The Inside Scoop on Raymond Hook's Capella Cheese Shop in Atlanta Georgia

Raymond Hook photo credit Capella Cheese

This winter, cheese lovers in Atlanta have a truly grand opening to look forward to.  Raymond Hook, a cheese and specialty foods industry veteran who sold cheese in San Francisco to the likes of Chef Hubert Keller and Michael Mina back in the ‘90’s, and his partners Clay Jackson and Samantha Naik, have teamed up to open Capella Cheese, a soaring, 30-foot ceilinged cheesemonger’s dream of a shop in Atlanta’s Armour Yards. Jackson was an avid customer of Hook’s at a former job at Star Provisions, and approached Hook to help him open a dedicated cheese shop. Jackson’s daughter Audrey dreamed up the name Capella, a Latin word for “goat”, which the shop shares with the sixth brightest star in the sky.

Capella Cheese interior photo credit Capella Cheese

Together they plan to offer over 250 artisan cheeses in the 3500 square foot converted warehouse, along with all the proper accouterments, including charcuterie (hand-sliced on a Berkel flywheel slicer), bread, jams and mustards, fresh flowers, and wine.

Hook plans to spend lots of time behind the 12-foot cheese counter helping customers choose the ideal cheese for their occasion and palate. Hook will be in charge of the cheese selections, and they will hail from all over the country and the world, representing a full range of styles and price points.

Capella will make fresh mozzarella every day in front of the customers and will showcase dozens of cheeses: munchable, budget-friendly crowd-pleasers, like Joe Widmer’s one year aged Wisconsin cheddar, unique, hard-to-find cheeses like Sao Miguel from the Azores, exciting local stars like Green Hill from Sweet Grass Dairy in nearby Thomasville, GA.  “Swiss exclusives like some extra aged alpines that we bought the entire production,” Hook adds excitedly, “Comte from Fort St Antoine.  Blues from David Gremmels at Rogue Creamery. Cheese from Belgium. The best cheeses we can find.”

A large part of the modern design includes three chilly humidity-controlled cheese holding rooms equipped with zero airflow to keep each type of cheese (aged, washed rind, and bloomy rinds) at its “spot-on” best without the drying effect of conventional forced-air refrigeration and air friction. These restricted access rooms will be connected through an anteroom to a large refrigerated production and packing room where cheeses will be cut and wrapped for shipping.

Exterior of Capella Cheese photo credit Capella Cheese

Direct to consumer will be a huge part of Capella’s business model. “We’ve incorporated strong e-commerce platform. People are much more ready to buy perishable, tactile products that you used to just go look at and smell and taste-- nowadays people are 100% willing to buy them online.” Thanks to the adoption of MAP technology, cheese packs will be nitrogen-flushed before sealing and shipping, thus more delicate products will arrive in better shape.

Big plans have been laid for training Capella’s staff and customers. “Education is a giant part of this. People buy what they know and shy away from what they don’t know, and also people sell what they know.”

Hook and his partners also feel strongly about giving back to the community, and will donate 25% of the sales of four designated products to the Atlanta Community Food Bank each month.

 “Good cheese is for everybody,” says Hook, and those simple words embody everything that Capella sets out to do. “There is great cheese at every price point,” says Hook, “and it is my job to find them and bring them to you.” Look for the opening in 2021 at www.capellacheese.com