Claremont's Cheese Cave joins the rush to Grand Central Market

Grand Central Market and its famously uninviting produce. LAO

David Allen of the Inland Valley Bulletin talked to the pair behind the move about why they are expanding downtown. Their grandfather founded Alta Dena Dairy in 1945, the column says.

Anticipation is building. A passerby, seeing four of us talking at the stall, inquires when it will open. He addresses the nearest person behind the counter, who happens to be me.

I quickly defer to Clarke, who says perhaps by this Friday.

“I’ve been keeping an eye on this sign,” the man says. “I’m a big cheese guy.”

Clarke is anxious too. The process of renovating an old space and bringing it up to code, which began shortly after the lease was signed in March, has been daunting.

“I can’t believe I thought we could open in August,” she says with a rueful chuckle....

We never thought about expanding west until they approached us,” Lydia says. The Clarkes were looking at storefronts in Palm Springs when they decided the L.A. offer was too good an opportunity to pass up.