Sarah Kestle doesn’t purport to be a cheese expert.
But she and her husband Steve Grise absolutely love the milky creation, from the soft, gooey variety to hard cheeses that take a bit of muscle to cut through.
So with that in mind, the couple are opening The Mouse Trap on King Street in Midland this Saturday.
“We were hoping to be open for Thanksgiving,” Kestle tells MidlandToday, noting that like starting any new venture, things don’t always go off without a hitch.
So, they set a December deadline and vowed to do everything in their power to make it happen.
“Now, we’re in the swing of it,” says Kestle, who’s busy training an employee who will help out and ensuring everything’s in place for Saturday’s grand opening. “Our cheese came in last week.”
And moving to the area is a bit of happenstance, according to Kestle.
As a result of COVID, she didn’t have to be in Toronto for a job in the insurance industry so, being avid boaters, the family moved from Toronto to Midland in 2021 due to their love of Georgian Bay.
“We’ve always been boating so this is the perfect place,” she says. “If the boat is floating, we live on the boat.”
In Toronto, they lived on their boat, a 40-foot aluminum catamaran. They also have a 26-foot cuddy cabin.
However, living on the boat year-round wasn’t a possibility given Midland’s winters. So they ended up buying the King Street building that once housed a sign shop and planned to live in the upstairs apartment while they figured out what to do with the downstairs.
But after falling in love with Midland’s downtown during the last Christmas season, they felt they wanted to be part of it.
“As we settled in, we found that King Street had almost everything we needed within walking distance,” she says.
They asked people what kind of business the downtown needed. The responses always seemed to come back to either a coffee or a cheese shop.
Not wanting to get into the business of java and having a real affinity for cheese, they chose the latter and Kestle quit her job after more than 35 years in the industry.
“We’re not experts, but we know quite a bit about cheese,” she says. “There is so much to learn about cheese and so many exciting things to investigate. I love to share what I know.”
Both Kestle and Grise, who works in the GIS (geographic information system) industry, have longstanding ties to the area.
While Kestle’s family moved to Collingwood in the early 1980s, Grise was born in Midland and his family was very involved in the town dating back to 1879 when Didace Grise started a butcher shop in Midland.
The family later built the Royal Hotel and added the Delawana Inn. The family was in the resort business for five generations and later added Elgin House and Aston Villa, where Grise grew up.
After word of the couple’s planned cheese shop starting making the rounds, Michelle Gregory-Campbell got in touch about possibly using their cheeses for her charcuterie board business called Lil Eats n' Treats.
But Kestle suggested that Gregory-Campbell could use a part of the store to prepare her boards.
“It will work out really well,” Kestle says “She’ll be here on opening day.”
Among Kestle’s favourite cheeses these days are a soft sheep’s cheese with truffle called Oveja Truffle and a brie from Quebec that’s wrapped in spruce bark called Adoray.
“But there are so many I like,” she says, adding she expects the store that also sells items related to cheese along with frozen mini pot pies and pizza will prove popular with local residents as well as those visiting the area from away.
“We have some fabulous cheese. As my husband says, ‘we have great cheese, great people and fun stuff.’”
And Kestle doesn't adhere to any kind of cheese snobbery, pointing out there’s a cheese to suit every taste, regardless of price, rating or how good others say it is.
“My theory is there’s good wine and bad wine and it all depends on if you like it or not,” she says. “You have to try a cheese to know if you’re going to like it. My plan is to help people explore.”
For the time being, The Mouse Trap located at 258 King Street will be open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday to Saturday and 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday.
