OUR SHOP
‍

Opened in February of 2021 on Lee Road in Cleveland Heights is where we get to share our love of all things cheese with you. Converted carefully over many months from an old bank building into a space with the warmth of a European cheese shop, we celebrate the hand-crafted quality that defines the best modern American cheese-making and local artisanal crafts and products.
‍

From our own Marchant Manor cheeses to a carefully sourced selection of other domestic artisanal varieties, we strive to offer the most unique cheese selection in Cleveland. Whether you’re looking for bloomy rinds or washed rinds, cheddars or goudas, goats or blue, or don’t yet know what you like, our cheese-mongers will help you find the cheese that’s right for you. We’re proud to feature our fellow cheesemakers from across Ohio, including Black Radish Creamery, Turkeyfoot, Old Forge Dairy, and Urban Stead, as well as a hand-selected array from creameries and cheesemakers across the country, including Old Chatham Creamery, Lively Run Dairy, Hook’s Cheese, Jasper Hill, and Plymouth.
‍

We also offer a selection of crafts and produce to complement your cheese experience from jams to pickles, crackers to cured hams, cutting boards to books about the cheese-making process you can dig into on your own. As with our cheeses, we put local Ohio products front and center showcasing other artisan producers from right here in Cleveland and Northeast Ohio, including Le Cracker, Saucisson, Happy Pickler, Wake Robin, On The Rise, SilsBee Honey, Old Brooklyn, and Ray the Firewood Guy. Everything we offer is intended to amplify your experience of cheese or enhance your understanding of it.
‍

Our shop offers a wide variety of items to increase your enjoyment of cheeses, such as specialized cheese wrapping papers, cheese storage vaults and cheese knives. For serving cheeses, we carry raclette sets for making creamy Swiss-style raclette burners and fondue pots. We carry locally crafted artisan cheese boards and branded sets with cheese boards and knives. We are one of the only sites in Cleveland to carry "Culture" magazine, which publishes a wealth of cheese-related information every month.
‍

Looking for a unique and cheesy gift? We have a wide variety of cheese pun towels, oven mitts, greeting cards, aprons and even cheese socks!
‍

ORIGIN STORY
‍

Kandice Marchant was born in Wisconsin, and has always loved cheese. The cheese of her childhood was mostly unmemorable Colby, Pepperjack, and shrink-wrapped Cheddar. It wasn’t until Kandice was in medical school at Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) in Cleveland, Ohio, where she met and married a dashing Englishman, that her love of cheese was finally solidified. The two travelled in England and throughout Europe, where she was introduced to the tradition of the cheese course after dinner. The variety of farmstead and artisan cheeses amazed Kandice and soon she became a devotee of the cheese course. She especially loved the small soft cheeses and after experiencing a three-tiered “chariot du fromage”, in the south of France, Kandice was hooked.
‍

Kandice’s love of cheese remained in the background while she completed her medical degree in 1986, obtained a PhD in Polymer Science, and had two daughters. Her husband became a professor at CWRU, where they had a joint NIH research program. The career of research enabled the couple to travel, presenting research data, and granting them the opportunity to try local cheeses wherever they visited. Kandice was known to “smuggle” raw milk cheeses from France, Italy, and England, back home, always making sure to wrap them in zip-lock bags to avoid smelling out the entire plane.
‍

Kandice became a pathologist at The Cleveland Clinic and eventually became Medical Director of the blood coagulation laboratory. In 2006, Kandice was appointed Chair of the Pathology and Laboratory Medicine Institute, and became the first woman at The Cleveland Clinic to head a clinical institute. Kandice oversaw over 1500 people and was responsible for laboratory testing at 8 hospitals, 15 family health centers, and aided in the planning of a new laboratory building.
‍

Cheese wasn’t at the top of her mind during these years, but as a break, her husband surprised her with a trip to the infamous Murray’s Cheese in New York City. The 3 day cheese “boot camp” included tasting 75 cheeses, complete with wine, beer, and food pairings. It was an eye-opening weekend. She was introduced to milk and cheese chemistry and learned how milk is coagulated and transformed into curds and whey, not so very different from her research and career in blood coagulation.
‍

In 2013, Kandice found herself with some extra time in her schedule and began experimenting with different recipes for the soft cheeses she had fallen in love with while in Europe. She bought books on cheesemaking, performed extensive research, and was determined. She diligently worked her way through recipes in Gianaclis Caldwell’s “Artisan Cheesemaking”, from Ricotta to Mozzarella to Gouda and Cheddar. Ever the academic, Kandice started looking for courses to help improve her cheesemaking skills. She attended a 2 week artisan cheesemaking course in the summer of 2015 at Sterling College in Craftsbury, Vermont. Taught by French cheesemaker Ivan Larcher, the course material covered cow breeds, milk and cheese chemistry, and also hands-on cheesemaking for soft cheeses.
‍

The knowledge gained at Sterling, combined with her love of the soft bloomy and washed rind cheeses, Kandice’s cheesemaking turned to making her own bloomy rind cheeses. Experimenting with recipes, she found success and garnered praise from friends and family. She joined the Ohio Cheese Guild as an enthusiast and received encouragement to continue to develop her cheeses.
‍

In late 2016, Ohio City Provisions opened on the west side of Cleveland, and in early 2017, Kandice brought some of her cheeses in for the owner, Trevor Clatterbuck, to taste. He and the staff loved the cheeses and introduced her to some unique Guernsey Cow milk that they sold at the store. Guernsey milk has a higher fat content than many other milks and also has a rich yellow color from endogenous beta carotene in the milk. Intrigued by the Guernsey milk Kandice decided to make parallel batches of the bloomy and washed rind cheeses with grocery store milk vs. Guernsey milk. Kandice was astonished by the differences and decided to pursue a relationship with the Paint Valley Farms supplying the Guernsey milk.
‍

Developing the name and brand identity, and focusing on triple cream European-style cheeses, she finally settled on calling the business “Marchant Manor Cheese” as an homage to her husband’s English heritage, which then lead to English inspired names for each of her cheeses.
‍

In July of 2018, her cheese production started at Paint Valley Farms in Stark County, using the rich Guernsey cow milk. Making her bloomy rind cheeses was a time-consuming process, requiring two full days and in the middle of the night visits to the facility to tend to the cheeses. She continued making her cheeses with the hopes of eventually opening her own local cheese shop and production facility, not only alleviating the weekend commutes down to the Dairy, but also giving customers an understanding of how artisan cheese is produced.
‍
In 2019, Kandice signed the lease for the space in Cleveland Heights at 2211 Lee Road. Ever evolving, Kandice continues to test different recipes drawing on a myriad of flavor profiles.