Venissimo Cheese was founded by Gina & Roger Freize in San Diego in 2004. But it almost never opened.

The owner of the retail space we wanted was not interested in splitting the large space, nor leasing a little wedge to an unknown business in an unknown industry. Who wants to buy just cheese? After spending months calling & faxing them reasons to let Venissimo in, Gina overheard that the owner would be at the site on a certain day. So she snuck in with a cheese plate to let the product speak for itself. Needless to say, the owner was convinced & agreed to lease the space the very next day!

Hence, our flagship Venissimo Cheese opened its doors in Mission Hills on January 17, 2004, with just 50 cheeses on its shelves. Roughly three years later, we opened our second location in Del Mar. Our third shop downtown - complete with an Academy of Cheese (AoC) educational program - opened in 2009. In 2014, we opened a satellite location in North Park inside Bottlecraft Beer Shop. And in 2016, we joined the group of artisans in the vibrant Liberty Public Market in Liberty Station. To date, we've had more than 2000 cheeses on our shelves and continue to share the joy of cheese through our four San Diego area neighborhood shops.

Our mission is to do for cheese what Starbucks® did for coffee! "Someday, camembert will be as well-known as cappuccino," says Cheese Wiz Gina. We will do this by sharing the goodness & glory of cheese. Literally - when you visit the shop, you can taste anything you like. Friendly & expert cheesemongers plus descriptive receipts (complete with pronunciations, country of origin, milk type & more) aim to take the intimidation out of artisinal cheese shopping.

We offer a flexible wholesale program to restaurants, caterers & other gourmet professionals, with no minimums & staff training available. Get what you need when you need it. Contact the manager at any of our neighborhood shops to learn more.

Where to next? Stay tuned.