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World-Renowned and Southern Oregon's Own
Rogue Creamery Historic Cheese Shop Turns 75
Pilgrimage, sacrament, obsession, habit" Call it whatever you want, but it has driven cheese lovers to cross the worn, humble threshold into Central Point's Rogue Creamery Cheese Shop for three-quarters of a century. These savvy customers know that inside this inauspicious cinderblock building awaits some of the best cheese on the planet"cut and wrapped to order.
A delicious, all-natural, handmade result of American pluck and perseverance (see sidebar), Rogue Creamery cheeses have thrilled taste buds of people the world over, especially, perhaps, those who have been shopping at the store since it opened in 1935.
"People will just stop by and tell us their stories," says the creamery's community outreach coordinator, Mimi Harland.
There's Dr. Porter, who now lives in Arizona. When he's in town, he stops at the creamery to stock up.
"His story goes way back"Ig's (Ignazio Vella, son of Rogue Creamery founder, Tom Vella) father set him up in business; he was the town dentist," recounts Mimi. "When I first met him, he told me how much the creamery has meant to him, especially when his wife was suffering from Alzheimer's. He was at her side and she couldn't talk and wouldn't eat. He'd put a little crumble of Rogue Creamery cheese on her tongue and she'd just smile at him."
Mimi stops talking, letting the memory steep a little. "I just stood there weeping as he told me this."
Once or twice a week, it seems someone has a tale to tell, often about the creamery's early products.
"At the beginning, the retail store was more like a factory outlet, selling a little bit of what they made to the community at a great price," says cheese shop manager Tom Van Voorhees. "They sold a lot of butter and cheddar for a long time before they started making blue cheese and they had a cottage cheese thing going for a while. Lots of people come in and talk about that."
As they tell their tales (and maybe sample a little cheese), today's customers get treated to top-notch service with plenty of curb appeal. When Tom started at the shop in 2008, all the cheese was cut and packaged in back and then sold from refrigerated cases. Today, it's artfully displayed in its glorious, natural shapes.
"The first project I was involved in was the remodeling we did to carry cheese in whole wheels and to allow people to see what it is, cut it, taste it," Tom says. "It's the best way to get good cheese to the people: Cut and wrap."
Tom's background in "cut and wrap" began in New York City. In 2001, he was gigging regularly as an actor and standup comedian and had just married his wife, Stacy. Faced with the decision of whether or not he'd go on the road or stay in the city, he chose the latter. He worked through 9/11 at a little "flash in the pan" gourmet shop in Brooklyn called Tuller Premium Foods.
"The cheese was the fun part and soon I was in conversation with the people who were involved," says Tom. "I learned a ton then went on to work at Murrays Cheese, which is the emporium of all cheese."
That's where Tom was working when Rogue Creamery's co-owner, David Gremmels, met him. It wasn't hard for Gremmels to lure Tom to Southern Oregon"he simply left a trail of Rogue River Blue all the way from the east to the west coast.
"Tom is deserving of much attention and we are filled with great pride that he and his family settled on the Rogue Creamery and our beautiful valley," Gremmels says.
The comedian-turned-cheese monger supplements his "cut and wrap" service with an encyclopedic knowledge of the "politics of cheese."
"It really is interesting stuff," he insists. "Cheese is like all those subjects you loved in school rolled into one: There's the science of making it, its history as a commodity, its geographic diversity " So when you're talking about cheese, you can tell stories about all these different things."
Tom's contagious enthusiasm has become yet another reason why the Rogue Creamery Cheese Shop is one of Southern Oregon's top culinary destinations"that and the variety of select, locally-sourced wines, breads and crackers, honeys, jams, sauces and other handcrafted specialties. Oh, and of course there's the cheese!
"I love watching seasoned Rogue Creamery veterans who have not been in for over a year," says Gremmels of the shop's appealing blend of rustic tradition and unmistakable good taste. "Their faces are somewhat staid at first, then fill with joy when they see the abundant displays of the cheese they love"Oregon Blue and Rogue Creamery Cheddar."
words by Jennifer Strange
photography by David Gibb