Irina’s cheese corner marks 20 years in Leoben
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Irina Meixner has been selling cheese at Leoben’s main square in Austria for 20 years, building on a family tradition that began 40 years ago.
She first gained experience helping her mother sell cheese in Linz when she was around ten years old. After working in hospitality and later retraining as a computer programmer, Meixner returned to cheese selling, identifying a gap in the market in Leoben.
Meixner initially struggled to sell Kaspressknödel, a type of cheese dumpling, because few people in the area knew what it was. Now, she says, she is well-known in Leoben for the dish, which she prepares fresh daily. While she offers cheeses from countries like Holland, Italy, and France, 80 percent of her selection comes from Austrian farmers, all of whom she knows personally. Recent inflation has increased costs for both Meixner and her customers, impacting packaging, delivery, and production.
Despite these rising expenses, Meixner prioritizes paying fair prices to her farming partners, even if it means raising prices for customers. She plans to run the business for another five years before passing it on to a successor, though she hopes to remain involved in quality control, and continue eating a daily Kaspressknödel.
