Now do you want some Adelegger? If so, then Mr. Johnson has done his job, which is to use lyrical wit and subtle cultural references to lure customers into taking home a wedge of the rare and unfamiliar cheeses that he adores.

Mr. Johnson’s labels have a following, in part because they practically dare you to suss out the allusions he’s dropping. In the Adelegger sign, he said, “The actress I was thinking of is Maggie Cheung, and the movie is ‘In the Mood for Love.’ ” For Calcagno, he has opted for rock ’n’ roll: “Big and floral in the very best way possible, this firm Sardinian sheep has the cool unaffected strut of Mick in his prime, Lou in middle age or Polly Jean today.”

That last part is a nod to the singer and songwriter P. J. Harvey, but so far Mr. Johnson hasn’t had to provide anyone with explanatory footnotes.

Mr. Johnson is just one of many skilled cheese wits around the city. Just this month, in fact, a cheesemonger named Peter Daniels, known as The Doctor, briefly had to reel in his reference-studded musings at Westside Market after a nod to Nostradamus caused a customer to complain.

The man often pointed to as both the Mark Twain and the Ricky Roma of fromage-inspired belles-lettres is Steve Jenkins, the volcanically passionate expert on cheese (and many other products) at Fairway Market.

Thanks to him, a sign-browsing stroll through Fairway will reveal many delights, like this billing for Queijo de Serpa: “It is still made only at night, I am led to believe, as it was when I last visited the cheesemaker, and what I haven’t told you is Serpa’s texture and flavor are like sex. There’s just no other way to describe the effect this cheese has on me. Even though I barely remember sex.”