Antonelli's Cheese Shop

If you're looking for a gouda night away from your typical downtown excursions in ATX, look no further than Antonelli's cheese shop. This place has been on my Austin bucket list for forever!

It's somewhere you could go just to see what a specialized cheese shop, or un fromagerie, looks like, or sample some nibbles of cheese, and come away with some delicacies, but Antonelli's takes things to the next level with the variety of cheese tasting and pairing classes that they offer. They also focus on connecting local and small cheese making operations with the greater public, and really taking care of the businesses that supply their shop with cheese, so it's a great local business to support. 

My family is obsessed with cheese (and cheese puns), so Mom and I decided to take the basic "Cheese 101" course that Antonelli's offers at their cheese room, located just across the street from their flag ship store. (They just opened up another one closer to the heart of downtown!). Parking was a breeze, and the Hyde Park area location puts the cheese shop right by some iconic Austin eats, like Mother's Cafe, Hyde Park Bar and Grill, and Quack's Bakery. 

Our first mission was to check out Antonelli's store. We walked in and couldn't brie leave it, there were so many different kinds of delicious cheese all just sitting behind a counter, waiting for us to try.  

So much cheese!

It was cute and kitsch in the best way possible, and though the scent of cheese was overpowering at first, as cheese-lovers it was soon a welcome background scent. 

I just like anything that's in French.. 

Bread made from the local eatery Easy Tiger, we used this to try all of our cheeses

After oogling in the shop and all the delicacies it had to offer, we made our way over to the class!  

Seated in a warm room with about 25 other people, you could tell how excited everyone was to be there. There were couples, friends, mother-daughter duos, and even a couple of people who attended the class on their own. We were surrounded by discussion on people's favorite cheese, and their favorite cheese plates around ATX. The walls too were covered in useful cheese puns and knowledge.

Our cheese selection's for the night!  

We began the class with a little introduction from the instructors, who seemed to be experts in cheese. Then, they brought out a plate with seven different types of cheese, and little goodies like jam or saucisson, to go along with them! It was so difficult to eat the cheeses as the instructors explained about each one. Mom and I managed to power through and pace ourselves, but we couldn't provolone it for long. We started munching as soon as possible, and at the end of the night I could camembert-ly take another bite! 

The theme of our class was the seven most common types of cheese, ranging from some very soft goat's cheese, and finishing up with a good strong parmesan. I think I'm more of a soft cheese girl myself, and Mom is partial to a good blue! 

The class did cost some serious cheddar, but was certainly filled with knowledge and almost too much cheese (at least for me) to, let's be honest, stuff my face with! We're definitely hoping to go back for another cheese course soon. 

You can check out Antonelli's website and events here!