Beecher’s cheddar and jack-style cheeses are famous Seattle exports, and at the flagship Pike Place Market shop you can nosh on savory grilled cheese sandwiches and addictive mac and cheese while you watch the cheesemakers work.

If you love cheese plates, head to classic French café Le Pichet or Purple Café and Wine Bar. At Purple, you can order additional cheesy shareables, including baked brie with seasonal fruit marmalade and gorgonzola-stuffed dates with prosciutto. Also in Pike Place Market, The Cheese Box is named for its signature curated box of cheeses and accompaniments, perfect for a picnic or gift; they also carry gorgeously arranged cheese and charcuterie boards and sell an encyclopedic array of regional and imported varieties by the pound.

Every dish at Capitol Hill’s Cheese Room Seattle is built on a signature cheese, like the mimolette jeune that tops the leafy pistachio salad, and the housemade ricotta that stars in the tomato soup and grilled cheese combo. Downtown’s Skalka specializes in just one wildly cheesy food, the Georgian khachapuri, a crispy boat-shaped bread stuffed with creamy cheese and egg, customizable with additional meat and veggie toppings, and baked to order.

The Mexican torta-like creations at White Center’s Cemitas Poblanas are justly renowned. Try the overstuffed milanesa de pollo, packed with avocado, pickled jalapeño, and chunks of crumbly queso fresco. Big Max Burger Co in Queen Anne doles out the satisfyingly messy Big Max bacon-beef cheeseburger slathered with caramelized onions, a sherry vinegar–mustard sauce, pickles, and aged white cheddar.
At just about any Seattle farmers market, sample the goods at Glendale Shepherd, which produces complex sheeps’ milk cheeses (plus yogurts and pasture-raised lamb products) at its Whidbey Island dairy. Even better, plan a little excursion to this verdant nearby island and visit them directly.