Somehow, Fisher Plaza seems like an odd location for a great cheese-and-wine shop. Visitors to the Space Needle, just across the way, aren't particularly in the market for Irish blues, and the below-ground-level store is a few long blocks from the supermarkets where the locals buy their produce. But Dennis Nelson and Theresa Simpson's four-year-old Cheese Cellar is worth a Monorail ride. Nelson and Simpson's selection is half the size of most Whole Foods cheese sections, perhaps a quarter as big as DeLaurenti's stock, but every one of the chunks in the Cheese Cellar's cases is fantastic and beautifully tended. (One of their strengths is their British and Irish farmhouse cheeses.) What makes this the place to shop for your next dinner party is the service: There are no jostling customers to yell over, no harried-looking attendants, and Nelson's great at reading customers' palates. Taste a few slivers until you identify something you love, then ask, "Now what do you have in goat?" and he'll reach for the exact one that makes your nostrils curl. Stick around after you've stunk up the place to buy gelato from Gelatiamo, Salumi salumi, wines from all over, and Italian olive oils. On the second Thursday of the month, the Cheese Cellar stays open for wine tastings, when the two pair a few wines with whatever cheeses taste particularly fine that week. —Jonathan Kauffman
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