The charcuterie board craze in Raleigh spawns a new meat-and-cheese shop

Charcuterie is getting the fast casual treatment at Raleigh’s newest snack bar.

The charcuterie shop Onboard opened on Glenwood Avenue in Raleigh this month. Situated in the nightlife heart of the Triangle, the new storefront from owners Tiana and Bruce Davis offers meat and cheese boxes on the spot, curated and improvised for the tastes of customers.

Onboard Charcuterie is born out of the Davis’ catering company, which the married couple started four years ago at the outset of the pandemic. Tiana Davis said charcuterie boards have been one of the company’s most popular specialties, leading to the need for the spin-off shop.

Onboard opened at 215B Glenwood Ave. in Raleigh, next door to the DRINK wine bar.

A lunchables glow-up: ‘Eat meets art’

The seed of the shop was sown years ago with shared plates of portwine cheese and the legendary predecessor of charcuterie boards — the Lunchable.

“A lot of us who love charcuterie, most of us grew up on Lunchables,” Tiana Davis said, referencing the popular kids lunch of deli meat, cheese and crackers. “It’s an ode to childhood. I’ve been eating charcuterie before I even knew what it was.”

Davis said port wine cheeseballs shared with her mother remain a memory that inspires the love built into the shop.

“It’s a wonderful experience I remember having with her as a treat,” Davis said. “Now it’s become this trendy thing that people really love.”

Fueled by the Instagram age, charcuterie boards are more than just snack spreads these days, they’re smorgasbords of art. At Onboard, Davis makes boards covered in salami rosettes and pinwheels of gruyere, studded with blueberries and olives, and dishes of lemon curd and sliced figs.

The charcuterie spreads at Onboard are something of an edible mandala, painstakingly put together, to be devoured.

“It’s an opportunity to turn something so delicious into art,” Davis said. “What I do, I call it ‘Eat meets art.’ I want my boards to be equal parts delicious and beautiful....When I deliver a board to a client they’ll sometimes say, ‘I almost don’t want to eat it, it’s so beautiful.’ This is my masterpiece and then you get to devour it.”

At the charcuterie storefront, Onboard makes on-the-spot meat and cheese boxes. Customers pick a size and which meats they’d like, then the shop picks cheese pairings and condiments.

“You’re watching the magic happen, we curate the box right before your eyes,” Davis said.