Schoolhouse Artisan Cheese

Schoolhouse Artisan Cheese perches lakeside in an old Egg Harbor farmhouse next to Harbor View Park (there's a second location in Ellison Bay) and is a delicious discovery. This unassuming, tiny space opened in 2011 and houses one of the finest collections of artisanal cheese in all of Wisconsin.

Labeled photographs of Wisconsin cheesemakers line the rich red walls, and the owners happily provide a mini education with each tasty sample. The gleaming deli case holds mounds of hunky, savory cheeses from all over the state, from Willi Lehner's crowd-pleasing Bleu Mont bandaged cheddar to the Roelli Brother's Dunbarton Blue, an earthy, creamy cave-aged cheddar blue. (Roelli also developed the Dunbarton Gold cheese exclusively for Schoolhouse; it's made from the milk of pasture-fed Edelweiss Graziers cows and aged four months instead of six.)

The shop sells a handful of sandwiches, flatbreads and salads, along with four or five artisanal offerings from Creminelli Fine Meats. A small wine bar pours healthy swigs of a dozen carefully selected wines, each expertly paired with the cheeses and meats. Not to be ignored, a cooler of handmade farmstead Kelley Country Creamery ice cream sits the corner; Schoolhouse is the brand’s exclusive Door County carrier.