The New Owner of Denver's Truffle Cheese Shop Admits He Knows Nothing About Cheese

Here is a business plan for you. Buy a 25-year-old cheese shop. Admit, out loud, on the record, that you do not know the first thing about cheese.

That is David Walsh. And honestly, I kind of love it.

Let me back up.

What actually happened to The Truffle

Most people in Denver knew The Truffle Cheese Shop as that little specialty spot over at 2906 E. Sixth Ave., right on the edge of Cherry Creek. It had been around since the late 1990s. Wine and cheese pairings, cheesemaking classes, the whole thing. A real institution, not a pop-up that lasted a summer.

Then in October 2025, it just closed. And not the sad-going-out-of-business-sale kind of closed. The State of Colorado seized the assets over unpaid back taxes and shut the doors.

Here is the part people miss. This was not some fly-by-night operator skipping town. Owner Lisa Morris came out and said the closure came after a series of incorrect tax filings that snowballed into a big debt. She owned it publicly. Did not hide from it. And she says the tax and compliance mess has since been sorted out.

I mean, that takes some spine. Most people would ghost. She stood there and explained it.

The owner who cannot tell a brie from a bike lock

So enter David Walsh.

Walsh is an ad tech and marketing guy, managing partner at DHP Holdings. In June 2026 he bought a majority stake in the business. And when you ask him about cheese, he does not pretend. He calls himself a cheese lover, sure, but he flat out says he "doesn't know the first thing about cheese."

Which is where Lisa Morris comes back in. She kept a 20% ownership stake and stayed on in an operational role. So Walsh is leaning entirely on her for the product quality and the vendor relationships. He runs the business side. She runs the cheese side. He is not going to stand behind the counter guessing what pairs with a pinot.

Honestly, that is the smart version of this. A guy who knows his lane, and hires the expert to run the part he does not understand. Beats the alternative, which is some marketing guy convinced he can wing a Comté.

Morris knew this place before she owned it

Lisa Morris did not just wander in. She joined the business in 2018, then bought it in 2021. And when she took over, she made a real call. She shifted the whole focus away from truffles and exotic foods and pointed it at artisan cheeses and specialty provisions. So the name still says truffle, but the soul of the place became cheese under her.

The ownership history on this shop is a whole saga, if you ask me. Original owners, then Rob and Karin Lawler bought it in 2007 and were actually the ones who first switched the focus to cheese. Then Mark Schwab and his son Joe took it over in 2019. Then Morris. Now Walsh and Morris together. That is a lot of hands on one cheese counter over 25 years.

The Evans School angle, and why it matters

Now here is the real estate part, and this one is good.

The relaunched Truffle is reopening in Denver's Golden Triangle, inside the historic Evans School building. Targeted for Fall 2026. The retail space runs about 1,200 square feet, per the leasing documents.

If you know the Golden Triangle, you know the Evans School. It is that old redbrick schoolhouse that has been sitting there being beautiful and mostly empty for what feels like forever. A landmark building looking for the right tenants. So a beloved specialty food shop moving in is exactly the kind of thing that neighborhood needed. It is not a chain. It is not a bank branch. It is a real local business with 25 years of history walking into a building with a hundred-plus years of its own.

That is a good match. A survivor going into a survivor.

They never fully went dark

Here is what a lot of people do not realize. Even through all of this, the tax seizure, the ownership handoff, the move, the business never completely stopped. They kept running online orders, curated platter delivery, gift boxes, catering, cheesemaking classes and the wine-and-cheese pairing events.

So this is not a brand coming back from the dead. It is a brand that kept a pulse going the whole time and is now getting a permanent home again. Walsh and Morris are framing it as a continuation of The Truffle, not some rebranded new concept. Same identity. Same specialty cheese shop. New address, new majority owner, same person picking the cheese.

My read on it

Look, businesses die in this city all the time. Rent, taxes, one bad year, and they are gone and forgotten by spring. The Truffle got seized by the state, which is about as final as it gets, and it is somehow walking back into a landmark building a year later.

The thing I keep coming back to is Walsh just saying it. He does not know cheese. He is not pretending. He bought the business and kept the person who does. Simple. Honest. And in the food world, where everybody wants to be the visionary, that kind of self-awareness is rarer than a good aged gouda.

Fall 2026, Golden Triangle, the Evans School. Go say hi. Buy some cheese from Lisa. Just do not ask David to recommend a pairing.