Our Top 10 Moments of 2024

Okay, okay. Y’all know I’m never brief. And we are so fortunate and blessed to have much to be thankful for and proud of in 2024. Without further adieu...

1. Cheese Tastings GALORE!

Um, let’s see here, the #1 memory of 2024 is… OPENING OUR NEW COMMUNITY TASTING ROOM ON SOUTH LAMAR! In 2023, we hosted over 400 private cheese tasting experiences—and we had to turn lots of folks away due to capacity. By opening another location, we’ve been able to double our capacity for both public and private events.

For the first time in almost 15 years, we changed up our event offerings—giving you all more of what you want. Now we’re offering our award-winning “Signature Cheese Tasting Experience” EVERY Friday, Saturday, and Sunday at various times at two locations. Better still? We change the cheese, pairings, and wine flight menus monthly (personally selected by John and me). That means all of you for-real cheese lovers out there can come back to us often and always fall in love with something new.

 2. The “A” Team:

So many team achievements, kudos, and professional developments.

Thanks for helping us invest in our team!

Bailey, our sales manager, rigorously studied for—and subsequently PASSED!—the American Cheese Society Certified Cheese Exam. Woohoo, Bailey! If you’re counting (and we are!), this little ole business has supported 11 cheesemongers in their journeys to becoming Certified Cheese Professionals (and we’ve employed a few more). It takes a lot of resources—financial and time—to make it happen. So, what an accomplishment for both Bailey and our biz!

Eleanor was awarded an Austin Dames scholarship to participate in Two Hives Honey’s Beekeeper Apprenticeship. Y’all know beekeeper Tara Chapman of Two Hives Honey is one of our faves, and now we have someone on the team with an even deeper understanding of everything it takes to produce and harvest that liquid gold!

Casie is continuing to rack up certifications. She recently passed her Wine & Spirit Education Trust (WSET) Level 3 and has begun the long journey to receiving her WSET Diploma. (Fun fact: Casie was one of the first Certified Cheese Professionals EVER and is also a Certified Cider Professional.)

Matt went to The Netherlands to learn all about Gouda with our friends at Essex St Cheese, Betty Koster, and Fromagerie L’Amuse.

Three team members bought their first homes! We ALL know what an achievement that is in this economy and this area. Go team! So happy for you!

We hired our Head of Finance: Kent! Kent has already made a big impact, quickly becoming an essential part of our Leadership Team. We’re thrilled to have his expertise guiding us forward and couldn’t be more excited about what’s ahead with him on board!

3. Living Our Mission: Do Good. Eat Good.

Thanks to your support, we were able to contribute to over 130 nonprofits and charitable events this year. That’s amazing! We didn’t even have that great of a financial year, yet we were still able to live our mission: Do Good. Eat Good. (If you missed it, read our Gratitude & Accountability “report” here.)

We also re-launched our Charitable Cheese Cause events for the first time since pre-pandemic times. These tastings support local nonprofits and create community through cheese. (Know a nonprofit? Have them sign up for our 2025 spring season!)

Lastly, we opened up our new space to local nonprofit Good Work Austin by:

1. Hosting their Workforce Development Culinary Training Program for a Cheese 101 Tasting & Pairings course.
2. Letting them use the space to offer a Harassment Prevention Training open to all restaurant industry folks.

4. Record-Breaking Numbers:

We sold an estimated 115,000 pounds of cheese this year! That’s helping to support the livelihoods of so many artisanal cheesemakers and dairy folks—and hopefully doing our part to keep them around a little longer. (Have we ever mentioned theirs is a true labor of love, operating on a challenging business model with small margins?!)

Cheese Club High
Our Cheese Club hit an all-time high with over 450 memberships! 

Cheese Trays for Days
We sold a record number of cheese trays this holiday season — more than 1500 of you gathered round cheese at your holiday celebrations this year! 

5. Amazing Collaborations

We paired back up with Alamo Drafthouse to launch our “Cheese-y Movie Nights,” kicking it off with one of John’s favorite rom-coms, Serendipity. (Seriously, if John Cusack walked in right now, John might leave me for him.) We’re excited to announce that we’re bringing it back quarterly in 2025! These are all TBD (and oh-so-cheese-y for different reasons!), but here’s the lineup for you to obsess over in advance:

• Monday, February 10th, 2025: The Bodyguard
• Monday, May 12th, 2025: Drop Dead Gorgeous
• Monday, August 11th, 2025: Demolition Man
• Monday, November 10th, 2025: The Holiday

We also teamed up with Cork & Screw, Cape Bottle Room, and other fun friends for cheese-y collaborations.

6. Speaking

John and I had the honor of giving the keynote for the Austin Young Chamber’s annual LEAD Summit—and we had a blast launching a new talk that included audience participation and tasting along the way! We also loved presenting together at The Headliners Club.

We traveled back to our undergraduate alma mater, Georgetown University in D.C., for our 20th college reunion, led a cheese and wine pairing there, and showed our kids our names etched on the wall of our college bar, The Tombs.

I was invited to speak at several events this year, including:

1. A food show on Sustainability in Cheese.
2. I Live Here, I Give Here, about philanthropy and diverse ways to give back (professionally and personally)—even when resources are limited.
3. The James Beard Foundation’s Women’s Entrepreneurship Program, exploring the pros and cons of our diverse revenue model.

John covered for me on a sick day, speaking at the Metropolitan Business Club on Life Partner Visioning (more info coming soon!).

I also got to judge some incredible competitions this year, including:

• The annual Austin Food Magazine’s Mac and Cheese Festival.
• The Austin Chronicle’s annual Hot Sauce Fest.
• HAAM’s Corporate Battle of the Bands (no food, but so much fun—and music!).

Yes, please! Bring me more food competitions (to judge) in 2025! 

7. We Made it in the Media

• Announcing our new space on South Lamar
• Love on Tierra’s Texas, airing on Fox 7 Austin
• Community Impact helped us get the word out 
• CultureMap Austin spread the curd word too
• Casie was profiled and quoted in Culture: The Word on Cheese for her Cheese & Mulled Beverages Pairings.
• John and I got to talk about our other favorite thing - alongside cheese - mental health! Thanks Rosie Newberry for having us on KXAN Studio 512 to talk through our challenges and tips for navigating mental health needs.
• The Austin Chronicle gave us a shout out for our Charitable Cheese Cause nonprofit events.
• Axios reached out to us for “Tips for the Perfect Cheese Board.”
• Austin Monthly included us in their “50 Great Dates” list.
• Mashed included us in their “Best Cheese Shops of America” roundup.
• Tribeza let us not only share my hosting tips for cheese but also our greater purpose behind selling cheese.
• Coming off the high from our national Capital One commercial, we worked with KXAN to create a local commercial to spread the word about our South Lamar location - and exactly what a tasting experience includes!

8. We Won!