Play: Follow West Marin’s glorious cheese trail to the coast for Red Hawk, sourdough, oysters and more.
Early spring in West Marin and on the neighboring Sonoma coast is a glorious time of year. The landscape is blanketed by fresh green grass, and the hillsides are dotted with grazing cows and sheep. You could spend several days here creamery and dairy hopping, and sampling all the many cheeses. But a leisurely daylong trip through Marin — with a slip into neighboring Valley Ford — are all you need for a delicious jaunt. You can visit four very different creameries and tasting rooms, check out some sublime sourdough and levain, and sample oysters, too.
Marin County is historic California dairy country, with the first dairymen settling into the lush coastal regions of West Marin in the mid-1800s. Early immigrants came from Ireland, along with Italian Swiss from the canton of Ticino and later, Portuguese from the Azores and Croatians from the islands of Hvar and Iz in the Adriatic Sea. Those early settlers brought their dairying and fishing skills with them and transformed the region — and their influence can still be seen today.
Whether you make it a day trip or a weekend trek, Petaluma is your starting point. From there, head out on D Street, which becomes the Point Reyes-petaluma Road.
Your first stop is the Marin French Cheese Co., which was founded in 1865. For decades, it’s been a rustic destination where you could buy cheese and other fare to enjoy at one of the many picnic tables, as you soak in the peaceful surroundings. Its cheeses, which include a range of popular petite triple-cream bries and a brine-rinsed Schloss, are made from local milk and cream. The expanded shop and tasting room offer wines, breads, salami, salads and a cafe. Tastings are plentiful, the staff knowledgeable and the historic setting charming.
If you continue on a few more miles, winding out toward Highway 1, you’ll find yourself in Point Reyes Station, the home of Cowgirl Creamery and Tomales Bay Foods.
In 1997, food icons Sue Conley and Peggy Smith, who owned Berkeley’s Bette’s Oceanview Diner, built a small creamery. Conley was the first cheesemaker. She started making cheese using organic milk sourced from the local Straus Family Creamery, family owned since the 1940s. Cowgirl’s cheeses, plus cottage cheese and fromage blanc, are still made with Straus Family Creamery organic milk and additional organic milk from nearby dairies.
Tomales Bay Foods offers an eclectic mix of cheeses, breads, artisan foodstuffs and tableware, plus a Cantina cafe and plenty of outdoor tables.
The cheese counter, however, is the star attraction, showcasing not only Cowgirl Creamery’s cheeses — the latest is Hop Along, a washed rind, semi-firm cheese in the Trappist tradition — but cheeses from other local cheesemakers, as well as selected domestic and international cheeses. The staff is eager for you to sample, as they tell you how the cheeses are made.
One of Cowgirl’s most popular cheeses, Red Hawk, is still made at the original creamery alongside the store. A wall of windows lets you peek at the cheese-making space and the curing room behind. Conley says Red Hawk can only be made there because of the wild yeasts, which help create the triple-cream cheese’s sunset hue and the notes of ocean air that can’t be replicated anywhere else.
A few steps away, in a vintage yellow cottage with a brick oven behind it, you’ll find the Brickmaiden Bakery. It’s tucked inside the former Bay Village Bakery once owned by Chad Robertson of Tartine Bakery fame. Brickmaiden was founded by West Marin native and baker Celine Underwood, who worked with Robertson when she was young. Pick up some of its bread or sandwiches for a picnic or to take home.
Point Reyes Farmstead Cheese Company, which produces Point Reyes Original Blue and other cheeses, is just up Highway 1. The family-run dairy, which is helmed by the Giacomini great-granddaughters these days, started making cheese here in 2000 using only the milk from their own cows. It’s a magnificent setting, with views of Tomales Bay and the Point Reyes Peninsula. It’s open to the public by reservation, and a variety of visits, tours and classes are offered, as well as special events.
Continue on Highway 1, skirting Tomales Bay to pause for oysters and a glass of wine at Tony’s Seafood, an old-school standby, started more than 60 years ago by Tony Konatich, a Croatian fisherman. Recently purchased by Hog Island Oyster Company, it still serves roadside seafood fare, and its outdoor tables and cozy bayside windows beckon visitors.
Other nearby oyster and food options include Hog Island Oyster Company, The Marshall Store and Nick’s Cove, all with outdoor seating and views of Tomales Bay.
After the oyster refresher, head to Valley Ford Cheese and Creamery, just over the Marin County border in Sonoma County. It’s owned and operated by fourth- and fifthgeneration Bianchi family members, descendants of Swiss-italian dairy farmers. In 2000, Karen Bianchi-moreda began making Italian-style cheese from the milk of their herd. Son Joe Moreda joined the family enterprise as head cheesemaker a decade later.
Sample their Estero Gold, fontina-style Highway 1 and Gorgonzola-inspired Grazin’ Girl at their newly opened retail outlet, where you can taste, shop and order from their cheese-centric menu. The cafe’s kitchen is headed by a former sous chef from Napa’s Michelin 3-star Restaurant at Meadowood. The food is creative, generous and local. There’s a good selection of wine, beer and other beverages to accompany it, plus plenty of cheese to take home.
After a day of cheese tasting and oyster eating, do you really want to go all the way home? Instead, wind back through the hills to Petaluma to end the day with a stay at the newly restored, historic Hotel Petaluma and a visit to the riverside town’s shops and restaurants.