Around five years ago, “Marketplace” host Kai Ryssdal met Lydia Clarke at her shop DTLA Cheese, located in Los Angeles’ Grand Central Market. Between a decline in foot traffic due to the pandemic and tariffs on European cheese from the first Trump administration, Clarke wasn’t sure the business would be able to make it into the following week.

But DTLA Cheese survived, and in the years since moved into a shop of its own near the original location. Last week, Ryssdal visited Clarke for a third time. In addition to DTLA Cheese, she also co-owns a bar called Kippered next door and Cheese Cave in Claremont, California.

When Ryssdal asked Clarke how DTLA Cheese is doing, she said, “we are still open.”

Clarke’s downtown businesses faced a decline in June, when there were ICE raids, protests, and the National Guard was deployed to the neighborhood.

“When you have a bar and you have curfew, it’s not the easiest,” she said. “All catering orders that first week were cancelled, and those are big, $3,000 of cheese boards for offices.”

In addition to the local challenges, Clarke is also dealing with the national challenges of new tariffs, including an additional 15% on cheeses imported from the EU and 39% from Switzerland.

“We’re having to make decisions out of risk and fear, which we’ve never had to do,” Clarke said. Nonetheless, she tries to focus on the positive.

“Life can suck at times,” Clarke said. “But you know what’s good? Cheese.”

To hear more from Clarke, use the audio player above.