{"id":48973,"date":"2025-02-11T12:34:53","date_gmt":"2025-02-11T17:34:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/?p=48973"},"modified":"2025-02-11T15:10:34","modified_gmt":"2025-02-11T20:10:34","slug":"how-to-open-cheese-shop-lessons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/how-to-open-cheese-shop-lessons\/","title":{"rendered":"What You Need to Know Before Opening a Cheese Shop"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Eat Cheese. Be Happy: An introduction to a blog series on opening a cheese shop<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

We had spent weeks and an unmentionable amount of money working with an architect before I thought to ask, \u201cDon\u2019t we need a produce sink in the shop\u2019s kitchen?\u201d I made the mistake of assuming the architect knew the health code requirements. I was wrong. And now we needed to find a way to squeeze more<\/em> plumbing into an already crowded kitchen. Luckily, things were still on paper.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My journey<\/a> to opening Life Love Cheese<\/a> in December 2024, my first brick-and-mortar storefront in Wakefield, Massachusetts, started over ten years ago when I left my tech career and went to culinary school. Like many other mid-life career changers, I had a naive, rose-tinted idea of what leaving the corporate world to pursue my passion for food would be like. I knew I wanted to do something entrepreneurial when I left tech, but I still had a \u201cclimb the career ladder\u201d mindset. I thought studying food policy and joining a think tank or becoming a consultant seemed like a respectable career path.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All those plans changed after I took the Artisan Cheeses of the World course at Boston University. The cheese industry hooked me, and there was no looking back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While figuring out what my new career would look like, I staged in restaurants. I worked side gigs with festivals and food shows. I attended industry events. I taught classes for community education programs. I coordinated food programs for non-profits. I pitched hundreds of stories. I worked as a teaching assistant. I did food marketing. I worked my butt off and along the way, I met people from all corners of the food industry. More importantly, I\u2019ve kept in touch with them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I can attribute many of my \u201clucky breaks\u201d to the relationships I\u2019ve nurtured. The Artisan Cheese Classes and Culinary Classes I took so many years ago are a good example. Because I kept in touch with the course coordinators and instructors, they hired me as a culinary assistant for classes and I later connected some of those people to community education programs or hired them for events and festivals. When the teaching assistant for the Artisan Cheese Course moved on, those same people asked me if I wanted to take her place. While I took cheese classes at Sterling College and with Jasper Hill Farm, I helped shape the Artisan Cheese Course curriculum. Then, when Ihsan Ghurdal the former owner of Formaggio Kitchen retired from teaching the Artisan Cheese course, Boston University asked me<\/em> to teach it and expand it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Through these experiences, I\u2019ve maintained connections with cheese professionals and cheesemakers and have tapped them for advice as I built my storefront. I\u2019ve garnered ideas on topics big and small, ranging from how many people I should hire to asking what someone thinks about a sandwich recipe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These relationships are the single most valuable part of my journey. I cannot overemphasize how important it is to nurture relationships across the cheese industry, with other food professionals, and within the small business community. Yeah, it\u2019s sometimes scary to reach out to that old colleague from years ago and ask for a bit of help, but the cheese industry is full of generosity and curiosity. People are often more than willing to point you in the right direction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whether dealing with architects, finding a location, navigating permitting, or picking out products, I often felt like I was reinventing the wheel. Along the way, I\u2019d stop and think, \u201cSurely, someone has gone through this before.\u201d Now, hot off opening day, I have so many lessons fresh in my mind. I want to preserve them for opening future Life Love Cheese locations, but I also figured they\u2019re useful for other aspiring cheese shop owners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s the premise behind this blog<\/strong>\u2014 a monthly dive into the roller coaster ride of opening an artisan cheese shop. There\u2019s nothing especially unique about opening a cheese shop over other retail spaces, I can\u2019t say I have all the right answers, and I\u2019m sure some of these posts will have other cheese shop owners scratching their heads wondering, \u201cWhat the heck was Kimi thinking?\u201d But! My hope is that these lessons will help people feel less lonely in the labyrinth of potential missteps of opening a store.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Eat Cheese. Be Happy: An introduction to a blog series on opening a cheese shop We had spent weeks and an unmentionable amount of money working with an architect before I thought to ask, \u201cDon\u2019t we need a produce sink in the shop\u2019s kitchen?\u201d I made the mistake of assuming the architect knew the health […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121,"featured_media":48974,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"wprm-recipe-roundup-name":"","wprm-recipe-roundup-description":"","cybocfi_hide_featured_image":"yes","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"coauthors":[10634],"class_list":["post-48973","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nWhat You Need to Know Before Opening a Cheese Shop - culture: the word on cheese<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/how-to-open-cheese-shop-lessons\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What You Need to Know Before Opening a Cheese Shop\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Eat Cheese. Be Happy: An introduction to a blog series on opening a cheese shop We had spent weeks and an unmentionable amount of money working with an architect before I thought to ask, \u201cDon\u2019t we need a produce sink in the shop\u2019s kitchen?\u201d I made the mistake of assuming the architect knew the health […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/how-to-open-cheese-shop-lessons\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"culture: the word on cheese\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-02-11T17:34:53+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-02-11T20:10:34+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/6I8A7344-scaled.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1067\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Kimi Ceridon\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Kimi Ceridon\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/how-to-open-cheese-shop-lessons\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/how-to-open-cheese-shop-lessons\/\",\"name\":\"What You Need to Know Before Opening a Cheese Shop - culture: the word on cheese\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/how-to-open-cheese-shop-lessons\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/how-to-open-cheese-shop-lessons\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/6I8A7344-scaled.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-02-11T17:34:53+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-02-11T20:10:34+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/#\/schema\/person\/af773f781e73b2f7fa87a4fc0a4da1ad\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/how-to-open-cheese-shop-lessons\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/how-to-open-cheese-shop-lessons\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/how-to-open-cheese-shop-lessons\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Blog\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/category\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"What You Need to Know Before Opening a Cheese Shop\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/\",\"name\":\"culture: the word on cheese\",\"description\":\"Culture, America's magazine for cheese lovers, delivers stories about cheeses, cheesemakers, travel to gorgeous cheese regions, and practical tips on buying, presenting, and cooking with cheese.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/#\/schema\/person\/af773f781e73b2f7fa87a4fc0a4da1ad\",\"name\":\"Alana Pedalino\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/5ec64ea1a8cef59af50f1c9d32fa7f2b\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/20190614_134235-150x150.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/20190614_134235-150x150.jpg\",\"caption\":\"Alana Pedalino\"},\"description\":\"Alana Pedalino's work has been featured in Bon App\u00e9tit, Chicken Soup for the Soul, and The Buffalo News. She's currently serving as culture's social media manager. She loves to write poetry, cook spaghetti carbonara, and kayak. Follow her @APstyle on X. Read more by her at alanapedalino.com.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/author\/alana\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"What You Need to Know Before Opening a Cheese Shop - culture: the word on cheese","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/how-to-open-cheese-shop-lessons\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"What You Need to Know Before Opening a Cheese Shop","og_description":"Eat Cheese. Be Happy: An introduction to a blog series on opening a cheese shop We had spent weeks and an unmentionable amount of money working with an architect before I thought to ask, \u201cDon\u2019t we need a produce sink in the shop\u2019s kitchen?\u201d I made the mistake of assuming the architect knew the health […]","og_url":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/how-to-open-cheese-shop-lessons\/","og_site_name":"culture: the word on cheese","article_published_time":"2025-02-11T17:34:53+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-02-11T20:10:34+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1600,"height":1067,"url":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/6I8A7344-scaled.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Kimi Ceridon","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Kimi Ceridon","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/how-to-open-cheese-shop-lessons\/","url":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/how-to-open-cheese-shop-lessons\/","name":"What You Need to Know Before Opening a Cheese Shop - culture: the word on cheese","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/how-to-open-cheese-shop-lessons\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/how-to-open-cheese-shop-lessons\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/6I8A7344-scaled.jpg","datePublished":"2025-02-11T17:34:53+00:00","dateModified":"2025-02-11T20:10:34+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/#\/schema\/person\/af773f781e73b2f7fa87a4fc0a4da1ad"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/how-to-open-cheese-shop-lessons\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/how-to-open-cheese-shop-lessons\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/how-to-open-cheese-shop-lessons\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Blog","item":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/category\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"What You Need to Know Before Opening a Cheese Shop"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/#website","url":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/","name":"culture: the word on cheese","description":"Culture, America's magazine for cheese lovers, delivers stories about cheeses, cheesemakers, travel to gorgeous cheese regions, and practical tips on buying, presenting, and cooking with cheese.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/#\/schema\/person\/af773f781e73b2f7fa87a4fc0a4da1ad","name":"Alana Pedalino","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/5ec64ea1a8cef59af50f1c9d32fa7f2b","url":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/20190614_134235-150x150.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/20190614_134235-150x150.jpg","caption":"Alana Pedalino"},"description":"Alana Pedalino's work has been featured in Bon App\u00e9tit, Chicken Soup for the Soul, and The Buffalo News. She's currently serving as culture's social media manager. She loves to write poetry, cook spaghetti carbonara, and kayak. Follow her @APstyle on X. Read more by her at alanapedalino.com.","url":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/author\/alana\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48973","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/121"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48973"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48973\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48974"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48973"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48973"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48973"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=48973"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}