SOUTHERNSPOTLIGHT Artisan Cheesehouse
Say Cheese With their growing selections of small-batch, hand-crafted cheese, Heather and Pete Holmes of Charleston Artisan Cheesehouse are putting smiles on Lowcountry faces. by Susan Frampton
Chances are, you’ve never stood at the dairy case and pondered where cheese comes from. If you’re like most of us, it has just always been there; appearing cut, shrink-wrapped, and labeled as though dropped from the heavens. But once you’ve watched 80 gallons of milk
Dream Team Heather and Pete in their element; wheels of cheesy goodness
begin the journey to its final destination of small batch, hand-whipped fromage frais, or watched rounds of brie hand-turned in their aging room, you may never be satisfied with anything less perfect and fresh. The late Anthony Bourdain once opined of the art of cheesemaking, “You have to be a romantic to invest yourself, your money, and your time in cheese.” All three of these elements are well-represented in the West Ashley operation that keeps owners Heather and Pete Holmes turning out an amazing line of cheese at Charleston Artisan Cheesehouse on Ashley River Road. The two New York City transplants were no strangers to long hours and hard work when they left careers in retail in the Big Apple. Though it may have looked like the perfect life for a couple of movers and shakers, battling blizzards, dealing with corporate structure, and eating dinner at 11 PM didn’t leave them much time to enjoy with their son, Declan.
“We had toyed with opening a retail store of some kind on King Street in Charleston, but the numbers just didn’t add up,” says Heather of their growing dissatisfaction with city life. “A couple of years later, Declan said to us one night, ‘We don’t get to enjoy being a family much.’ That was it. We decided that very night that we were going to make a change, and called a broker the next day about selling our apartment.” “We get one chance at doing this together. We get one shot at raising our son,” Pete remembers saying of their resolution to make a change. “I don’t want him to remember us just working all the time.” With the decision to relocate made, they looked at various cities up and down the East Coast. Charleston offered everything they were looking for, and they also had friends in the Holy City. “We left two feet of snow on the ground the day the moving truck pulled out. Navigating through the snow, we knew we Fall 2018 AZALEAMAG.COM
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