Grace Denney
When you think of a charcuterie board, what do you think of? While most people think of just meat and cheese on a board, CharCUTErie Woo business owner Kerry Dwyer thinks bigger: she sees a community coming together in one space to bond.
Before starting her business, Dwyer was all about bringing people together in a different way; by working at UMass Hospital in the pulmonary ICU. Even at five years old, Dwyer knew she wanted to be a nurse, that was her dream. During Covid, her dream started to shift. The pulmonary ICU was turned into the Covid ICU, and stress levels were high. When she came home from work, she just wanted to relax and have a break from the chaos.“I started making charcuterie as, like, a decompression after work, and it was our dinner. I didn’t want to cook, or be in my own head, I wanted to decorate a plate with meat and cheese,” Dwyer reflects.
Over time, she became more confident and posted her boards on social media, and as her designs started to get more intricate, people began to take notice. “I posted one one day and my sister was like, ‘Oh, can you make one of these for me for Valentine’s day for a Galentine’s day party?’ So that was my first sale!” That first sale from her sister brought out a passion in Dwyer. After this, she started cutting her hours at the hospital, got all of her necessary licenses, and dove in headfirst to pursue her new adventure.
In April 2025, she decided it was time to take the next step and have her own space to grow her business. This new location was able to open in May 2025 in Paxton, MA. Dwyer wanted to make the most of her new space, so she has added more to the menu. She realized that there’s not much of a variety of food options with fresh ingredients in town, so she wanted to change that. She now offers sandwiches with bread from local bakers, fresh salads, and even mini charcuterie boards for on the go. She emphasized how much she cares about quality and tries to locally source most of her ingredients.
CharCUTErie Woo has continued to flourish with the help and support of her husband, Tommy. “He has always been my cheerleader,” Dwyer gushes, “I don’t think I would have ever made this major leap into owning a charcuterie brick and mortar if he wasn’t so supportive,” she laughs.
Tommy encourages her to step out of her comfort zone, so much that they’ve started hosting workshops together. The first time she was offered a chance to host a charcuterie workshop, she immediately told them no. “I was telling Tommy about it in passing. He’s like, ‘Call them back right now. I want to host this class.’” Without knowing anything about charcuterie, Tommy has embraced his new role of explaining step by step how to make a gorgeous board, while Kerry demonstrates how it’s done. “It’s a perfect combination,” she says, “We balance.”
During the fall and into the holidays, Dwyer typically only had classes a few times a month, but, now that she has her own space, she can accommodate them anytime. For the holidays last year, she hosted a class where the charcuterie was made to look like a gingerbread house. “We used cream cheese spreads, and do like, salami shingles for the roof. It was fun.”
Another unique perk CharCUTErie offers is their Board of the Month, in which Dwyer comes up with a new theme for every month! For March this year, she got a cheese that looks like an Irish flag on the rind, with the inside being mango ginger white stilton and Irish cheddar. To complete the board, she picked an arrangement of sweet and savory: peppered salami, seasonal fruits, and sweets to fill in the gaps. For these boards, she’ll try to get different, unique cheeses from her wholesalers specifically for the theme of that month’s board. At the beginning of each month, she’ll send out an email telling club members what days they can pick up their monthly themed board.
Supporting local businesses is very important to Dwyer as it fosters her love of community. As well as trying to source most things locally, she has a little gift shop in her store, filled to the brim with goodies from local artisans. From homemade jams to resin art made by her sister, she provides a space for people to promote their products. She also has plants for sale from the local Paxton garden club to raise money for a community garden and merch from her kids’ school to help with their fundraiser. The way she is able to intertwine what is personally important to her with her professional life which makes the CharCUTErie Woo a great place to support. “It’s a nice little community feeling here. This kind of feels like the heart of my universe,” Dwyer says.
One of the best parts in owning her own business is being able to have more time for her family. Instead of 12-hour shifts, she will go to the shop at 3am, prepare for the day, and get back by 7am to get her two daughters on the bus for school. In integrating her shop with her day-to-day life, she has been able to make more time for her family, and just by doing that she’s attracting people to her space.If you are looking for a small business to support, CharCUTErie Woo offers more than just charcuterie, they offer a welcoming space. You can find them on Instagram @charcuterie_woo and on Facebook as Charcuterie woo. Stop by to enjoy some delicious freshly made food while supporting a growing locally owned business!
