As a child, Jackie Bougie’s grandparents often took her on trips to Europe, where she first encountered the vast world of artisanal cheeses.
As an adult, she happened upon a tiny cheese store in Paso Robles and was enamored. As her retirement approached, she kept saying she was going to open a cheese shop.
It started out as a joke – until it wasn’t one.
Bougie’s Cheese Shop, one of La Mesa’s newest businesses, opened Dec. 14 in a 1922 Craftsman colonial bungalow that Bougie and her partner, Melanie Estes, lovingly restored ahead of the store’s opening.
It sells artisanal cheeses made in the United States – aside from its parmigianio-reggiano, which is imported from Italy.
“We wanted it to feel like you’re walking into someone’s home,” Bougie said. “We sell cheese from the U.S., but we wanted people to feel that old-world hospitality coming in.”
Someone had covered the home’s fireplace with slate tile painted white, so the pair pulled it off. The brick had failed, so they found a 100-year-old Batchelder tile to replace it and restore the home’s original coziness. Similarly, they couldn’t salvage the home’s floor, so they found reclaimed maple gymnasium flooring.
In response to their opening, Bougie said, the community has extended similar hospitality.
“We’ve had a great response from the surrounding business neighbors and residents,” she said. “They say they’ve been wanting something new and different.”
One customer has been working her way through the alphabet, trying cheeses whose names begin with each letter.
“Americans don’t grow up like Europeans do, with the abundance of cheese at a local store,” Bougie said. “It’s fun to open that world to people and give them that tasting experience.”
In the past, Bougie worked in healthcare with a specialty in aging, and she knew, as her retirement approached, that she wanted to keep her mind adept and her body active in the community, among people. She began to study cheese, and participated in the first cohort of the La Mesa Entrepreneurship Accelerator Program (LEAP). Opening the shop was a goal years in the making.
Estes, meanwhile, has a background in engineering. The two are both former National Collegiate Athletic Association Division 1 volleyball players, and when they met years later, they discovered that they had once played against each other – though they didn’t know each other yet. The two have been married since 2008.
Big plans are in store for Bougie’s Cheese Shop, including plated service, cheese board assembly classes, and wine tasting. Follow along for updates on Facebook and Instagram.
The store’s name is a family one, Bougie said, joking that the rapper Migos didn’t truly make it up. She’s having fun with the double meaning, and says she has a fitting name for her new business.
“We wanted to bring something to the city that we have grown to love,” Bougie said. “La Mesa is that little city within the big city. People are discovering that East County has a lot to offer.”
Bougie’s Cheese Shop is at 4679 Date Ave., in La Mesa. It’s open Tuesdays through Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.