Longtime Los Angeles cheese shop The Cheese Store of Beverly Hills is changing owners in Beverly Hills, located at 419 N. Beverly Dr.
The famous specialty food retailer will be changing ownership once again from Norbert Wabnig to longtime employee Dominick DiBartolomeo. The cheese shop first opened in 1967 under Colonel Sigmund Roth until Wabnig took over operations in 1978. Now, DiBartolomeo, who has worked for the company for over two decades, will become the third owner of the well-known cheese shop. The new owner helped lead the business through the pandemic with online and over-the-phone sales.
“Though cheese is the store’s guiding light, the Cheese Store of Beverly Hills features an ever evolving and expanding array of delicacies from all over the world,” Wabnig tells Eater LA in an email. “For the past 20 years, Dominick has played an integral role in this journey. He understands it, lives it, and is dedicated to continuing the legacy of the Cheese Store while evolving it in new and exciting ways.”
DiBartolomeo is no stranger to running businesses, as the owner of Italian specialty foods company Domenico’s Foods, in the Pico-Robertson neighborhood, offering fresh and dried pastas, sauces, and other pantry items. The Cheese Store of Beverly Hills will continue to provide Beverly Hills with a wide variety of cheeses, charcuterie, caviar, truffles, and other gourmet foods.
“We have something special. We built an audience. Everybody knows the store, from locals to international visitors. We made it out [of the pandemic] because of our loyal customers and chefs,” DiBartolomeo tells Eater LA. “We’re going deep in canned fish, with more expansion in olive oils, caviar, and the incredible wines that we carry. My goal with this store is to make it more of what it already is, and better than it already is.”
