Speciality Food Inspirational Cheese Retailers 2025

the big Stiltons and Cheddars on display. It’s a great feature of the shop. We have a lot of school parties come in to see the cheese too. We’re just around the corner fromNantwichMuseum, so little ones will learn about local history there, then come into The Cheese Room for a taster of Cheshire cheese afterwards, finding out what ‘real cheese’ is.” It’s amutually beneficial agreement. “Often it gets the mummies and daddies coming in later on!” Nick says they’re proud to have a shop right in the heart of traditional British cheesemaking. “We’re always shouting about British cheeses.” A tasting journey That’s not to say European varieties, or even cheeses from further flung locations are off the board. During lockdown The Cheese Shop got through an enormous amount of Raclette, Nick recalls. “People couldn’t get out on their skiing holidays, so they were buying half or whole wheels. I was going through somany wheels a week. People were saying ‘what the hell are you doing with it all’?” “Since lockdown people have been travelling a lot more. They try cheeses, then come in and ask, ‘can you get in this?’. We always try our best, and we’re constantly looking for new cheeses. For the last two years we’ve brought cheese back fromAmerica, which people love and want more of. When I tell them it’s American they say, ‘oh really?’, then they try it and can’t believe how good it is!” 16 @specialityfood “P eople love cheese in this area – cheese runs through their veinsmore than blood,” Nick Birchall, co- founder of The Cheese Shop in Nantwich chuckles. With cheesemaking stretching back centuries in Cheshire, everyone knows someone, or has someone within their family, who’s worked in the county’s dairy industry – it’s a topic locals take very seriously indeed. Nick himself has fostered a love of cheese froma young age (coming from generations of cheesemakers) and he wears this affection proudly on his sleeve at the business he founded with his partner Chris Hogan early in 2020. Those visiting The Cheese Shop are guaranteed two things; one, an awe- inspiring display both in the counter and through the impressive glass wall; and two, that they will bemet withwarmth, friendliness and exuberance by bothNick and Chris, who adore chatting cheese, and providing what they call “good old fashioned service”. An education As well as attracting self-professed foodies, Nick says he and Chris are delighted to help educate locals and visitors on the topic of cheese. Often those conversations are first sparked when people experience a glance through the glass wall to their cheese storage room for the first time. “We get so many ‘wows’ and people asking us what’s in there,” Nick smiles. “They can see all LOCATION: NANTWICH FOUNDED: 2020 FOUNDERS: NICK BIRCHALL AND CHRIS HOGAN The Cheese Shop The Experimenters Alongside David Williams of Westry Roberts Cheese, and following a successful pilot last year, The Cheese Shop organised The Nantwich Cheese Awards at Nantwich Show this summer. It’s the first time cheese has been judged in Nantwich since the long-feted cheese showmoved to Staffordshire in 2021. “It’s been so missed,” Nick says. “The amount of people who came in and asked why the show left Nantwich is huge. It’s the home of cheese! We’re really proud of it, and hope it will do really well.” MAKING A SHOWOF IT NORTH