April 10, 2017

Meet Kia Burton of Cheesemongers of Sherman Oaks

Local Stories

Today we’d like to introduce you to Kia Burton.

Kia, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I first fell in love with cheese as a hobby. I would go buy a piece of cheese, and then go home and try to find out everything I could about it before I ate it. I bought every book I could find about cheese, and I read them over and over. Learning about cheese became my favorite thing to do. Eventually I decided I really wanted to work with cheese, so I began looking for a job at a cheese shop. I started out at Cowgirl Creamery in their San Francisco shop. A few years later, I was lucky enough to do a short internship at Neal’s Yard Dairy in London. I worked at a few smaller cheese shops as well as a couple specialty grocery store cheese counters, learning everything I could from the incredibly knowledgeable and talented cheesemongers I worked with. After moving back home to Los Angeles, I started thinking about opening up a cheese shop here in the valley, and after a year or so of searching and planning, we opened this shop in April 2015.

Has it been a smooth road?
I suspect it’s never a completely smooth road for any small family business. My husband, Tyler, and I both put all of our time and energy into the shop, and it can definitely be difficult at times. We have our slow seasons, when customers are fewer and farther between. But we love what we do, so that makes the difficult times absolutely worth it. We are incredibly appreciative of all the locals who have made this shop a part of their weekly routine. We have folks who come in like clockwork, rain or shine, every week. We absolutely could not do it without their support. We’re so grateful to the people in this neighborhood who have embraced us and made us part of their lives.

So, let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Cheesemongers of Sherman Oaks story. Tell us more about the business.
Cheesemongers of Sherman Oaks is your neighborhood cheese shop! Our rotating cheese selection focuses on small-batch and sustainably produced cheeses. We bring in the cheeses we think are the very best representations of each style. We cut all our cheese to order, making certain that its quality and condition are always exceptional. We have an impressive selection of charcuterie, featuring some of the best cured meat producers in the world. Alongside the cheeses and cured meats, we’ve assembled a selection of handmade and local cheese accompaniments and other grocery items — honey, crackers, jams, chocolates, vinegars, nuts, pasta, and more. We build cheese and charcuterie catering trays for parties, and we make beautiful custom gift baskets.

We teach cheese classes in the shop after hours, and we’ve become pretty well known for those. The classes sell out almost immediately after we announce them. Cheese 101 is our most popular class – it’s an overview of 8 different styles of cheese and what makes them each unique. You get to eat a ton of cheese in the class and talk about all their flavors, so it’s a delicious way to spend an evening.

I am most proud of the quality and condition of all our cheeses. It’s really important to me that the cheeses we sell are at their best when you take them home. Farmers and cheesemakers work so hard to create these handmade products, and we want to represent their work in the best light possible. Cheese is alive, and it needs to be taken care of correctly. The cheese you get from us is definitely going to be in great condition when you get it home, and I’m very proud of that.

I think the customer experience of buying cheese and charcuterie with a knowledgeable cheesemonger is what sets us apart. It’s fun! You get to taste and talk to us about what you like, try new things, ask questions. It’s a much more hands on shopping experience than you’d have buying your cheese at a grocery store. (Not to mention that the cheese you get from us will be much better than what you’d get at a grocery store).

How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
The cheese industry in this country has changed so much in the last 10 years, it’s hard to imagine where it will be in another 10. Hopefully small farms and artisan cheese producers will be flourishing, and every neighborhood will have their own independent cut-to-order cheese shop.

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