Queijaria da Praça sits in the Praça do Marquês neighborhood, in a cozy space where the temperature does not exceed 15ºC and the pungent aromas of cheese penetrate the nose as soon as one steps in.
“When we opened, we wanted the store to be here,” owner Diana Guedes says. Far from the tourist areas of Baixa or Ribeira, crowded with visitors and more mass-market shops, the Praça do Marquês neighborhood is one of the best examples in Porto of bringing together a balanced mix of shops and residential buildings. “As we have many buses and a metro line, it is a crossing point for many people, which is very interesting for us, of course,” she explains. The location also helps to attract a more niche public of connoisseurs. “It’s a gamble we took from the start, to show that Porto is much wider and more diverse [than it appears]; that there’s a lot that can be discovered by walking its streets.” Including some of the best cheeses in the world.
Before deciding to dedicate herself to the world of cheese, Diana was working as an analyst for a company providing environmental certifications, and commuting over 150 miles daily to work. Opening a cheese shop in Porto represented a possibility to start a new, quieter life – in addition to fulfilling an old dream of working with something that she had always been passionate about. For her, cheese is much more than food – it’s a way to connect culture and tradition. Guedes has never taken formal classes – she says she learned everything she knows about cheese by reading, asking, watching, and tasting. “I like visiting the producers, talking to them, and listening about their processes. I learn so much more empirically,” she says. The acquired knowledge helped her establish herself in a budding scene in Portugal’s second-largest city.
From the beginning, Guedes set a goal of selling only cheese from small artisanal producers. At the opening in 2019, Queijaria da Praça carried around 50 cheeses from different European countries (including Portugal, of course).
But less than five months after the official opening, she was forced to close the doors. Because of the pandemic, a lockdown imposed by the Portuguese government temporarily shut down many businesses, including hers. Unable to work, the answer was to hit the road. In the company of her husband (and business partner) Rui Seixas, Guedes got into her car and drove from Porto to Madrid, stopping along the way to get to know cheese producers and distributors in the neighboring country – people who remain some of her biggest suppliers today.
Those visits helped this environmentalist-turned-cheesemonger master her knowledge. Although Portuguese people eat lots of cheese – 87.7 percent of the country’s population say they consumed cheese in the last year – Guedes believes there is a lot of room for growth in the industry, especially regarding the artisanal scene. “We decided to work only with small cheesemakers from the beginning. We are not interested in having [the same] cheeses available in supermarkets, for example. We want to promote smaller, more creative and authorial projects,” she explains.
This goes for cheeses from all over Europe, as the shop sells products from England, Italy, Switzerland, Holland, Ireland and Spain, in addition to Portugal. The focus is on producers who make small batches or who work with traditional methods. The shop prides itself on unique and seasonal cheese offerings, such as the Raclette D’Alpage and Vacherin Mont-d’Or AOP, both only produced during the winter – the latter which has been made for more than 100 years in Switzerland’s Joux Valley.
The Queijaria also highlights exceptional Portuguese products, as is the case of São Miguel cheese (from the Azores), which can be aged for longer than the nine months commonly found in grocery stores. “We work with [different] aging processes, such as 12, 15, or 18 months. They are very special: soft, but with the zest of a hard cheese,” Guedes explains. The idea of having more cheese options from the country shows that Portugal goes far beyond the famous Queijo da Serra da Estrela, made with sheep’s milk (and with a protected designation of origin). The production method dates back to the 12th century in the mountains that give it its name.
According to Guedes, cheese production in Portugal has improved considerably in recent years. “When we opened, the offer of national cheeses was smaller. Today, we have about 20 national options, from regions less known for cheese production, such as the north, from small towns like Macedo de Cavaleiros, or the central area of the country, from which we receive cheeses made in a village called Oliveira do Hospital,” she explains.
The cheesemonger says the interest in Portuguese cheeses has also increased. Not only among tourists, who want to know more about the country and represent a good part of the clientele, but above all among the locals, who are increasingly interested in what is produced in the national territory. “We always try to offer some pieces to those who visit us to show that what is done in Portugal today is not far from what many producers do in other parts of the world,” she points out.
The tastings, by the way, are another significant point of differentiation at Queijaria da Praça: customers can choose some of the cheeses available for a personalized cheese board, which can be paired with wines (Portuguese, of course), or even infusions. “We work with excellent winemakers to have the best in terms of wines, too,” says Guedes. “We taste everything, so we can recommend good pairings to anyone visiting us.”
In the lower part of the shop, full of display cases with cheeses in different colors and shapes, there are tables and high stools for tastings. It is one of the only cheese shops in Porto with a dedicated space. The next step, explains the owner, is to offer courses and guided tastings, on cheese styles or countries, for example. At least once a month, Queijaria will provide workshops and pairings for groups of enthusiasts. “There are many. We have frequent customers who come by every week to buy and are very interested in the world of cheese,” she says.
Published on February 14, 2023
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