Opening of cheese shop is the realization of a dream

By Editor | March 21, 2012 |

The walk down Gallatin Street in downtown Vandalia to visit the new businesses continues with Cathy Sanders in her Liberty Old Towne Cheese Shop and the adjoining Lamp of Liberty Coffee and Ice Cream Shop.

A Dream Came True…
…for Cathy Sanders, as the doors to the Liberty Old Town Cheese Shop opened to the public for the first time.
“The very beginning was years ago, when my late husband was still alive. He and I were coming through town, and I told him that I always thought it would be neat to put a cheese shop downtown.
"He made the comment that all our spare time was used horseback riding and that would never work. So I just let that dream disappear.
“But I’ve always wanted to have a little cheese shop. Then one day, my brother, Tony Flowers Sr., and I were sitting in front of the coin shop, and he asked me, ‘Sis, if you could put anything downtown, what would you put?,’ and I said, ‘A cheese shop.’
“He said, ‘You don’t even like cheese. I said, ‘I know, but I always thought that would be neat to do. I’ve always wanted to make the cheese trays and deli trays and so forth. “That night he said, ‘Do you still want to do that cheese shop?’ and I said, ‘Are you serious?’”
Her brother was serious, and he explained that he and his son-in-law, Sean, wanted to open a coffee shop, and they didn’t know how it would work, but if it was combined with a cheese shop, it might work.
So Cathy and her husband, Don Sanders, went to work. “The next thing I knew, we were getting ready to move in,” she said.
The first day, “We were so busy,” she said. “Friends had suggested that I also have sandwiches, and I said, ‘Well, I’ll have the deli meats and cheese right here, so I can do that. So lo and behold, on opening day, we sold sandwiches.
“And we were not prepared for anything like that.
“We have now added soups to the varied menu, along with cobblers and other items.
"There is a special sandwich featured for each day of the week, each one bearing the name of an American president, or you may select what you want on it, kind of a build-your-own concept."
She is expanding on their desserts, and is planning some special, homemade, mouth-watering delicacies in the near future.
While the menu has largely contributed to the growing popular of the little shop, the homey, colorful and quaint atmosphere and patriotic theme also lends a great deal of charm, which just seems to extend a personal invitation to all who pass by.
For the Kids
Cathy even kept young children in mind, as the walls hold colorful and cheerful paintings, such as a large mural of a barn, complete with cows and chickens. A children’s play place sits in front of the farm painting. The corner is equipped with a little table and seats, toys, books and stick hobby horses for the children to ride.
For the Adults
They are trying to have different things for shoppers.
Old-fashioned cabinets sit around the room, filled with decorative items, foods (jams, mini-ears of corn and many delicacies) in glass jars, suitable for gifts.
She also has gift items, some of which, Cathy said, “Are not brand new, but something she picked up at yard sales, but are like new.”
She also has baskets (in lieu of the usual gift bags) in which to place the gifts and a line of original greeting cards, made by Sean’s mother in Tennessee.
Also on the floor are the laser-engraved mirrors and woodworking pieces from Liberty Custom Wood Working shop.
And a Double-Dip Bonus
Through the wide connecting open doorway is the Lamp of Liberty Coffee & Ice Cream Shop, also a part of the cheese shop.
It carries on with the Liberty Theme with large, patriotic paintings on the walls and in the windows at each side of the exterior door way.
The customers can have their soup and sandwiches served in the coffee and ice cream area or have ice cream (cone, dish, or pie ala mode) in the cheese shop area. The ice cream and coffees come in many different flavors.
Breakfast pastries, and biscuits and gravy are also ready for early birds. The coffee is ready by 7 a.m. six mornings a week. The shops are closed on Sundays.
The tables and chairs are replicas of the old ice cream parlor furniture, except for two chairs, which are from her grandfather Harold Wilson’s ice cream shop in Fillmore. Those two chairs are part of the charming tea table display in the ice cream shop window.
Special points of historical interest include the huge Capps Drug Store Sign that proclaims, “Since 1889, your grandfather traded here.”
The sign was uncovered by Dennis Grubaugh when the building was being renovated. As the coffee and ice cream shop occupies what was once Capps Drug Store. the sign has, appropriately, been placed over the area that was once Capps’ counter for serving their customers.
And the brick wall between the shops has the original bricks of the buildings.
Cathy-In Person
Cathy is a vivacious and cheerful, but quiet, little woman who is well-known to lend a helping hand to those in need, whether it be to sit with an ill member of a family, take meals into a home or other kind deeds. Husband Don accompanies her on these missions of kindnesses.
They have been long-time volunteers in the Meals on Wheels program, as well as other worthy services. They both attend First Baptist Church, to which they also contribute their services.
Cathy is modest in taking credit, but her talents, skills and creativity are obvious when one looks around her shops. She claims that she “is no artist,” but the various paintings were her ideas. She is a willing worker.
She gives much credit to her husband.
“Don has been wonderful in helping and supporting me in this,” Cathy said. “He is down here working all the time, and he knows so much about the cheeses. He is the No. 1 cheese salesman.”
Although she has spent many long hours in creating her dream cheese shop (from scratch), she loves what she is doing and is delighted to welcome her customers, both homefolks and those that come in from the interstate and other nearby towns.
She expressed appreciation also for the support of the downtown merchants and Vandalia, “and the sign on the interstate that advertises Vandalia. It has a picture of the Old State Capitol in the center and different businesses surrounding it, and it has helped,” she said.
“We get so many off the Interstate. We‘ve had people from each end of the United States. I think they see the sign on the interstate and they come downtown to check us out. I think that is a big draw.
“We have a steady stream from Centralia, just about every day.”
The billboard is located along the eastbound lanes of Interstate 70, just behind the former Twisters building.
Cathy is also adventurous and courageous.
“I have never done anything like this. I want everything to be pleasing to everyone,” an almost impossible feat that she seems to be accomplishing … and enjoying practically every minute of it.