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Inside San Diego's Thriving Cheese Scene

Inside San Diego's Thriving Cheese Sc...

The third Tuesday of every month, cheese-curious enthusiasts gather at San Diego’s AleSmith Brewing Company, where the room hums with chatter and there's a toasty scent of malt in the air. Queso Diego, San Diego’s only social cheese club, has convened for 16 years as a funky community, making cheese culture accessible to anyone who’s curious.

Lisa Gonzalez | April 17, 2026
How to Pair Caviar and Cheese

How to Pair Caviar and Cheese

If you ask Kendra Anderson—chef, sommelier, and the CEO behind Caviar Dream—fish roe doesn't have to be fancy. In fact, it can be the opposite: playful and accessible. "No one would ever say, 'I'm not a french fry person,'" says Anderson. "But they do with caviar and it's because of the messaging that we've all been bombarded with: one of extreme elegance, extreme wealth, extreme inaccessibility." Her caviar company grew out of her lived experience as a sommelier, which exposed her to traditional caviar preparations on a frequent basis. In 2017, when she opened her first bar—Denver's Bar Helix—she decided that caviar was the perfect elevated menu item. That is, with Pringles and tater tots, since she was experimenting with featuring high-low pairings without a full kitchen. "[I] enjoy pushing the envelope for people with caviar knowing that most people don't know that much about it," she says.

Alana Pedalino | March 19, 2026
Horoscopes for Aries, Taurus, and Gemini

Horoscopes for Aries, Taurus, and Gem...

Each zodiac sign has a shadow side: the less-than-stellar quirks that hide in the dark. These undernourished parts of the soul manifest as cosmic cravings in the witching hours. Only the most delicious guilty pleasures will suffice—cheese-centric convenience foods, gut bombs, and over-processed impulse buys from the freezer or bodega. Embrace your dark side by indulging in cheeses that mirror these decadent delights. Snack like no one’s watching!

Alana M. Miller | March 18, 2026

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recent articles

What Happens When You Soak Cheese in Alcohol?

What Happens When You Soak Cheese in ...

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s second novel, The Beautiful and the Damned, follows the steady decline of Anthony and his wife Gloria as they dance, carouse, and drink their lives away, hoping for an inheritance that never materializes. As Fitzgerald writes, “Wine gave a sort of gallantry to their own failure.” Although he was referring to the inability of their passion to sustain them through their financial futility, Fitzgerald could have just as easily been remarking upon a specific style of cheese maturation that’s suitable for the Jazz Age: soaking cheese in wine.

Alana Pedalino | April 14, 2026 cheese-iq
A Conversation With Author, Nomad, and Fermentation Educator Trevor Warmedahl

A Conversation With Author, Nomad, an...

Trevor Warmedahl, a cheesemaker and culture contributor known as the “Milk Trekker,” trots the globe visiting pastoral communities. His purpose? Investigating how milk is treated and transformed by indigenous microbes and the human touch.  It’s not a glamorous lifestyle, per se. In order to be the Milk Trekker, Warmedahl has to be comfortable navigating countries solo and communicating his intent to observe and understand niche dairy practices in spite of language barriers. He also travels light—and on a budget.  Cheese Trekking is as much a travelogue as it is a reflection on the links between terroir, cheesemaking, slow-food pathways, and heritage. We were lucky enough to catch up with Warmedahl, who was staying at a yurt in between his travels. Read on to learn about the experiences that shaped his writing, plus his views on the role of old-world food systems in a modern climate with high demand for all things quick and processed. 

Alana Pedalino | March 3, 2026 blog
Why I Love Butter (and Kale Will Never Love Me Back)

Why I Love Butter (and Kale Will Neve...

I was dreaming my life had ended. I was walking along a beach, a large stick of cultured butter at my side, and the path along the sand marking my life was defined by our footsteps. My body had finally succumbed to the stresses of yo-yo dieting, spurts of working out, and extreme lifestyle changes—all driven by the belief that being healthy was better than being happy. After all the starts and stops, the good foods and the bad, in the end all I could think about was how hard I’d tried to be fit and eat right.

Matt Miller | February 4, 2026 ruminations

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