PORT CLINTON – Cheese Haven, Port Clinton’s iconic cheese store, has expanded its wine, cheese, and candy selection to include its own wines.
CheeseHaven is well-known for its large yellow storefront sign on East Harbor Road and SE Catawba Road, which advertised 125 cheeses but is no longer accurate. There are now a lot more cheeses available.
“We have well over 250 cheeses now. We don’t have them all in at once. “We rotate them out,” owner Lisa Geisheimer said. “We’ve just added four new gouda flavors this year! Customers come in and ask for unusual items, and we go look for them and try to bring them in.
Geisheimer and her husband, Tom, co-own the store.
She stated that they are constantly introducing new items, eliminating others, and reintroducing the most popular dishes.
“We also have locally sourced wines! We have Heineman’s wine on the island of Put-in-Bay. It is one of the oldest wineries in the bay. I believe it’s in its fifth generation. We carry and sell a lot of their wines, but we also have Lonz and Maumee,” Geisheimer explained. “This year, we also started making our own wine. We started with two: a white Catawba and a pink Catawba with our logo featuring Pete, the mouse.”
CheeseHaven has been open since 1949, when 16-year-old Richard “Pops” Brassel took over the family produce stand after his father’s death. The story goes that while delivering produce, a truck driver suggested he start selling cheese because it had a longer shelf life and sold faster. Next week, he delivered a 250-pound wheel of Swiss cheese. The funny thing about some cheese is that it increases in value as it ages.
Pops decided to learn about the cheese business. He was completely self-taught and built the company into a global success.
“My favorite part about summer is seeing all the people come in and hearing all the stories,” Geisheimer told me. “People come in, and they were raised in the area or came to vacation in the area, and they tell me amazing stories about this place, and they are happy that it is still here.”
She stated that their most popular items are the cheddar and horseradish spreads, as well as the smoked cheddar and Swiss cheeses.
“The majority of our customers are vacationers.” They used to spend their summers here on the lake, and now they’re bringing back their grandchildren, which is very exciting,” Geisheimer explained.
She admitted that this season has started slowly, but attributed it to the cooler weather.
“I’ve realized that it’s all weather dependent. People tend to wait to open up their boats or cabins because the weather is cool, but once school is out, people start traveling,” Geisheimer explained.
Cheese Haven is open seven days a week during the season, from late April to October, from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. It is located at 2920 E. Harbor Road in Port Clinton.
