood floors. 

The mixture of charm and gourmet selection appears to be treating Butter's well.  Dickey seems content as well, looking happy and relaxed as he stands behind the counter doing everything from operating the register to helping a customer select cheese or simply cleaning up.  Concord, New Hampshire -- like so many other small towns around the nation -- can now meet the increasingly sophisticated desires of a burgeoning crop of enthusiastic home cooks.