Antonelli's Top Memories & Milestones for 2025

Where did January go?! Sure, I’m late to write this, but it’s tradition. And there’s always time to stop, reflect, and be grateful. So, whether anyone reads this or not, we’re putting it here to go down in our personal history books. And remember - YOU help make this happen for us; thank you!

While we ended a second year in a row nonprofitable (but so close to break-even), we still had much to celebrate. In no particular order and without further ado, here are some of Antonelli’s Cheese Top Moments of 2025:

• We turned 15! Holy cow! Seriously, when we decided to quit our jobs on our honeymoon in 2007, we thought we’d just give this little entrepreneurial idea a whirl, have fun for a couple years, and go back to our day jobs. Instead, we hit a milestone - and every year feels hard-fought and won, a typical rollercoaster of small business ownership. Thank you!

  

• Our Cheese Club got a glow-up - and your reviews and feedback have validated our hard work (and fear) of change. Following our “Improve Every Day” core principle, our monthly boxes now have 4 cheeses and 4 specialty food pairings, as well as tasting guides and accompanying videos by our Certified Cheese Professionals.

• We took home the Best Customer Service win at the Austin Chamber’s Greater Austin Business Awards. We put so much into our service to our  customers, our community, and each other - and we’re darn proud of it and so proud to be recognized for it. 

  
  
  

• We hosted 13 Charitable Cheese Cause tasting events to benefit local nonprofits, held 6 flood relief benefits, and donated to 230 more community organizations. (To be honest, attendance has waned at our flood relief benefits. Can you help us out by grabbing tickets to an upcoming event? We have one a month through June. Expect our popular “Signature Tasting Experience” - but to benefit a local org. Do Good. Eat Good.)

• We also back that up with a strong belief in volunteerism. Team members Nicholas Patillo and Eleanor Jones both joined American Cheese Society committees to serve our industry and the makers we love, Nicholas traveled to Minnesota to support the Judging & Competition again, and Casie Wiginton helped coordinate her 3rd annual American Cheese Society Conference.

  
• Speaking of awesomeness, Casie passed Level 3 of her WSET (Wine & Spirit Education Trust) and is in the midst of Level 4 to receive her diploma.  And yes, she’s a Certified Cheese Professional too. John got invited to speak at the Austin Film Society as their cheese science expert on a panel for the release of Shelf Life. If you’re counting, we currently have 8 CCPs on staff, including new-to-the-team Allison Smith, our wholesale manager, who has also been in cheese for 20+ years. Talk about an “A” Team!

• We launched our Cheese Tray Concierge program - offering easy ordering by text or email and discounts for those who have regular needs. We SO appreciate the steady income from those who commit to ordering at least one tray a month. Thank you!  (Hit me up if you think you might be a fit!)

  

• Junior League of Austin awarded me their $10,000 fellowship for an outstanding woman in the food & bev space. Yes, it was every bit as exciting as you might think receiving a huge check - both literally and figuratively - especially during a year when we were fighting to break even. And their good came back to them. Within 24 hours of the devastating Hill Country floods, I was able to round up some friends, and together we received almost $10K in donations, quickly “bought out” Costco, and helped set up at Junior League, organizing their toiletry kits and food kits.

• Our 130-year-old Hyde Park Cheese House got a second bathroom. And yes, that’s huge because… it allowed us to finally sell our wine tasting flights to pair at our cheese tastings. Woohoo! Now folks have the option to add on a wine flight, specifically curated to pair with that month’s Signature Tasting Menu. (And it really helped us minimize our losses last year.)

• Cheesemaking Workshop!  We added a new fun workshop to our line-up, which includes some good ole fashioned butter churning, mozz stretching, the science of cheese, and - of course - munching on cheese while you’re doing it.

• Our fam got to visit over a dozen cheesemakers in Ireland, specifically learning how the terroir of various parts of Ireland contribute to the unique cheeses made in each region. (Stay tuned for an upcoming article about our journey in Culture Magazine!)

• For the first time since pre-pandemic days, we re-launched our Cheese-y Boat Cruises, or rather our Sunset River Cruises (or whatever you want to call them). Just think: cheese, wine, the Austin skyline, sunset hues reflecting off Ladybird Lake (or Townlake if you will), and bat guano (I mean, sightings) depending on the time of the year. Is there any combo more perfect? Those of you who are repeat guests seem to agree! And remember friends, our Signature Tasting Experience changes menus seasonally, so you can come back often and get a whole new delicious line-up!

• Last but not least, one of the best moments is that we got to make Nicholas Patillo, our right-hand person in charge of all-things-operations, a part owner of Antonelli’s Cheese. Woohoo! Nicholas has been with us through ups and downs for 10 years (as of 2 days ago!), and he deserves it… along with his new title of VP of Cheese Operations.