Sue Conley, Cowgirl Creamery Co-Founder, is originally from Washington, DC. She was born into a huge Irish Catholic family that is still firmly rooted in the Maryland suburbs outside of the District of Columbia. One of Sue's most powerful childhood experiences was visiting her grandfather, Jules Loh, at work. He managed the city's most popular cafeteria, Sholl's Colonial. "This place was a dream for me as a child. Paw Paw handed out meal passes to his grandkids that entitled us to whiz through the long steel line of iceberg salads, homemade stews, pies, and gelatin desserts with permission to grab anything we wanted, as long as we finished our plates." Scholl's was the place where Sue's fascination with the fast, frenzied restaurant world began.

Sue's first experience at actually working in a restaurant came when she was in college at the University of Tennessee. There she waited tables at a loud and roudy college pub. Although she worked the "front of house," Sue was drawn to the creativity and the kinship of the kitchen crew. 

After finishing her degree in Political Science, Sue visited San Francisco in a hippy van on a tour of the U.S. with two old friends, (one being Peggy Smith, the other Cowgirl Co-Founder), and she fell in love with San Francisco. "It was just so wonderfully refreshing to hear music on the streets, to sip espresso in the cafes, and to hear the stories of young people drawn to the magic of San Francisco."

Although she hadn't planned on working in restaurants, San Francisco's harsh economy caused her to take a look at a career in restaurants. In an effort to approach the work as a profession, she studied for a year at the City College Hotel and Restaurant Management School. "The program was the best in the west at the time and was sort of a stepping stone for me. This is when I got the idea I might like to own my own restaurant."

While still in school, Sue worked at The Hotel Obrero, Bambi McDonald's Basque restaurant in Chinatown. Here she was inspired by the owner's massive cookbook collection and tireless entrepreneurial spirit. Bambi continued to act as cheerleader and support system for Sue through the ups and downs of all of her various enterprises over the years.

After finishing her program at City College, Sue worked at the 4th Street Grill in Berkeley under Paul Bertoli. "That's were I met Bette. She trained me on the salad station."

Less than a year later, Sue joined forces with Bette and her husband, Manfred, to open Bette's Oceanview Diner, right across the street in Berkeley. "I borrowed some money from my mom, and Bette invested most of her savings in the venture. Manfred had no experience in restaurants, but he was an extremely handy, hard-working guy. We created a quirky partnership that worked beautifully for 11 years."

The diner was designed to be a restaurant with high quality standards, serving
everyday meals to working people. Bette's was a hit right from the start. "We fed the contractors from the neighborhood at 6 AM, then the jockeys came from the racetrack, followed by  professors from UC Berkeley, and finally the clerks and artists who worked in the shops on the street."

As time passed, the restaurant prospered, but Sue began to feel the need for change. She moved to Point Reyes Station in West Marin with long-time-companion, Ranger Nan Haynes.

It was here where she made the acquaintance of Ellen Straus, matriarch of the Straus Family Creamery, her husband Bill, and their son Albert, who had ushered in the dairy's move to organic status. Inspired by the Strauses and the beginnings of this brand-new organic dairy industry, Sue decided to sell her shares in Bette's Diner and open a business in Point Reyes.

Born in Texas and raised in Northern Virginia, Peggy Smith became involved in the food industry during her college years at the University of Tennessee. Peggy's passion for cooking expanded after college when she worked in the kitchen of Gallagher's in Washington, DC. This place was known for hearty suppers of Irish Stew and long cooked corned beef served with live folk combos performing in the background from a small wooden stage. On Monday nights, Peggy would bring her guitar out to join in the open mike session with Mary Chapin Carpenter.

Peggy had a lot of fun working in this kitchen, and the experience made her think seriously about cooking as a career. Attracted by the Bay Area's food renaissance, she moved to San Francisco in 1976 where she developed her skills “on the job.”

Initially she found work at neighborhood restaurants including the Noe Valley Grill on 24th Street and the Hotel Obrero, a Basque restaurant in Chinatown. Then she moved north to Calistoga, taking a cooking job at the refurbished Mount View Hotel. All the while, Peggy had her heart set on working at Alice Waters's center of food innovation, Restaurant Chez Panisse in Berkeley. She submitted her resume a dozen times before being hired to cook at the restaurant's new upstairs Café in 1979.

For the next 17 years, Peggy worked the stove, preparing dishes made from "vegetables just out of the garden, fruit right off the branch, and fish straight out of the sea." Over time she managed the Café kitchen with Catherine Brandel and worked with Paul Bertoli.

Over time, Peggy was exposed to the best local ingredients along with exquisite cheeses, wines  and olive oils from Europe. Her knowledge of fine ingredients was further enhanced by an invitation in 1988 from Robert Mondavi and the California vintners. Mr. Mondavi asked Peggy to chef the kitchen at the Vin Expo in Bordeaux. Peggy accepted and headed the "California Grille" kitchen over the next 12 years.

And when they needed cheese, she called Jean D'Alos, the master affineur. Over the years, she learned the philosophies his family used in selecting and caring for artisanal cheeses.  Eventually, Chez Panisse Café began featuring a simple cheese plate selected from the caves of Jean D'Alos.

Peggy was intrigued by this world of French cheese. American cheesemakers seemed to be turning out some exceptional cheeses. Then Randolph Hodgson from Neal's Yard Dairy in London brought fine English farmhouse cheeses for the chefs to taste, and Peggy was hooked. When Sue asked her to help start a cheese making company in Point Reyes, Peggy jumped at the chance.

"We were lucky. Right about the time we opened Cowgirl Creamery, people were ready to expand their knowledge and their appetite for cheese. They had explored the word of wine; they'd learned about vinegars; they were using Italian olive oils and demanding good, crusty breads. Cheese was just waiting to be discovered ."

By the early 1990s, Peggy Smith and Sue Conley were ready for new challenges. Sue had satisfied her dream of owning and operating a restaurant (Bette’s Oceanview Diner in Berkeley) and had begun to ease away from restaurants. She moved to Point Reyes Station, a naturalist’s paradise just an hour north of San Francisco, with a unique microclimate that allows it to produce great greens, wine grapes, fish, and oysters. Peggy, who for 17 years had helped coordinate the kitchen at the renowned Chez Panisse, teamed with Sue to brainstorm about a new endeavor. Their first idea was to open a café, but soon the idea of showcasing the region’s agricultural products began to feel more natural.

Wheels began to turn, and the concept of Tomales Bay Foods began to take shape. Tomales Bay Foods launched in 1993 as a marketing vehicle for the local dairy farms, including Straus Family Creamery, Redwood Hill Farm, Bellwether Farm, and Matos Cheese Company. The concept continued to evolve. Four years later, permits were granted for renovation of an old hay barn in downtown Point Reyes Station, the venue that would become Tomales Bay Foods as we know it today – a popular market that houses our cheesemaking facility, an artisan cheese counter, a boutique that features clothing of natural fabric, an organic produce stand, and a deli that serves delicious, wholesome foods.

Tomales Bay Foods caught on quickly with Point Reyes locals and became a regional tourist destination. But in the back of their minds, Sue and Peggy always dreamed of making cheese.

“It seemed like something we could do well, with the proper guidance,” Sue recalls. “We’d been greatly inspired by Ellen Straus and Albert Straus of Straus Family Dairy, by Jean D’Alos, the French affineur, and by the folks from Neal’s Yard Dairy in London,” Peggy added. “And making cheese from Straus organic milk is just another way of promoting the region’s agricultural wealth.”

Legend has it that when Peggy and Sue informed Ellen Straus about their ambitious plans to make cheese, she remarked, “It’s the Wild West out there, ladies.” To succeed in the “Wild West,” Peggy and Sue would have to become true cowgirls – bold and resourceful. And thus the new enterprise had a name – Cowgirl Creamery.

Sue informally apprenticed with Barbara Backus of Goat’s Leap, at Redwood Hill Farm, and at Bellwether Farm. She took a course in cheesemaking at Washington State. Peggy said, “It’s really not too different from cooking. We like to make things.”

The goal was to make wonderful, fresh, organic cheeses, which is exactly what the creamery produced for the first three years – cottage cheese, crème fraiche, fromage blanc, and quark. But when Fonts Smith, a dairy scientist from the Netherlands came to intern at Cowgirl Creamery, his influence led to the production of Cowgirl Creamery’s first aged, soft-ripened cheese. Sue recalled, “We wanted to produce a cheese that was accessible to the mainstream palate, a cheese that was not challenging. Fonts helped us develop that.”

Many incarnations later, MT TAM, as we know it today, a lush, soft-ripened, bloomy-rinded round, was introduced. Thanks to the California Milk Advisory Board, who promoted a handful of very small artisan cheesemakers, Bay Area media learned about this wonderful new cheese being produced just a stone’s throw from the Golden Gate Bridge. MT TAM’s popularity grew, and soon wholesale sales of the cheese to Bay Area restaurants and retailers began to skyrocket.

“We’ve benefited from being in this industry during an exciting time,” Sue summarized. “We were perceived as instant authorities on making cheese, although we didn’t think we knew so much.” The cheese experts at American Cheese Society liked what they saw – and tasted – and have always been favorable to Cowgirl Creamery. In 2003, Cowgirl Creamery Red Hawk won Best In Show at ACS, and MT TAM, our signature cheese, won first prize in this year’s Soft-Ripened Cheese category.

To what do the Cowgirls attribute the success of Cowgirl Creamery cheeses?

“It’s due in great part to the quality of the milk and to our simple approach. We’re just trying to make a delicious, straight-forward cheese,” said Sue.

“I’m glad that the cheeses are organic and that we’re working so closely with Straus Family Creamery,” said Peggy. “I’m also proud that our products reflect well on Marin County, as a viable alternative for local agriculture. After all, that was the whole point of our business.”