Artisanal cheese pop-up business planting roots with first store in Mass. (2024)

Kimi Ceridon has always wanted to open a gourmet shop for her artisanal pop-up cheese business Life Love Cheese.

Now after almost two years of selling various cheese boards online and at farmers markets and events in Greater Boston, the business owner is in the process of building her own space within the community that she has been serving.

“I’m very excited about having a home base,” Ceridon, who appropriately refers to herself as the “Head Cheese,” told MassLive.

“I’ve been doing the shared kitchen game for a little while and it’s frustrating,” Ceridon said. “There’s always difficulties with any location that you end up with where it’s working fixed hours in somebody else’s kitchen, bumping into other people, not [having] your own equipment and stuff, so I’m so excited to have regular opening hours where it’s not confusing to customers.”

Ceridon is hoping to open the storefront, which will be located at 184 Water St. in Wakefield, by the end of 2024. She ideally wants it opened by the holidays, but recognizes that might be challenging.

“I don’t have my solid timelines down yet since I’m very early in the design process,” Ceridon said, mentioning how the building Life Love Cheese is moving into is still being built. “The finishes and everything are going to be fairly complete by the time I get the keys. So, I hope I can push the timeline.”

The shop will sell Life Love Cheese’s signature artisanal cheeses and boards, picnic boxes, cheese-related gourmet products and gifts.

Regionally crafted beers, an “eclectic” selection of wines and non-alcoholic drinks will also be available for sale, Ceridon said.

The shop will also house a gourmet sandwich counter serving cheese-centric sandwiches with specials that change every week. The store will also host workshops on cheese and pairings.

“I want it to be super fun. That’s the vibe I try to bring to everything I do because I feel like I want cheese to not be this kind of snobby thing. I want it to be approachable,” Ceridon said. “I know artisan cheeses are expensive by nature, but I hope to bring in cheeses that are approachable and easy for people to get into getting the artisanal cheeses and can be affordable.”

A Colorado native, Ceridon became fascinated with sustainable food while obtaining her master’s degree in mechanical engineering at MIT. Upon graduating she moved to Texas and worked for an oil services company for several years.

After moving back to Massachusetts, Ceridon decided she had her fill with the corporate world and decided to go to culinary school at Boston University, eventually getting master’s degree in gastronomy.

While at BU, she focused on local food systems while earning both a culinary arts and an artisan cheese certificate. She also attended the Sterling College Artisan Cheese Institute in Vermont’s artisan cheese country, Life Love Cheese’s website states.

Ceridon launched Life Love Cheese, which is based out of Woburn and Medford, as a grazing board company at the end of 2022.

Outside of her own business, Ceridon has worked with the Northeast Organic Farming Association (NOFA), helped launched the testing kitchen at Boston Public Market, worked as a cheesemonger at Formaggio Kitchen and has done consulting throughout New England. She even teaches at BU’s gastronomy program.

As someone who has been involved in the food/cheese community for almost 10 years, Ceridon feels that her first storefront is a culmination of her hard work and dedication.

“It feels fast, but it also feels like it was a lot of work going into it,” Ceridon said.

“I’ve been able to draw on all the expertise... through all of those different ventures,” she continued. “All the work that I’ve been doing up to this point was leading towards getting to this and I feel like there’s just like a big community around me helping me out.”

Ceridon still plans on hosting cheese shop pop-ups within Greater Boston once Life Love Cheese officially opens its shop.