{"id":261091,"date":"2026-04-10T13:08:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-10T13:08:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/261091\/"},"modified":"2026-04-10T13:08:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-10T13:08:08","slug":"berkeleys-cheese-board-shop-and-bakery-expands-in-major-remodel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/261091\/","title":{"rendered":"Berkeley\u2019s Cheese Board shop and bakery expands in major remodel"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Cheese Board Collective bakery and cheese shop is a Berkeley institution whose artisan dairy goods and sourdough baguettes have attracted crowds for decades. On Friday, the store reopens after its first major remodel<\/a> and expansion since the 1980s, having doubled in size\u00a0\u2014 not only giving the people who frequently line up for cheese and bread more room to navigate, but making it possible to return to providing samples as part of the full cheese service it was known for before the pandemic.<\/p>\n

Whereas customers previously had to enter and exit the Shattuck Avenue store through the same narrow door, the new 4,600-square-foot space has separate exit and entryways. Customers coming into the store will first walk to a cheese case decorated with a mural of alpine dairy cows\u00a0\u2014 bovine art is a theme throughout\u00a0\u2014 and then move onto the bakery area and coffee bar with a new espresso machine. There\u2019s an expanded grocery section, and corner windows bring light into the spacious room.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe flow of traffic in that space was always tricky,\u201d said worker-owner Vanessa\u00a0Vichit-Vadakan of the original space, who hopes the new location will better accommodate Cheese Board\u2019s long lines. \u201cGiven the volume we have, it was a little challenging.\u201d<\/p>\n

The expansion has been in the works since 2017, when the collective took over a former grocery store adjacent to its cheese shop at 1504 Shattuck Ave. Renovations went into full swing last year, and the shop moved to a temporary shipping container in January, though the pizzeria next door at 512 Shattuck Ave.<\/a> remained open throughout. The collective now owns all of the properties where its businesses are located, as well as some adjacent ones.\u00a0<\/p>\n

There\u2019s one more step before the cheese shop, which had to reduce its typical selection of hundreds of farmstead cheeses from both the U.S. and Europe during renovations, is fully operational. It will still have a limited cheese selection until a new, large refrigerated cheese case is installed next month (prompting another celebration,\u00a0Vichit-Vadakan said). That\u2019s when the cheese shop will restore a practice that had been lost to the pandemic because of safety regulations: full cheese service, which includes one-on-one assistance from workers and samples.<\/p>\n

The bakery will continue to sell a wide range of baked goods, such as sourdough bread, oat scones, brioche knots and sticky buns.<\/p>\n

Soon, the pizzeria\u2019s popular soft-serve ice cream will move into the cheese shop. The store will also continue to offer the sundries it sold before, including olives, spreads, jams, olive oil and crackers, while adding new offerings from local companies, including Rancho Gordo, Blue Willow Tea and Oaktown Spice Shop.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe new space is big and gorgeous,\u201d said Vichit-Vadakan. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of excitement about it in the neighborhood.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Cheese Board Collective bakery and cheese shop is a Berkeley institution whose artisan dairy goods and sourdough…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":261092,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[332,413,143,145,144,412],"class_list":{"0":"post-261091","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-oakland","8":"tag-east-bay","9":"tag-food","10":"tag-oakland","11":"tag-oakland-headlines","12":"tag-oakland-news","13":"tag-restaurants"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261091","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=261091"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261091\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/261092"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=261091"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=261091"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=261091"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}