The dynamic duo that opened La Finca Bowls in early 2020, Mekala Kennedy and Nathan Sauceda-Halliday, have now ventured into the world of cheese. They opened The Mouse Hole Cheese Shop in late 2022, a few steps from their restaurant. They have found a niche that Burqueños have longed to be filled since the years of the now-defunct Cheesemongers in Santa Fe. We caught up with them recently to find out “Why cheese?”

Edible: Did you know a lot about cheese before starting this venture?

Nathan: We knew some. But we realized how much we didn’t know once we got into it. I lived down the street from a cheese shop in Los Angeles. It opened up cheese for us—we would go and have sandwiches and talk about the cheeses. I wanted to bring that to Albuquerque; I wanted to make it approachable where it’s a cheese shop, but I also want everyone to feel comfortable talking about cheese.

Mekala: Because this is a combo retail [space] / restaurant, people can come in, have a glass of wine, and try several cheeses before deciding to purchase them.

Nathan: We thought it would be a fun concept and manageable to run alongside La Finca, because that place takes a lot to run. We felt like we can pull this off . . . and then you start reading about cheese, and you realize you don’t know anything about cheese. The books we have been reading, the podcasts we have been listening to—you realize cheese is so complex—there is a whole art, world, culture, and history, and it’s wild.

Edible: What’s been the biggest surprise along the journey from starting The Mouse Hole concept to being a successful business? We know you’re new, so that might change in a year, but what is it right now?

Mekala: I don’t want to make it negative, but at the same time, one of the biggest surprises is how big of a dairy industry New Mexico has and how little cheese it has. I thought there would be more cheese options as far as local goes.

Nathan: For me, the biggest surprise is the staff. With La Finca, it’s hard to get people to apply because it’s a restaurant and a cook [job], and it’s a demanding position for people to want to be in; that burnout is real. But we had a lot of people apply to work here. And to me, in the sense that they were like, “Yeah, it’s romantic. It’s a cheese shop. That sounds amazing; I would love to work at a cheese shop,” I wasn’t sure how many of those people were going to care about it and be excited about it, but the staff that we have really does. One of our staff members is trying to get her [Certified Cheese Professional] certification through the American Cheese Society.

Mekala: Yeah, the employees were a big surprise, they are doing a ton of research on cheese, and now they know more about cheese than we do.

Edible: Utilizing local ingredients has been a big part of your business model at La Finca. Why was that so important, and how does it translate to The Mouse Hole?

Mekala: We’re supporting other people that are doing like-minded things. And so even though we can’t get a ton of cheese locally, we do source many of our other products locally, like Worthington Farms pecans, Pickle Jar mustards, Farm Shark pickles, bread, honey, and jams.

Nathan: And any local cheese we can find! There is Sunrise Ranch, which is newer. And if we can’t get it local, then regional. We source locally because it has the most significant impact and the smallest footprint. That is the easiest way I’ve figured out how to say it. Impact as much as we possibly can for the community, the people, the producers who are doing it, and the staff members.

Edible: What is a misperception people might have about The Mouse Hole?

Nathan: People might think it will be pretentious, too fancy, or feel like they don’t know enough about cheese.

Mekala: Or scared to come into a place where maybe they don’t know anything about the products— you know, some people get freaked out about asking questions.

Nathan: We hope people will come in and let us guide them through any hesitations. We want to talk them through it and have them taste all the cheeses they are interested in.

Edible: It seems like you encourage people to stay and educate themselves.

Nathan: We realized that having the dining room and a retail space creates energy around the products. Customers come in and have a cheese board and get to explore different tastes, and then they will go into the shop and grab three cheeses and a jar of mustard. 

Mekala: Yeah, we have tangerine olives on the Spanish board, and 90 percent of the time, the customers eat those and then start searching the shelves for the tangerine olives. Or people will have preconceived notions that they don’t like something, like blue cheese, because they have only had one version; now they can explore. It’s fun to watch people figure out what they like.

Edible: Is everything counter service? 

Nathan: It is. Whether you are ordering cheese to take home or a board and a glass of wine, it all starts at the counter. But our staff will check on you, and if you want to order something to add to your board or another glass of wine, they are happy to bring it to you. It was important to us to keep it casual, casual enough that it is approachable. We take it seriously, but not that seriously; we want you to enjoy it and have a conversation about it.

Edible: Do you offer catering?

Mekala: Yes, we offer large event boards that you can order in advance.

Edible: What is your favorite cheese you are serving right now?

Mekala: Oh my god, that changes every day [laughs].

Edible: Well, if you have forty different kinds of cheese in the case, I can see why that would be.

Nathan: Mine is new. There is a creamery called Thunder Oak Cheese Farm up in Thunder Bay, Canada. He only does Goudas with a natural rind. And he had this extra-old one-year Gouda, which is not even that old for some cheeses. And it has the eyes you see in Swiss cheese, and the eyes have tears. There’s like a cheese brine in the center of that hole that fills just from aging. And when we cut into this cheese, you could see the tears. And I was like, oh yeah. I was drinking the tears of this single-farm Gouda, and I was just like, whoo. For me . . . that cheese is spectacular.

Mekela: Mine changes so frequently that I don’t think having a set answer is fair. 

Edible: What’s your go-to?

Mekala: I’ve really come to like the Spanish cheeses. And I love bringing in some French cheeses we have to fly in. When we first started, my least favorite type of cheese was brie or soft cheeses. And I feel like as we’ve done this more, I’ve really fallen more in love with soft cheeses.

Edible: You’ve told me about lots of great cheeses. Is there anything in the case that you can’t get anywhere else in New Mexico?

Nathan: Thunder Oak Cheese Farm’s Goudas, Firefly Farms’ spruce-wrapped goat cheese, and caciocavallo, the “horse cheese,” are just a few.

Mekala: There’s always something new, different, and weird going on in the case. You just got to get here before it’s gone.

Edible: So you can’t always expect to come in here and get the one you found?

Mekala: No, sometimes not. There are some things that we’re always going to have. But if it’s something we don’t always have, you might want to get it [while you’re here] because you might not get it ever again. 

Nathan: And we didn’t realize how seasonal cheese is too. There are a lot of cheeses that they’re not available in the spring or they’re not available in the winter. It is because of how they are aged and when they make it, what the animals are feeding on at that time. You can always get a cheese, just maybe not this cheese or that cheese.

Edible: Is there anything else our readers should know?

Mekala: Come in and eat some cheese!

300 Broadway NE, Ste A, Albuquerque, 505-554-2994, mouseholeabq.square.site

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