A new shop that sells dozens of gourmet cheese products has opened in the Boston area.
Life Love Cheese opened at 184 Water St. in Wakefield on Wednesday, Dec. 18.
The store offers artisanal cheeses from across the United States as well as charcuterie boards, picnic boxes, wine, beer and spirits.
Life Love Cheese also houses a gourmet sandwich counter serving cheese-centric sandwiches. The store also plans on hosting workshops on cheese and pairings.
“I’m thrilled to share my passion for American artisanal food with the community,” owner Kimi Ceridon said in a press release. “Life Love Cheese is more than just a store; it’s a place to discover new flavors, connect with local producers, and celebrate the best of American food.”
Life Love Cheese is an artisanal cheese pop-up business that sells grazing, charcuterie and cheeseboards at local farmers markets and events.Courtesy of Kimi Ceridon
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 a 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. Now after almost two years of selling various cheese boards online and at farmers markets and events in Greater Boston, the business owner is thrilled to have a brick-and-mortar location.
“I’m very excited about having a home base,” Ceridon previously 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.”
Life Love Cheese is an artisanal cheese pop-up business that sells grazing, charcuterie and cheeseboards at local farmers markets and events.Courtesy of Kimi Ceridon
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.
“I’ve been able to draw on all the expertise … through all of those different ventures,” Ceridon said. “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 now that Life Love Cheese is officially open.
Life Love Cheese is open Wednesday through Saturday from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
