We recently connected with Vanessa Tilaka Kalb and have shared our conversation below.

Vanessa, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?

Agnes Restaurant and Cheesery is a full service restaurant and cheese shop under one roof. We offer different experiences from our cut-to-order cheese shop, a quick cheese plate and glass of wine, dinner, brunch, private dining, and cheese classes. Our food focuses on nostalgic American comforts with a twist and our cheeses are from all over the world. Our menu rotates seasonally to feature products that we can source locally. We’re excited to offer all these things to the city of Pasadena and the greater LA community.

I’m an LA native, Montebello to be exact, classically trained chef who switched to cheese in 2016. As for how I got to where I am today, learning about cheese took a lot of eating and reading about it (really hard work haha). I’ve also worked in restaurants and foodservice for 16 years and have learned from some wonderful people about having a good work ethic and how to operate restaurants and cheese shops. It was definitely not easy, but it was well worth it.

Vanessa, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Agnes Restaurant and Cheesery is a full service restaurant and cheese shop under one roof. We offer different experiences from our cut-to-order cheese shop, a quick cheese plate and glass of wine, dinner, brunch, private dining, and cheese classes. We’re excited to offer all these things to the city of Pasadena and the greater LA community.

As for how I got to where I am today, learning about cheese took a lot of eating and reading about it (really hard work). I’ve also worked in restaurants and foodservice for 16 years and have learned from some wonderful people about having a good work ethic and how to operate restaurants and cheese shops. It was definitely not easy, but it was well worth it.

Restaurants are notoriously misogynistic and ruthless, and I was constantly proving myself worthy. Cheese is an even smaller niche industry that is less understood than restaurants but very welcoming and open to teaching.

One challenge we’re overcoming right now is the balance between rising costs and minimum wages and trying to keep prices reasonable. If we want to change the industry and make sure our staff are taken care of, then we have to charge what we have to in order to do that. We’re a small mom & pop business providing artisanal and homemade products, cheese and this is our passion.

We employ wonderful, hardworking, skilled and passionate people, and are proud to be able to provide our staff with a quality of life we want to be the standard in this industry. We offer 100% healthcare coverage to our employees, provide two staff meals a day, and invest in our staff’s personal growth and education. We believe that by caring for our employees, Agnes becomes a better place each day. We do what it takes to make sure our staff is happy, which translates to the truly genuine service we are able to provide to our guests.

Agnes is meant to feel like home away from home, just like Grandma Agnes’ house. I feel like we’ve been able to build a truly safe space for our patrons and staff, and am beyond grateful to have a loyal group of regulars who visit us week after week. It’s so rewarding to be welcomed in this community and to see happy faces at the end of a meal. It means we’re doing something right!

Any thoughts, advice, or strategies you can share for fostering brand loyalty?

We keep in touch with our guests through consistent social media updates, and a weekly newsletter that summarizes all that we’ve been up to and what’s in the works. It’s a great way to keep people in the loop, and we love to see the feedback and engagement from both our Instagram and newsletter both online and in person. We also host a free monthly cheese tasting for our guests on the third Saturday of each month between 2-4pm, usually with a beverage or wine partner. It’s a great way to build community around our Cheesery, see familiar faces, and to introduce new guests to cheese as well.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

These first two years of establishing Agnes have been quite an adventure, to say the least! Things definitely didn’t go as expected, especially since we opened our doors during COVID, but I will say that since first seeing the space in 2017 while it was still a production studio, to the process of transforming this 100-year-old historic building into a highly functioning restaurant and cheesery, this experience has surpassed all of our expectations and is the greatest thing we have achieved.

Restaurants are notoriously misogynistic and ruthless, and I was constantly proving myself worthy. Cheese is an even smaller niche industry that is less understood than restaurants but incredibly welcoming and open to teaching.

One challenge we’re overcoming right now is the balance between rising costs and minimum wages and trying to keep prices reasonable. If we want to change the industry and make sure our staff are taken care of, then we have to charge what we have to in order to do that. We’re a small mom & pop business providing artisanal and homemade products, cheese and this is our passion.

We employ wonderful, hardworking, skilled and passionate people, and are proud to be able to provide our staff with a quality of life we want to be the standard in this industry. We offer 100% healthcare coverage to our employees, provide two staff meals a day, and invest in our staff’s personal growth and education. We believe that by caring for our employees, Agnes becomes a better place each day. We do what it takes to make sure our staff is happy, which translates to the truly genuine service we are able to provide to our guests.

Agnes is meant to feel like home away from home, just like Grandma Agnes’ house. I feel like we’ve been able to build a safe space for our patrons and staff, and am beyond grateful to have a loyal group of regulars who visit us week after week. It’s so rewarding to be welcomed in this community and to see happy faces at the end of a meal. It means we’re doing something right!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.agnesla.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/agnes_cheesery
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/agnes-restaurant-and-cheesery-pasadena

Image Credits
All photos are labeled with photographer credits. Any photos that do not have a photographer in the label can be created to Agnes Restaurant & Cheesery.