By Betsy Levinson — Betsy@concordbridge.org
It’s written all over his face and woven into his biography.
He has even dedicated parades to its glory.
Peter Lovis loves cheese.
“Selling cheese is a gas,” he said. “I’ve been doing it for 48 years.”
Owner of The Cheese Shop on Walden Street, Lovis looks back fondly on his long stewardship of the iconic cheese, wine, and sandwich emporium as he contemplates retirement. He is in talks to sell the shop, but he is quick to point out that the sale is not complete.
But he vividly remembers the day, at age 15, when he started working at a Cheese Shop International franchise in his hometown of Caldwell, N.J.
“I was hired on October 16, 1976,” Lovis says. “The owner gave me the keys, and I ran the store. I rode my bike three miles from home, unlocked the alarm, set up the counter, and I wasn’t 16 yet.”
A vanishing breed
Cheese Shop franchises were numerous back then, and Lovis subsequently worked as a distributor to several stores, including The Cheese Shop in Concord.
He says there are no more franchised shops today, most having been bought out by individual owners like Lovis.
He bought the local business in 2001, continuing his signature attention to customer service.
Buying cheese, he says, is a conversation.
Photo by Betsy Levinson
“Everybody has their own interpretation of what’s sharp or salty — and then that comes down to listening and paying attention to the individual in front of you,” he says.
And owing to the encouragement he got as a teenager, Lovis makes it a point to employ teens at the shop in the Milldam.
“There is always a spot for high school students here,” he says, as customers filter in to chat and sample new tastes from the myriad choices offered.
The Covid years
Lovis says staying in operation during the “impossible” years of the pandemic was especially hard on the staff and customers who were accustomed to the friendly banter that permeates the space.
He and Scott Vanderhoof of the eponymous hardware store on Main Street were deemed “essential” and remained open throughout.
“We never closed; we never let anyone go,” says Lovis. “We stayed on top of the latest requirements. The community needed me to provide some degree of normality.”
But now, Lovis is “taking a hard look” at retirement. He owns an 11-acre property in New Hampshire and plans to “wake up and do whatever” he wants.
“I’ll paint birdhouses; I’ll have chickens; I’ll can tomatoes; I’ll work in the shop; I’ll redo the siding on the barn,” he says.
And, he says, he’ll grab a part-time job — selling cheese.
