It wasn't the romantic setting of Grenada that sparked the idea. Nor was it the Caribbean cuisine. It was a moment of clarity on the second day of his honeymoon when John Antonelli turned to his new wife Kendall and said something that would change their lives: "I'm going to quit my job when we get home."

Join Bora Celik as he chats with John Antonelli, the Co-Owner Antonelli's Cheese.

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Her response? "So what are you going to do?"

"Something in cheese."

Most newlyweds might panic at such a declaration. Not Kendall. Instead, they spent their honeymoon having honest conversations about what this career pivot could mean.

"Being an accountant is a great career for somebody," John reflects. "But not everybody loves an accountant. Go to a party and mention you're an accountant – you'll see how quickly people pivot to talking about something different. But cheese? Everybody loves cheese."

From Spreadsheets to Cheese Spreads

The transition wasn't immediate. John and Kendall gave themselves a two-year window. Rather than pursuing an MBA, they decided to invest that time and potential tuition money into building a business plan and executing it.

"I left just after busy season started. I gave them a four-month notice and left February 6th, 2008. That's when the clock started for me to do something in cheese or go back to being a CPA," John says.

What followed was a journey of discovery. John's first step? An internship at a 24-hour diner, Kerbey Lane, in Austin. "I got to do everything – from washing dishes to cooking, from managing the floor to HR stuff. I learned about hospitality, which is really what brings people back. It's not about being a cheese expert – it's about how we make people feel."

His education didn't stop there. He traveled to France, interning with a cheese ager who buys young cheeses and ages them until they're ready for market. He spent hours in local grocery stores, studying cheese departments. But the real learning came after opening the shop.

"I learned more in the first 15 days of the business being open than I learned in that whole two years studying cheese," John admits.

A Shop Is Born

On February 11th, 2010, exactly two years after leaving his accounting job, John and Kendall opened Austin's first cut-to-order cheese shop. It was a modest 700-square-foot space tucked away in one of Austin's oldest neighborhoods.

"Most of the first few months was people walking in and saying, 'What's a cheese shop?' And us saying, 'Eat this and you'll know,'" John recalls. He and Kendall worked without a day off for 18 months straight.

Their strategy? Start small and grow intentionally. Every two and a half months, they'd roll out a new service or offering to keep the buzz alive. They began with a limited selection, focusing on mastering cheese before expanding into charcuterie, chocolate, honey, jams, wines, and beer.

From Shop to Experience

Today, Antonelli's has evolved far beyond that initial 700-square-foot space. They've expanded across the street into a 115-year-old house where they host 400-450 events annually. During the pandemic, they pivoted to virtual events, hosting over 16,000 people in 2020 alone – an achievement that won them "Best Pivot in Austin."

"We're at our best when we're standing in this room, talking about the cheeses we love and sharing new bites with people," John says. "There's been plenty of people that met at a cheese class and ended up in a wedding party together because they became close friends."

Fifteen years after opening their doors, John and Kendall are still growing. They've recently opened a new location in South Austin with a 32-seat tasting room. But perhaps most importantly, they're still learning about cheese.

"I've been doing it for a long time now and I would still not call myself an expert," John says. "There's so much to learn about cheese that I just love it. I probably have forgotten more than I've learned."

As for the future? Their vision is clear: become the number one cheese experience company in the US. But at its heart, their mission remains simple: bringing people together over great cheese.

"The more we can bring people together breaking bread," John says, "the better we feel the future looks."

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