Eagle Rock’s Beloved Cheesemonger Branches Out With a Food-Obsessed Gift Shop

Leah Park Fierro, an accomplished pastry chef and the owner of the cheese store Milkfarm in Eagle Rock, is opening a culinary-themed gift shop and stationery store called Parchment Paper on Saturday, November 26 to coincide with Small Business Saturday. The store is located around the corner from Milkfarm at 5054 ¹⁄₂ Eagle Rock Boulevard.

“Parchment Paper is a concept that we’ve been talking about at Milkfarm for quite some time,” Fierro tells Eater. “At Milkfarm, we started with a little cheese-centric greeting card shelf and it slowly morphed to an entire table full of salami bandanas, cheese plates with mice on them, and a wonderful collaboration with Mister Parmesan to make custom caps and totes.” While the idea for the shop has been in the works for nearly eight years, it wasn’t until 2021 that Fierro delegated day-to-day Milkfarm operations to her team in order to get Parchment Paper underway.

Leah Park Fierro

A 10-by-25-foot hand-painted mural greets holiday shoppers upon entering the store, while shelves are lined with culinary-inspired greeting cards, kitchen wares, vintage finds, home goods, and sundries. Parchment Paper strives to support other small businesses and artists when possible, says Fierro. Some of her favorite items in stock include seafood placemats by Steak Diane, Asian-inspired food prints by Nancy Pappas, tea towels and onesies by the Neighborgoods, and even porróns and Champagne sabers. The shop will also offer full-service gift wrapping using food-centric wrapping paper (featuring mushrooms, raw steaks, oysters, peaches, cocktails, bananas, and more) and Furoshiki fabric.

Parchment Paper is open Tuesdays through Fridays from noon to 7 p.m., and Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. The shop is closed on Mondays.