Antonelli's Cheese Shop - Hyde Park
Ask, and the wedge comes off the wheel at the counter. That is what the shop means by Austin's first cut-to-order cheese shop.1
Why go
John and Kendall Antonelli opened it in 2010, on a honeymoon decision to quit their jobs and, in their words, do something in cheese.
1 Certified Cheese Professionals work the counter.6 The shop runs a tasting program alongside the retail counter. The sessions sell out well ahead, so look at the calendar first.1
Order this / avoid
- Landaff. The shop's own buyer, Kelly Sheehan, picked it as her top domestic. The Cellars at Jasper Hill Farm in Vermont age it.2 Jasper Hill runs the affinage for other people's curd. That is the American version of what Herve Mons does in France. A Landaff bought here has been finished by a specialist rather than shipped green.
- Caveman Blue from Rogue Creamery in Oregon. The same piece names it as one of the domestics worth crossing the shop for.2
- Pondhopper if it is in. CultureMap's specialty-shop roundup singles it out at this counter.3
- Then ask what is eating best today and have it cut then. CultureMap named those three in 2011 and 2013, so treat them as the house style rather than as today's case.
- Book a tasting weeks out rather than on the day. CultureMap reports that guests almost always have to plan ahead.1
- Free Cheese Week runs in early February. Both locations give a wedge to the first hundred guests a day from 11am, a different cheese each day, no purchase needed.1
What locals & experts say
- CultureMap Austin covered the fifteenth anniversary on 30 January 2025, with the founders' own line quoted from the shop:
Who'd have thought that 17 years ago, when we made a honeymoon decision to quit our jobs and 'do something in cheese,' we'd not only become Austin's first cut-to-order cheese shop but also build and bring together a community of cheese lovers.
That is the shop's claim about itself, attributed.1 - The Austin Chronicle's Brandon Watson, reviewing a different bar in 2017, noted its cheese plate is Antonelli's,
of course.
A working restaurant buys its cheese here. A critic named it in passing while writing about somewhere else. That is the strongest independent word on the shop I have found.5 - Kelly Sheehan, the shop's cheese buyer, in CultureMap, verbatim:
If I were a cheese curator and this was my gallery; these would be the cheeses that I would want to display.
She came to it through the Barthelemy fromagerie in her Paris neighborhood. Then she ran the cheese counter at Central Market, where the range was over 800 cheeses. The Antonellis hired her out of that job.2 - MM Pack in the Austin Chronicle, a month after the shop opened: John Antonelli left Deloitte for two years of cheese. He graduated top of his class at Murray's boot camp in New York. Then he talked his way into the ripening caves of Herve Mons, "probably the most respected affineur in France".4 An affineur ages a cheese to the day it is ready to sell. His own line on the sales floor:
There's a story behind every cheese; once you know the story, you understand the cheese.
Good to know
- Hygiene: record found and current. Austin Public Health has the kitchen at 4220 Duval St, scoring 97 on 27 January 2026, 98 in January 2025 and 91 in December 2023. Austin's failing threshold is below 70, so nothing here is a finding.8
- Four Antonelli's doors carry this name and two of them are in Hyde Park. The shop at 500 Park Blvd is inspected in its own right two blocks away, and there are further doors on South Lamar and East US 290. Their scores are theirs, so check the address rather than the name.8
- The shop opens Wednesday to Sunday and closes Monday and Tuesday, on its own visit page.6
Verdict
should-visit — RE-SCORED 2026-08-08 on evidence found in this pass. Austin's original cut-to-order cheese counter, by the shop's own account, open in Hyde Park since 2010. John Antonelli quit Deloitte, graduated top of his class at Murray's boot camp and got himself into the ripening caves of Herve Mons, which the Austin Chronicle calls probably the most respected affineur in France, and that training is visible in what the case carries: Landaff finished at the Cellars at Jasper Hill, Caveman Blue from Rogue Creamery, Pondhopper. Buyer Kelly Sheehan came from Central Market's 800-cheese counter and calls the case a gallery she curates. Austin kitchens buy their cheese plates here. The tastings book out weeks ahead.