‘Taste and understand’ at new East Lansing cheese shop

When April Robart and her family lived in Kalamazoo, they loved visiting the local Cheese Lady location.

“We would go out on an afternoon walk and go there to sample the cheeses,” she said. “We’d end up just blown away, and that’s why we always wanted to open one.”

The Kalamazoo location was the first franchise of the Muskegon-based specialty cheese company. Robart’s children were younger at the time, and she and her husband, Forrest, were too busy to open their own. But with their children out of the house, they decided now was the perfect time.

Robart is now the proud owner of the eighth Cheese Lady location, which opened Sept. 4 in East Lansing. The shop sells 127 specialty, cut-to-order cheeses and is adding more every week, with a goal of eventually reaching 200. It also offers imported items like Italian pasta and Spanish crackers. Robart said the shop appeals to those who are well traveled and seeking hard-to-find cheeses, as well as to cheese newcomers looking to learn more.

“For people who aren’t exposed to it, it’s nice to kind of educate them and then look them in the eye when they try it,” Robart said. “Because they’ve always paid $10 for cheese at Costco, and it’s good, right? Until they try the cheeses here, and they’re like, ‘Oh my gosh, I’m never going to buy grocery cheese again.’”

For Ian Whipp, a cheesemonger at the shop, cheese is a passion. He studied with author and cheesemaker David Asher and talks excitedly about the history and art of cheesemaking.

“It’s about learning the stories around the food that you eat just as much as anything else,” he said. “It’s a food that’s rich in history.”

Asked how a first-time customer would be greeted, Asher cut off a sample of BellaVitano garlic-and-herb cheese and said, “like this.”

“We don’t just sell cheese, we sell an experience,” Robart said. “People always say, ‘Are you worried about Whole Foods? Are you worried about Horrocks?’ I’m not worried.

“You don’t just go in and buy something that’s wrapped in plastic,” she continued. “We cut from the wheel, and you get to sample everything.”

Cheese Lady cheeses are never allowed to touch plastic. There is no science to back up the idea that shrink wrap changes the flavor of the cheese, Robart said, but they do it out of an abundance of caution, wrapping the cheeses first in parchment and then plastic.

While the East Lansing shop is a franchise, Robart said Cheese Lady locations have local owners.

“I hate saying ‘franchise’ because it has a bad connotation. It’s still running like a family business,” she said. “And ‘corporate,’ in Muskegon, is a couple of owners plus the original owners, and they’re very supportive.

“Most franchises are cookie-cutter,” she continued. “They have to be, that’s how they want to run. But if you go to each Cheese Lady store, they don’t look the same. Kathleen, our original founder, wants her own stamp and for each owner to have their own stamp in each store.”

Alongside the shop, Robart also sells cheese at local farmers markets to get the word out.

“The site itself is more of a destination than anything, so we get a lot of people familiar with the stores. They’ve been to the Traverse City store, they’ve been to the Grand Rapids store,” she said. “But then there are a lot of people out there who have never heard of it, and the farmers market is one of our ways to get out there and introduce people to the brand.”

Whipp said learning more about the cheesemaking process makes for a more enjoyable snack.

“A lot of it is being able to hear about what exactly goes into the cheese that our customers are buying,” he said. “Being able to understand what it is that adds such a rich flavor. It’s more than just getting to sample it.”

He said anyone curious about the shop should just come in and try a few samples.

“Samples are the biggest selling point,” he said. “Come taste and understand.”