New cheese shop and wine bar coming to Atascadero

Posted: 12:59 pm, July 30, 2021 by Reporter Saab Sahi

Maliysa Lou of Loulou Cheese Girl. Photo by Saab Sahi.

Shop will have beer and wine on tap, grilled cheeses, cheese and charcuterie platters and more

–Loulou Cheese Girl is planned to open at the La Plaza development in late Fall or early Winter of 2021.

Maliysa Lou was raised with a love for food and know-how of event planning by her mother and grandmother in Costa Mesa, so it’s no surprise that her early career was spent mostly on working in event and meeting planning.

She first encountered the world of wine and cheese pairing around 2005 by working at a cheese shop and cooking school in Laguna Beach for two years called Laguna Culinary Arts, which is now closed.

Over the next ten years, she fell more and more in love with wine and cheese and the culture surrounding it. That passion led her to live in Italy for six months during 2008, visit Paris, work at a wine bar called Wine Lab in Costa Mesa from 2013-2015 and eventually move to Paso Robles in 2015.

“You get to experience a piece of that culture when you’re eating or drinking it,” said Lou.

Lou worked for seven months at Adelaida Cellars in Paso Robles during 2015, then left to work at a wine bar in Templeton where she gained a lot of experience with preparing cheese platters. However, she left the wine bar in 2018 when her grandmother passed away of cancer.

Later during 2018, she decided to start Loulou Cheese Girl as an event catering service and purchased a mobile trailer to visit wineries, weddings and more. The business expanded to have a small retail space in Atascadero at 8793 Plata Ave., but Lou plans to retire that space to shift full focus to the upcoming location.

Guests will be able to stop by with their kids or dogs by a trailer parked in front of the future cheese shop to grab cheese to go, get beer or wine on tap or head inside for a full-service casual dining experience. There will be specialty grilled cheeses available, burrata cheese plates, charcuterie, beer, wine and more.