Inspirational Cheese Retailers 2025: Victoria’s Cheese, Ely

Victoria’s Cheese
Location: Ely
Founded: 2024
Founder: Victoria Dunthorne

Victoria Dunthorne still feels like she has to pinch herself when she arrives each day at her eponymous cheese shop, nestled into an ancient, historic crypted building in Ely.

“This was never my grand plan,” she explains. “It’s chance, and life circumstances that brought me here.”

Victoria has loved cheese all her life, and spent a few years working behind the counter for other cheesemongers before taking the leap (encouraged by friends and family) to set up her own cheese box delivery service last March.

Trundling around Cambridgeshire, Norfolk and Suffolk, delivering fine cheeses to eager customers really sparked something within her. “I could just see how many people were becoming appreciative of good food, and knowing where it comes from. When you sell them a piece of cheese, and tell them the name of the person who made it and the story behind it, ultimately they tell those stories to the people they are giving the cheese to or sharing it with. I love that,” she says, adding that a bricks and mortar location was never on the horizon - until a friend happened upon “this darling little shop”.

A fresh start

Victoria and her husband crunched the numbers and ploughed their savings into the premises – and she hasn’t looked back. “You know when people say, ‘do something you love and you’ll never work a day in your life?’, I never used to believe that, but now I get it. I absolutely get it!”

Being a Grade I listed building of special interest, there were limits as to what could be achieved when conjuring the idea for Victoria’s Cheese, but customers are loving the look, which she describes as “ecclesiastical meets 70s caravan”. Ambient goods are neatly arranged in antique cabinets, while pops of colour shine through in soft furnishings. It’s a look that, Victoria says, stops customers in their tracks, before they queue up at the 3m-long cheese counter.

The ambience is, she says, cosy and intimate – it’s not big by any means – but this helps foster conversations. Often visitors sitting down at one of the two dine-in tables overhear Victoria discussing a type of cheese at the counter, and end up asking her for a wedge to-go before they leave.

Something for everyone

There are some cheeses Victoria simply won’t put in her counter (including blended), and she had intended to stick to lesser-known, small artisan makers) but concedes there are certain types her customers demand, which has dictated what she sells. Snowdonia Cheese Co’s Rock Star is one, and Belton Farm’s Vintage Red Fox is another. “Other than these, and a few continentals like scooping Gorgonzola, Alp Blossom and a gorgeous two-year aged Spanish goats’ cheese, I stick to selling British. At the moment people are loving Yoredale, Yoredale Blue and Appleby’s Cheshire,” she says. Victoria describes her selling style as open and encouraging. “I always want people to try the cheese and discuss it with me. If I send them home with a piece they haven’t tried, they might not like it, and probably won’t come back. But if they try a sample and enjoy it at home, they’ll more likely come back, buy more, and try something else.”

They may be only two in number, but the tasting tables at Victoria’s Cheese, where customers can sit and enjoy mini taster plates, or cheeseboards, have proved an important part of the selling experience. “We change the cheeses every day or every two days and the pickles might change two or three times a day,” Victoria explains. “We like to include some unusual things people woudn’t normally thinkoff, like strawberry crisps with a really nice soft cheese.”

These pairings, and have an opportunity to explore cheeses beyond a small sample at the counter, further help customres in their buying decisions. And when Victoria introduced a cheese tasting evening, it sold out within two hours, with the further two events she then planned, also selling out within a couple of days. There’s a huge appetite, Victoria thinks, for foodie experiences, and cheese tastings fit the bill perfectly, being informal, fun and affordable.

Indies matter

Independent cheese retailers’ invaluable advice and knowledge sets them apart. Customers trust them. This is something Victoria takes seriously. “I had a customer going to a party in Cornwall ask me if I could put a cheeseboard together to be delivered. Customers who are pregnant look to me to find out which cheeses they can eat. Because I know what I’m selling I can also help people find a suitable cheese if they’re having chemotherapy. I did a special order box this year of Spanish cheese for a lady who couldn’t get to her friend’s wedding in Spain because she was going through chemo. These are those touches you won’t find in supermarkets. And people want that service. It matters to them,” Victoria adds.