Perspective: For the Love of Cheese
Story by Danika Gordon
Photography by Stephen Heraldo
In this Perspective piece, Danika Gordon shares her experience as an artisan cheese purveyor and opening Vivant Fine Cheese in Paso Robles. For those who think they know their preferences, Danika challenges us to keep our minds and palates open.
Since I started my business in 2006, I’ve tasted many different cheeses. There’s a lot of nuance lost between cow, goat and sheep cheese, but people do have strong feelings. Right now, my favorite cheese is the OG Kristal, which is a Gouda style from Belgium. It has these nice crystals and it’s very caramelly — pairs well with a big, bold red. But my favorite is always changing.
Long before I opened Vivant Fine Cheese, I was studying dairy science at Cal Poly. I actually started with that major because I didn’t have great grades and it was easier to get into that program. But once I was there, working in the dairy plant, I fell in love. I learned later that my great grandpa was a cheesemaker at the creamery in San Luis Obispo, so maybe it’s in my blood?
About six months before I graduated, I was hired on at the largest single site cheese company in the world. I spent seven years at that dairy in the Central Valley, followed by two years selling cheese in Los Angeles. From there, I went to the motherland of cheese — Wisconsin — for two more years before coming back home. There weren’t many other women in the industry, so at that time I had to learn to play golf — because that’s where the deals are made.
Back in Paso Robles, a local real estate investor asked me to launch Vivant and I bought it from him as soon as it opened. We started in a refrigerated truck that was outfitted into a tasting room. Chefs would come on board and taste cheese, then buy right from the truck. To build on Vivant’s legitimacy as a business, we added a brick-and-mortar location in 2007.
We moved into this 2,500-square-foot space nine years ago and since then, we’ve carried about 150 varieties of cheese from producers locally and around the globe. About 50 percent of our customers are wholesale — restaurants, wineries, groceries — so a lot of what I elect to carry is driven by them. Oftentimes, wineries will bring me a bottle of wine and I help select a cheese that pairs well with it. When their customers try my cheese with the wine at the tasting room, they see my logo and become one of my retail customers. I also offer workshops on wine and cheese pairing, which allows me to connect on a personal level with guests.
One of the cheeses I offer in store that surprised me most was the Alp Blossom from Austria. It’s made with cow’s milk and the outside is coated with herbs and flowers that are native to the lands the cows graze on while producing milk. I love the back stories of the brands and it’s fun to learn about the flavor profiles, and how they come to taste that way.
Like goat cheese. Many people are put off by goat cheese but I buy some from a local producer and add honey to it. I call it the “gateway goat” because it converts people to goat cheese fans. On the shelf it’s called Honey Chevre. In 2016, I debuted that cheese and it’s because of it that I’ve been dabbling in cheese production since.
The local market has changed a lot since COVID-19. I never shut down but I did have to lay off all my employees and I would just sit in here by myself. Once wineries reopened with a requirement to sell food, Vivant got super busy. Vacuum sealed cheese plates and charcuterie boards were so popular, I could barely keep up. That experience caused me to pivot and get creative with my business model. We also ramped up our cheese club, which includes four shipments a year of a mix of types of cheese that we don’t yet offer for sale in store. People have asked me if they can customize their box but I don’t allow it because I want to encourage them to try new things. With cheese, there are so many styles that you may never know when one will really make an impression.
