Point Reyes Station Cheese Shop Cowgirl Creamery is Closing After 25 Years - Eater SF

"The Point Reyes Light reports hometown staple Cowgirl Creamery will close its converted barn doors on September 5, though it will be survived by a wholesale production facility in Petaluma. To some, the decision isn’t too shocking — beginning in 2016, the business sold to Swiss dairy conglomerate Emmi who merged Cowgirl with Cypress Grove, a Humboldt County cheesemaker, before announcing the closure of the retail store in a July 18 letter to vendors. Pamela Dressler, the managing director of Cowgirl and Cypress Grove, told the Light that while the shop in Point Reyes Station is a part of the much-changed businesses’ story, there were always “challenges with maintaining a retail shop and cheesemaking facility in this location.” Specifically, Dressler went on, water-use issues made both building additional restrooms and increasing production on-site nigh impossible. Cowgirl founder Sue Conley told the local publication the decision is out of her hands and that, it seemed, the new owners “don’t understand” the little creamery. The San Francisco extension of the business, located in the Ferry Building, closed during the pandemic, a casualty of the reduced traffic. Locals looking for summer work, like Kaly Kunst who also spoke to the Light, are out of luck now that the conglomerate has pulled the plug. “It’s not efficient enough financially for them, and they don’t have the connection to it that we do,” Kunst said." - Paolo Bicchieri