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Bristol Cheesemonger expands to open second shop
Oli Smith wants the new Bristol Cheesemonger shop to provide “a magical experience” for his customers.
Their second shop has been two years in the making, with Oli and his team now able to use the much bigger space than their original Wapping Wharf unit to further grow the award-winning business.
Gloucester Road is both an ideal location for the Bristol Cheesemonger and can provide the opportunity for everything from a humidity-controlled maturation space on site to a back garden space for cheese and wine.
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“One of the things I have always liked about the Wapping Wharf shop is that you walk in and there is just cheese everywhere,” says Oli.
“This is obviously a different set-up but we are chasing that wow factor. We want people to get excited.”
“We want people to get excited,” says Oli Smith about the new Bristol Cheesemonger shop on Gloucester Road – photo: Martin Booth
Oli, 37, who lives in Whitehall, was the first permanent employee of the Bristol Cheesemonger when it was owned by its founder, Rosie Morgan, before buying the business off Rosie with his wife Jenny.
The pair had spent time living in South Korea and Thailand teaching English as a foreign language, and Jenny still combines being a teacher with working behind the scenes for the business.
As well as working in a number of different shops, Oli has worked in cheesemaking. “I just wanted to learn, to have as broader view as possible and a technical understanding.”
When lockdown hit, Oli and Jenny were planning to open their own cheese shop, getting so far as registering a company in Somerset before Rosie got in touch to say that she was selling the Bristol Cheesemonger and would they be interested?
That was in October 2021 and the pair have since taken the shop from strength to strength, providing many of Bristol’s most acclaimed restaurants with their cheeses including a number within a stone’s throw of their shipping container in Wapping Wharf including Box-E, Tare Bistro and Root.
The second Bristol Cheesemonger occupies what was previously the Brewers Droop – photo: Martin Booth
On just the second day of opening within the former Brewers Droop on Gloucester Road, customer after customer walked in expressing delight with the new shop in the neighbourhood.
Oli and his colleague Poppy talk each customer through the cheeses for sale including the Merry Wyfe from the Bath Cheese Co, whose name comes from the fact it is washed in cider every other day for four weeks.
“I love that experience,” Oli explains. “I fell in love with cheese because of its complexity and surprises, and I feel like I’m also chasing that vicariously through our customers.
“I want them to have a magical experience. It doesn’t happen all the time but at least we can find people a good bit of cheese that’s a bit different.
“We want our customers to have the best cheese they can possibly get and also feel a sense of connection to the producers.”
Merch is for sale alongside cheeses and complementary products – photo: Martin Booth
Oli says he has been “chomping at the bit” to find a second site.
Within their new premises on Gloucester Road, the range of cheeses will increase including a global guest cheese, a second floor upstairs will be used for packing and dispatch, and there could be a pop-up kitchen in the future.
It was about both the space and the location for this second site for the Bristol Cheesemonger and Oli is of course full of praise for the “legendary” independent spirit of Gloucester Road.
“We never want to step on anyone’s toes but this was missing from the area so we’re really confident on the retail side and there are so many likeminded businesses…
“It’s a community and we’ve already had so much support from the local traders as well as from the people who live around here.”
Right on cue, a new customer walks in: “I just wanna say yay!” he exclaims. “I’m so happy to see you here! It was missing so you guys have cheered me up immensely!”
The second Bristol Cheesemonger shop is now open – photo: Martin Booth
Oli was doing much of the refurbishment himself ahead of the shop’s opening day on Wednesday, even sleeping upstairs on occasion over the last three and a half weeks they have had the keys.
Opposite the fridges full of cheese are shelves of mostly complementary products including preserves from Bishopston Preserves, but also with branded Bristol Cheesemonger t-shirts designed by the artist Turbo Island.
Oli is also talking to Wizzy from Sky Kong Kong, between permanent sites and currently a pop-up at the Gallimaufry just down the road, to hopefully create a kimchi that he will be able to match with his cheeses.
On the day that Bristol24/7 visited, Oli was here doing plumbing at 4.30am. “I woke up with the adrenalin flowing and thought to myself, ‘I’m going to fix that sink’.”
More space will enable the Bristol Cheesemonger to do much more – photo: Martin Booth
“I just think that cheese is the most extraordinary product,” says Oli, whose cheeses sell from around £2.50 to £8 per 100g
“It’s so complex at its best. It can be so terroir-driven. It’s very hard to make the same cheese, either twice or the same recipe in a different place.
“Because of its short-dated nature, unlike wine it can never be hoarded. It can never increase exponentially in value apart from a few odd examples that are not worth talking about.
“Ultimately, the product we do is expensive. It’s significantly more expensive than supermarket cheese but you can come to our shop and other shops like ours and you can buy some of the best-rated cheeses in the world, that have won global awards, and you can have it for the price of a pint. And that is special.”
Main photo: Martin Booth
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