For weeks I contemplated whether or not I should include the following spot in my passion blogs because it is not a restaurant in the traditional sense. There is no real sit-down experience to be had at this place, but that does not take away from its lure in any way at all. As a matter of fact, if you were to sit down in this “restaurant”, you’d probably have a terrible time due to how awkward you’d feel being there. Every time that I roll through, I am ALWAYS happy that I did. I usually go every 2-3 weeks to pick up something new, and I just finished my last thing from there this past week so I’m headed over there again soon.

The mystery location that I’ve annoyingly been talking about for the last hundred or so words is none other than The Cheese Shoppe. Yes, they do spell it in a very annoying way, and that turned me away for a few weeks, but after I put my grudges aside (rather my inherent need for good cheese took over) I had to roll through.

Before I get into the review of The Cheese Shoppe, I’ll briefly talk about what I grew up on as far as cheese goes. I live very close to Philadelphia (less than 15 minutes away unlike the typical fraud who lives “outside of Philly” but is really 2 hours away – I’m sorry that I get so bothered when people do this), and I would head over to the Italian Market or Reading Terminal Market to get ~𝓬𝓾𝓵𝓽𝓾𝓻𝓮𝓭~. While I was at these places, I ALWAYS made sure to pick up some cheese from the Amish in Reading Terminal or from Di Bruno Bros (my favorite place on this earth). My point is of telling you all of this is that the bar was luckily set very high for how good the cheese I’ve gotten used to eating regularly is. So when I moved to State College I was sad that I wouldn’t have any cheese to take with me! I actually took something like five different types of cheese up with me first semester and I tore through it so quickly and needed an alternative as ASAP as possible – hence The Cheese Shoppe.

So, The Cheese Shoppe. What makes this place so special? The homey, coffee-style feel that you get when you come in makes you feel very welcome. I personally love when a store or restaurant feels intimate because, in my opinion, taking away the feeling of being at a store or restaurant adds to your experience there. When you go to The Cheese Shoppe, especially for the first time, you need to have the people who work behind the counter help you pick out the type of cheese that you would like. There is a wide selection of cheeses from expensive to cheap, but mostly cheap from what I’ve found. The people who are there to help are always kind and help me pick out the perfect cheese. For as much as I love cheese, I don’t know too much about it. Having the nice people help me through picking out good ones is awesome, PLUS you can try whatever you want! I’ve had about 25% of all of the cheeses that they offer and I plan to try all of them by the time I graduate, if not sooner. I have yet to dislike a cheese I’ve bought from The Cheese Shoppe, and when I get a brick it’s usually gone within that week. I’ve also yet to break the bank on any single cheese! I’ve tried all of the soft cheeses, my personal favorite type of cheese, and have loved all of them! If you go, and I highly recommend that you do, try the soft cheeses and pick your favorite.

Also, if you’re into freshly brewed coffee, which I am not at all, they have several different types. I know some of my friends go there exclusively for their coffee and love it. I can’t say anything more than that though, sorry.

Anyway, GO TO THIS PLACE.

Thank you all for reading all of these and I hope that they were helpful throughout the course of this/last semester!

RIP PASSION BLOG (2018-2019)