St Paul Cheese Shop

Awesome Macalester alum-​owned cheese shop. Delicious options, samples, and just overall goodness.

These are pricey sandwiches but the quality is there. I asked for a recommendation and was steered to the sweet chorizo. It was awesome. Great blend of sweet and spicy. Great flavor!

This is the second time I have been to this cheese shop with my daughter. I live out of state and love the variety of cheese and the knowledge of the shop owners. This is a very fun place to visit.

Whoever made my lunch today is a beautiful magical sandwich wizard. Best mystery sandwich surprise ever. I will forever be indecisive in your store and allow you guys to continue to pick my lunch. Thank you.

Much smaller version on my favorite twin cities cheese store (France 44) situated near MacCalester college on grand avenue.
Like the West side location, this shop is staffed with cheery cheese mongers who can advise you on your selections and are more than happy to provide samples while you decide. You can expect to find lots of local (Wisconsin) cheese as well as items from across the globe. Its a great way to get introduced to new items.
They also sell a variety of other items, nuts, olives, salami so one could craft a nice picnic from this shop.
Parking on the street or in the Dunn Brothers lot next door. Worth a visit.

Absolute favorite place to visit when I’m in St. Paul. Their roast beef is out of this world and their customer service is top notch. Order a savory surprise, you won’t regret it.

Unique flavor offerings, serious array of viddles and some stellar sandwich offerings. Really happy this cheese shop is in my neighborhood. It’s a tiny lil place, more of a grab and go but also a lovely lil place to find one of a kind accoutrements and locally sourced items.

First time here after grabbing a Jamba Juice next door. At first entry I adored it right away. 3 stars mainly for customer service & appeal. The lady behind the specialties was especially friendly. As I waited for my friend to join me I looked around the place & skimmed the menu. The worker suggested I try 3 cheeses until then. She explained the texture & taste & we chatted a bit about cheese pairing. My friend joined me & we eventually decided on the turkey, brie & chutney sandwich (+bacon).
I don’t know-​It was just an OK sandwich. Totally not worth $ 11.50. The bread which is a simple white ciabatta is far too thick & bready to enjoy anything else atop it. I’m left feeling like I should have gone to get lunch where I first planned. Now, I know this place is maybe somewhere I’d come in for good cheese or speciality products like jam, chutney, food gifts etc, but not a sandwich.

Of all the times I’ve been in this place, I finally discovered they offer a selection of grilled cheese sandwiches. Having recently had one elsewhere, I thought I’d try one here to compare.
I got a grilled Gruyère and ham. Several minutes later, it was ready and wrapped up for my take-​away. Once outside in the lovely evening sunshine, I discovered a small lidded container with thick and rich tomato soup inside. Its flavor was «powerful», maybe a bit too much power for a grilled ham and cheese sandwich. I unwrapped my sandwich and noted the rather thick slices of grilled white bread sandwiching my selected fillings. I thought it was a bit greasy on the outside, and not very crisp (as compared to the other place I recently had one). But, it tasted alright and was a satisfying enough meal. I ended up leaving behind the end chunks of bread that had no fillings — they were kind of hard.

Since I have been here so many times figured it was about time I wrote a review.
How great is this place– they give you free cheese samples of just about any cheese they sell and can pretty much answer any question you have about the origin of the cheese. And a few weekends ago I had a mouth-​watering manchego/​jamon serrano sandwich– delicioso.

I keep coming back to this place whenever I’m in the neighborhood, and they continue to blow me away with their creative sandwiches and delectable cheeses. The employees/​gurus always make the perfect recommendations for cheeses, crackers, and toppings (they make it so easy to impress your friends, hahaha). I can’t get over the fantastic quality and service, so the only complaint I have is that there aren’t more than 2 locations!

I ate here today for the about 20^th time and decided to finally write a review. They really have the best sandwiches in town. Of course, awesome cheeses, and great bread, meat and toppings. So fabulous! Super kind staff and good music to boot! A gem in the neighborhood!

Since I’ve so far resisted the siren wail of a job where I smoke hundred dollar bills with my Wall Street broskies at lunchtime, I wouldn’t even step foot in this place on a normal day unless you want to accidentally blow your monthly utilities budget line on something called Mission District Butter and honey that must be made by picky bees who only eat gold.
However, I found you a safe zone: after 2pm, their melts are $ 5. That means you can get a ½ inch chunk of brie, oozing around a cranberry compote on two slices of pillowy white bread, for the cost of a Subway sandwich. There are at least five choices, at least two vegetarian options, and it takes about 3.5 minutes for the thing to be made. Plus, you get a shot of tomato soup for freezies.
Bourgeoisie sandwiches at proletariat price points, but seriously: mind the safe zone.

Really delicious cheese but too expensive. Afterall, it’s just cheese. Oh, but it is so good. Had cheese melt sandwich today they was out of this world. Fun little related goodies makes this a pretty good option for gifts instead of dealing with the Mall of America.

Stinky cheese rules on a sammich! Tasty place. Would be nice if it had more seating.

One of my favorite places in St. Paul. Not only is every sandwich excellently crafted and all the cheeses delicious, but the staff are the coolest people. Kind of pricey but worth it. Highly recommended.

It’s just so good. We went in there as they unlocked their door one morning and the staff immediately recommended some amazing Iowan cheddar (with samples!) to please my little ladies, who were dancing and singing «I love cheddar cheese, I love cheddar cheese» around the shop.

I don’t think I’ve ever had sandwiches this good. They use fresh baked bread from Breadsmith next door, and pile it up with the perfect proportions of cheese, meats, veggies, and condiments. I’ve never had anything short of excellent here. And to top it off, the staff is incredibly nice and friendly.

«Minnesota friendly with St. Paul style»
I was impressed from the get-​go. Just reading the menu made my mouth water at lunch time. I ate my well-​prepared chorizo and manchego sandwich (I’m from WI, I know a good meat and cheese sandwich when I find one) while sitting at a small table inside and shot the wind with the employees. The manager brought be a free peanut butter cookie to show that the gratitude I felt for these guys was mutual.
While sitting in here I noticed tons of people really love this place — if I was a cheese aficionado I’d be in weekly picking at their extensive selection of fine cheeses.
I dig the sports fan-​like work uniforms here that have numbers on the back and read «Chorizo» where the last name would be on a baseball jersey. Too cute — it suggests that they work as a team. I may just have to purchase one of these shirts myself. I support the St. Paul Cheese Shop Team!

I’ve been to the St. Paul Cheese Shop 5 – 6 times and liked the first sandwich I had so much, (Blue Cheese with Garlic confit and figs), that I haven’t been able to explore the rest of the menu, which looks fantastic. I have bought some assorted cheeses and spreads that are also excellent. Really friendly and knowledgeable people working there as well.
If there were a drawback, it would be the limited seating.

wonderful little sammie shop hidden by a coffee shop and a big bread place by grand and snelling… don’t blink or you could miss it and then you would be missing out. it is small and when you walk in bam! there you are… they have some suggestions and a special of the day… I have had several of the offerings and they have all been delish. If you love liverswurst try that one but you could probably split it as I found it to be very very decadant and rich… but oh-so-good…they have some nice gift ideas and selections if you wish to put together a little hostess, thank you, or housewarming gift… but I just like to go and get some lunch. I love how they wrap your sammich (that is how they say it in the south!) in some butcher –type paper too… i’m hungry now…
oh yeah — i forgot to mention for you struggling students they do offer a little student discount too

By no means do I pretend to be a cheesemonger, but I do loves me a good sandwich, and the St. Paul Cheese Shop has those in spades.
The shop itself is quite small and pretty easy to miss from the outside since it’s sandwiched (sorry) between a Breadsmith, Kybher Pass and a coffee shop. Inside you’ll find a couple of coolers filled with various cheeses, shelves adorned with various oils, jams, crackers, etc. and a few menu boards on the wall with the daily specials and various meat and/​or cheese-​centric sandwiches. You really can’t go wrong with any of them, but my favorites thus far have been the spicymonger and the chicken liver pâté.
Service has always been quick and genuinely nice — definitely worth checking out.

First off, I LOVE CHEESE! One of my friends raved about the St. Paul Cheese Shop’s sandwiches, so I decided to check it out! As soon as you walk in the door, your nostrils are filled with the «mhmmm mhmm» smell of delicious cheeses! The St. Paul Cheese Shop offers a large variety of different cheese’s along with handmade sandwiches.
The staff is knowledgeable, offers great suggestions and they are friendly. The store is small; however it’s the perfect size and very functional! Street parking can be hard to find at times, but one never has to walk very far.
I love the cheese shop and all things cheese; however I am not a big fan of their sandwiches. As one Unilocaler mentioned, the bread they use is often very hard and dry. If you opt for a sandwich with fig jam, I suggest asking for it on the side. The fig jam is too sugary for my liking & overpowers the delicious cheese and other ingredients.
After eating my second sandwich from the Cheese Shop; I had absolutely no desire to try any more of their sandwiches. Overall the St. Paul Cheese Shop is a winner (if you take the sandwiches out of the ratio!).