Discovering America's Oldest Cheese Company in Marin. And Cute Dog Photos!
Plus: Katz’s New York Deli, Nora Ephron, and the Best Movie Ever
We swept past the white building with the red roof and I gave it barely a second glance. “Marin French Cheese Factory,” said the sign in front. Thankfully Jennifer was paying more attention.
“That’s where Doug and Michelle used to go,” she said. “They’d ride their bikes out here and bring Jaco. Have lunch, some fresh cheese, wine. They liked it a lot.”
We were traveling across the pasture lands of west Marin about an hour north of San Francisco. Morning on the coast had begun gray and dreary but the fog cover was burning off and skies were turning a pale blue. Cattle grazed on hills turned lush and green by the recent rains.
“You know this new Substack thing I’ve got going,” I said, hatching an idea. “Well, if Doug and Michelle liked it let’s go check it out on our way back, and then I’ll write about it.”
Doug and Michelle are friends of ours who enjoy good food and good wine almost as much as they love their little dog Jaco. He goes with them on their bicycling forays into farm country and most everywhere else. He’s a good traveler. They have a little carry-bag he snuggles down into if they go out to a restaurant or bar where people may look askance at a dog hanging out. Jaco never blows his cover.
A year or two ago Michelle, Doug, and Jaco sold their Bay Area condo—Michelle and Doug have human children, too—and moved to a city in Washington across the Columbia River from Portland. Doug and my wife used to work together and they still stay in touch with occasional texts about their old jobs and the people they knew there. Doug may even shoot Jennifer a candid shot of Jaco (named after the fine jazz bassist, Jaco Pastorius), such as when he went out in the snow recently and seemed a tad nonplussed about it.
Jennifer had some business to do in Point Reyes, and after we took care of that we headed back in the direction we came, stopping at a roadside farm stand to buy a dozen fresh eggs laid by “free-roaming hens,” as the Hicks Mountain Hens carton said. (Free-roaming? I’m reminded of the old joke by Denis Leary: “There has to be a fence there somewhere.”)
Indeed there was. For both both goats and chickens.
A little bit farther down the road we reached the Marin French Cheese Company, and it was the best sort of pleasure: an unexpected one.
Pulling into the parking lot we stepped inside the gift shop and were suddenly being seduced by sample bites of French-inspired, soft-ripened Camembert and Brie made from milk produced by the Holstein, Jersey and Guernsey cows we saw so contentedly chomping grass in the hills.
What’s more, we learned something that surprised me: America’s oldest cheese company isn’t in the dairy state of Wisconsin but in Petaluma, California. Marin French was founded in 1865 by an Illinois farmer named Jefferson Thompson, who came west on a wagon train carrying little except a dream. He scraped up the dough to buy some land and then opportunity struck.
A shortage of eggs—sound familiar?—and other food staples plagued San Francisco, and Thompson rallied to the crisis, shipping his creamery-made cheese to the city to feed dock workers and other hungry people. He called it “Petite Breakfast Cheese,” and it was the little cheese that could. It launched his business and they’ve been making Petite Breakfast Cheese and a variety of other kinds for nearly 160 years on the same land, at the same creamery.
Jeff Thompson’s company even achieved a bit of history in the early 2000s. In a moment reminiscent of the famous “Judgment of Paris” when California wines from nearby Napa Valley won an international wine competition, the French again took it on the chin at a London cheese competition. Marin French Cheese took top honors in the contest, the first time an American company had ever bested the French and Europeans in an international cheese-making test.
There is a picturesque small lake at the facility surrounded by grassy areas with picnic tables and benches. Jaco’s brethren are welcome too, as long as they’re leashed. The gift shop sells Marin French products as well as other locally-made cheeses, and we brought home a few different kinds for a tasting of our own.
Tasting Notes
Jennifer Nelson, the food and dining correspondent for Tilting West, filed this report on the ones we sampled:
Marin French Petite Breakfast
The first cheese made by the oldest cheese company in the United States is a simple yet satisfying one, with a slight sour tang that lifts it. With no rind, the cheese is soft but holds its form, reminiscent of compressed curds. It is delicious on salty crackers or toasted baguette slices, and would pair well with charcuterie, making it perfect for a cheese board.
Marin French Petite Mustard Brie
It’s hard to go wrong with creamy soft Brie as a starting point, and the Mustard Brie is delightful. Tiny golden brown mustard seeds pop in your mouth slightly differently with each bite, mildly spicy but not at all hot. Would be lovely paired with thin prosciutto slices and cornichons.
Valley Ford Estero Gold
Estero Gold was also the first cheese made by its company, named after the Estero Americano which runs next to the small town of Valley Ford on the Sonoma coast. It’s on the softer side of the hard cheese category, and has a creamy, buttery flavor that pairs well with wine. It melts beautifully and would be wonderful as a polenta topper or inside a grilled cheese sandwich.
More Nora Ephron
After reading last week’s issue on Nora Ephron, Dan Crouch dropped us a note about a meal he and his wife had at Katz’s Delicatessen in New York where Meg Ryan’s famous fake orgasm in When Harry Met Sally... was shot. He writes, “Natalie and I were in Katz’s last summer with a cousin of Nat’s and his family. The deli has a sign right above the table where the fake orgasm scene took place. Perhaps someday the spot will have ‘Landmark’ status.”
Casablanca and “As Time Goes By”
One of Nora Ephron’s all-time favorite movie romances is Casablanca, which is streaming free on Max with rent/buy options on Amazon Prime. The other day I watched it for maybe the fourth time in my life and it still holds up.
It was the best picture of the year in 1942 and in my view it’s still the best picture of the year. It stars Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman and a memorable supporting cast. Admirers of Ephron marvel at the quick patter of the dialogue in her films; she clearly went to school on the screenwriters for Casablanca, twin brothers Julius and Philip Epstein and Howard Koch. Their rapid-paced script sparkles with lines that make you want to grab a pen and write them down: “This is the beginning of a beautiful relationship;” “Round up the usual suspects;” “Of all the gin joints, in all the towns, in all the world, she walks into mine,” etc.
“Here’s lookin’ at you, kid” is another of the film’s immortal lines, and the American Film Institute ranked it No. 5 on its list of the 100 Greatest Movie Quotes of all time. A similar AFI list on the greatest movie songs put Judy Garland’s “Over the Rainbow” in the top position. It’s hard to argue with that. Coming in strong as the second greatest movie song of all time is “As Times Goes By,” sung by Dooley Wilson to the luminous Ingrid Bergman. Watch as the camera holds and holds and holds on her face as the song plays. Nora was right; it’s an entire love story in a single scene.