Vincent Maniaci knows cheese. For 13 years he’s been in the business of cheese, and now he has his own store in Scarborough where he can share his knowledge and passion for cheese and other gourmet foods.

Along with his wife, Jill, Maniaci recently opened the Cheese Iron on Route 1 next to Centervale Antiques. The store is a specialty foods store, with everything from chocolate to meats and pA?¢tA?©s. The product may be food, but their goal is to teach customers about what they’re buying.

“We really want to bring people who are novices about cheese and have them feel comfortable coming in to ask questions. We don’t want people to feel intimidated at all, that’s just not us,” said Maniaci.

They hope to attract a spectrum of people from cheese experts to beginners, though they hope everyone leaves with new information.

“This is really fantastic, we’re taking it to a whole new level,” said staff member Thomas Daly, who used to be a buyer and manager for the Portland Green Grocer. He feels he has good experience with foods and cheese, but is still always open to knowing more. “There’s always something new to learn about cheese and wine,” he said.

To better serve their customers interested in wine, the Cheese Iron owners and employees did a little homework before opening.

In order to better recommend what wines go with certain cheeses, the staff learned about the wine they sell by tasting every single wine over a period of a few months before the store opened.

“It was a tough job, but someone had to do it,” said Jill Maniaci.

Though there’s a case of various cheese wedges, wheels and packets on display, a major element that sets the store apart is its own cheese cave off to the side. This is where Maniaci puts his extensive knowledge into practice, actually aging different cheeses until they are ready to sell.

The cave is maintained at a certain humidity level to keep the cheeses from drying out, and allows Maniaci to rotate them as necessary. As different varieties are done aging, the display out front changes. Besides cheese from Europe and other countries, the cave and display case house about 18 types of New England artisan cheeses.

The Maniacis have been planning all the parts of the store for two years, even making their honeymoon into some research by staying at a cheese maker’s in Spain.

The focus is cheese, but the store offers other specialty, all natural foods, including meats, pastas, coffee, breads from the Standard Bakery and a serve-it-yourself olive bar.

“All of the olives have pits,” said Maniaci. “Pitted olives tend to taste more like the brine, and we really want people to taste the fruit.”

Taste is important to Maniaci, who said he will open just about anything for a customer to try. He also insists that customers try the cheeses before taking one home to make sure it’s exactly what they want.

Soon, said Maniaci, they will also have an information station where customers can go online to get more information on anything in the store. He also plans to include a table and area for children so everyone can feel comfortable coming in and spending time learning about what the store has to offer.

The Cheese Iron has only been open for about a week, but Maniaci is both excited and confident about the future of the store.

“We put a lot on the line to do this,” said Maniaci. “But even if it doesn’t work out, at least we tried.”

Eventually, said Maniaci, one of their goals is to take teaching about cheese even further by having cheese makers come in and hold demonstrations in the store.

“We really want people to leave with more knowledge,” said Maniaci.

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