By JANET FLETCHER

ALTHOUGH HIS FIEFDOM IS ONLY 300 SQUARE FEET, cheesemonger James Ayers, at Sunshine Foods Market in the Napa Valley town of St. Helena, Calif., oversees a provocative array of local and international selections.

“If it’s something new, I want it,” says Ayers, whose space-challenged counter is frequently the only source in the San Francisco Bay Area for some cheeses such as Malvarosa, a sheep’s milk cheese from Valencia, Serra da Gardunha, a Portuguese washed-rind goat’s milk cheese, and Queso de Autor, a raw goat’s milk cheese from the Valencia area. Since Ayers joined the company 11 years ago, he’s built something of a cult following for his selections. Obscure cheeses with unpronounceable names such as Grise des Volcans from the Auvergne region of France move briskly at Sunshine when Ayers gets behind them. “Customers now just ask if we have any of that Volcano cheese left,” he adds.

Getting Started
In 1975, Dale Smith—along with a wide array of family members—took over a failing market and changed the name to Sunshine Foods (“We thought it sounded happy,” says Dale’s son, Jay Smith, a partner in the store). The Smiths operated it as a conventional small-town, mom-and-pop grocery store until 1996 when, fearing that old-fashioned markets like theirs were headed for extinction, they undertook a dramatic remodel.

Out went the tired display fixtures; in came contemporary Metro shelving and specialty products from new suppliers. Today, the store’s departments include specialty, natural, produce, deli, meat, seafood, wine and spirits, bakery and cheese. The Smiths knew they wanted to aim higher than the standard grocery-store cheese selection, but they also knew they lacked the expertise. Ayers, a former restaurant chef in San Francisco, was looking for a lifestyle change and came on to manage the cheese case transformation.

Initially, out of the store’s 6,500 square feet of selling space, the Smiths allocated a 12-foot refrigerated standing case with a tiny U-shaped counter for the cheese department. But Ayers immediately found an audience for high-end cheeses like Sottocenere (a truffled Italian cow’s milk cheese) and ten-year-old New York Cheddar. Persuaded of the cheese department’s growth potential, the owners soon added another six-foot case.

Maximizing Space
Over the years, Ayers has refined his methods for organizing his refrigerated case, although he changes the setup frequently. Cheeses are loosely arranged on marble slabs by type: mountain cheeses, blue cheeses, soft goat cheeses, bloomy rinds, washed rinds and Cheddars have relatively fixed locations. The fresh cheeses that tend to be on a shopping list rather than bought on impulse—mozzarella, ricotta, cream cheese, feta—are on the top shelf. The little-known artisan cheeses that he wants to show off get better placement, toward the center and at eye level.

“I tend to put things that are popular out of reach,” says Ayers. “Commodity Cheddar you have to reach for.” This strategy raises the likelihood of an impulse buy, as shoppers spot the oozy goat Taleggio on their way to the Cheddar.

Hard cheeses—Goudas, Parmigiano-Reggiano and the like—reside on the U-shaped counter and on one end of the adjacent olive bar. To help time-pressed shoppers, Ayers pre-cuts several pieces of most cheeses, aiming for affordable $5 to $6 portions. He wraps the pre-cuts in Cheez Savor, a film that is more costly than ordinary stretch film, but less likely to impart off-flavors. Of course, Ayers also has his three assistants readily cut cheese to order. For these sales, they use coated cheese paper.

Ayers recruits his assistants from store employees who demonstrate a persistent interest in cheese. They receive no formal training, but as long as they are eager to taste, they will thrive, he believes. The department’s labor cost runs about 12 percent of sales, which are around $20,000 in weekly sales.

Creative Merchandising
Good signage is a key part of the sales effort at Sunshine. Small laminated cards identify each cheese by name, country of origin and milk type, with tasting notes, sometimes a wine recommendation and often a stab at humor. But the best sales tool is Ayers himself, who regularly steers steady customers to new arrivals he’s excited about. “It doesn’t matter their walk of life,” says Ayers. “I have welders who buy truffles and $30-a-pound cheese.” Now his clientele is so accustomed to seeking out what’s new at Sunshine that he has to remind them not to overlook old favorites, like great Stilton.

In winter, customers snap up Ayers’s housemade fondue mix: a blend of grated cheeses and potato starch, sold with a recipe. He also makes custom mixes with Italian cheeses and black or white truffles. After tasting oil-marinated Manchego in Spain, he fabricated his own version, with a young wheel marinated six months in extra virgin olive oil.

Add-on sales are encouraged by placing condiments like imported preserves next to appropriate cheeses in the case. The neighboring olive bar offers 20-plus selections, and high-end crackers, jams, honeys, torrone and breadsticks line a nearby shelf. He has introduced many customers to the pleasures of a sweet condiment with salty cheese; a current favorite is the Casa Forcella sour cherry balsamic compote with Gorgonzola.

The store’s location in a wine community presents opportunities that Ayers has exploited. By appointment, he will set up an informal back-of-the-store tasting with local vintners to help them find the cheeses that best complement their wines. He provides cheese trays to the limousine companies that service the Valley’s winery-hopping tourists. He is also quick with a cheese suggestion for the many customers who have a specific wine in mind.

Ayers’s spirit of adventure and willingness to hand-sell the unfamiliar is what distinguishes Sunshine Foods’ cheese counter—the store’s customers know that there will always be surprising cheeses and interesting pairings to discover in a casual, entertaining setting that fits the community.

Janet Fletcher is a staff writer for the San Francisco Chronicle and author of The Cheese Course.