Mount Tam and Pierce Point Cheeses
Point Reyes Station, California
Cuisine Style: Cheese
Average Price: $
Overall Rating: 5/5
Dined: August 2013
Article Updated: February 2020
By Sean Overpeck (CFE)
**A full article and index glossary of restaurants, wines, recipes and travel for
Wine Dine and Play are in the pages section above, or by following these links:
Cowgirl Creamery Zomato rating:
Cowgirl Creamery Owners:
Sue Conley and Peggy Smith
Cheesemakers:
Maureen Cunnie
Eric Patterson
Miguel Martinez
While working at a Restaurant in Georgia back in 2006, I was introduced to Cowgirl Creamery cheeses, when the chef, who recently returned from California on vacation, brought some with him. Soon after, we were ordering some cheeses from them for our cheese boards, mainly the Mount Tam and Pierce Point. In the summer of 2013, I was visiting San Francisco and Napa Valley and got a chance to stop by their location at the Ferry Building in San Francisco, and their main sight in Point Reyes. I only wish I had more time to take their tour. By far from California and the United States, cowgirl Creamery sits on my top five lists for the best cheeses in North America.
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| Cowgirl Creamery / Assorted Cheese |
This is the story of two friends, a baby blue Chevy van and a lifelong love affair with food. Sue Conley and Peggy Smith took a hippie trip to San Francisco in 1976 after finishing degrees at the University of Tennessee. Both established careers in some of San Francisco’s most famous kitchens: Peggy spending 17 years at Chez Panisse, and Sue co-owning Bette’s Oceanview Diner in Berkeley.
By the early 1990s, Peggy and Sue were ready for a new challenge. They found it in Point Reyes Station, a small town on the coast about an hour north of San Francisco. With their first-hand knowledge of the restaurant business, they launched Tomales Bay Foods, a marketing vehicle to help West Marin’s farms and dairies get their products into the hands of the Bay Area’s finest chefs. Their first location, a renovated hay barn in downtown Point Reyes, featured a small cheese-making room at the entrance to the building. It gave them ideas. Using milk from neighboring Straus Family Creamery, they began making fresh cheeses.
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| Cowgirl Creamery / MT Tam Brie Cheese |
Legend has it that when Peggy and Sue were exploring names for there cheese business, two women on horseback pulled up in front of the barn, hitched their horses to the bike rack and ran into the grocery store for supplies. Ellen Straus, who was visiting at the time, looked at Sue and Peggy and said, “We’re living in the Wild West out here.” Peggy’s response: “Then we must be cowgirls! And this must be the Cowgirl Creamery.”
The Mount Tam cheese, which is Cowgirl Creamery’s top-selling cheese is named for a Northern California Mountain called Tamalpais. While visiting the area in August 2013, I went to the top of Mt. Tam, sat on one of the benches, looking down at the Muir Woods, and out into the San Francisco Bay to the left, and the Pacific Ocean to the right. While enjoyed the view, I had some French bread and Mt. Tam cheese that I purchased from the Cowgirl Creamery store at the Ferry Building Market Place on the Embarcadero in San Francisco. The cheese is made from Straus Family Dairy’s fresh organic milk, triple cream, very smooth, decadent butter and hints of white mushroom. The second main cheese I was introduced to many years ago was the Pierce Point, a summer seasonal cheese, washed in a Moscato wine and rolled in coastal herbs and wildflowers. Cowgirl Creamery also has many other fantastic kinds of cheese in their collection including Red Hawk and Devil's Gulch.
Please see these guidelines for Tipping in Restaurants and on following proper etiquette, customs, cultures, and avoiding assumptions when you dine out.
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Final notes, review basics, observations, and more pictures:
Most reviews are subjective, depending on the writer; but they should also be responsible, and respectfully written, upholding the truth, and accurately conveying the experience to the best of the writer's knowledge, even if it includes metaphors the restaurant may not like to read about. My ratings are by the stars I award (from 0 to 5). The rating is calculated on a point accumulation of six separate factors based on individual experience. They include wine and other beverage selections, plate presentation, customer service, restaurant or café ambiance, food quality, and wow factor. To see more details of this rating list, read this article:
Overall from this experience and the score factors outlined in the ‘about page’ section, based on my individual experience and rating, I give Cowgirl Creamery a 5 out of 5 stars, meaning that they not only exceeded my expectations and were far above the average dining experience of most restaurants, but they surpassed outstanding and were extraordinary.
Scores are detailed in the factor chart below:
Formula Factor Conclusions and Overall Ratings for Cowgirl Creamery
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Max Points Possible:
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Total Points Awarded:
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Total Points deducted:
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Ambiance
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11
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10
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0
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Food quality
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8
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8
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0
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Plate presentation
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0
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0
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0
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Customer service
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0
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0
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0
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Alcohol and other beverages
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0
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0
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0
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Total regular points awarded
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19
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18
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0
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Total percentage — less the Bonus
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0.947368421052632
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“Wow” factor BONUS
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5
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0
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0
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Total bonus percentage
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0
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Total percentage and bonus for a final star rating
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94
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Stars Awarded (see chart below)
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0 - 5
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5
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**A full break down and explanation of the observations and point disbursement is available in the linked article above. To receive a detailed copy of your score, feel free to contact me at any time and I will provide it to you.**
***
Overall Star Rating:
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5 of 5 Stars:
94% Rating with a 0 point “wow” bonus
An Extraordinary Dining Experience
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Cuisine Style at Cowgirl Creamery:
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American, Cheese
Allergen or dietary accommodations:
Farm to Fork, Grass-Fed, Local, Non-GMO, Organic, Sustainable
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Cowgirl Creamery Experiences:
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A place for foodies, Hotspot, Rustic, Tourist grabber, and a Neighborhood Gem.
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Payments:
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Cash, Visa, MasterCard, Discover, American Express
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Parking:
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Cowgirl Creamery has a public lot
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Wifi
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The restaurants reviewed on this site may have Wi-Fi, but do not require you to go online, because the excitement of the food and wine alone will keep you too entertained instead of checking your social media and emails.
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Patio or terrace:
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Yes
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Cowgirl Creamery:
80 4th Street
Point Reyes Station, CA 94956
Contact Information:
Restaurant website:
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Maître d or host:
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(415) 663 9335
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Website Contact:
Email Us:
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Serving hours:
Pacific Standard Time (GMT, Zulu, or UTC-8:00)
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Wed-Sun
10:00 am - 6:00 pm
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Social Media
And
Accolades for Cowgirl Creamery:
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****
The world's best restaurants is a subjective list of who is writing it and changes on a regular basis. The Wine Dine and Play best experiences are based on my highest rated stared restaurants, meaning that the visit was an outstanding or extraordinary experience. From cafés, chains, mom + pops, hole in the walls, to fine dining including a few Michelin spots. Visit the Top 100 page to see the entire list.
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Stylish modern Spanish and global cuisine
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| Cowgirl Creamery / Shop in the Ferry Building, San Francisco |
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| Cowgirl Creamery / Cheese advertisement |
“Culinary perfection consists not in doing extraordinary things,
But in doing ordinary things extraordinarily well.”
-Angelique Arnauld (1591-1661)
Who is John Galt?
TTFN
