>> Website: http://www.cowgirlcreamery.com
About Cowgirl Creamery:
In 1997, Sue Conley and Peggy Smith opened Cowgirl Creamery in Pt. Reyes Station, a picturesque postage-stamp-of-a-town on the coast about an hour north of San Francisco. They started with an old barn, made it beautiful, put in a small plant for making hand-crafted cheese, bought organic milk from the neighbor, Straus Family Creamery... and before long the world found them! From the beginning, they wanted to make delicious, artisan cheese, to be environmentally responsible, and they also wanted to support their cheesemaking friends in being sustainable land stewards. Today, Cowgirl Creamery continues to make just a small collection of cheese -- four, soft aged and three fresh, totaling about 3,000 pounds per week. However, their circle of cheesemaking friends has grown like wildfire and they now distribute extraordinary artisan cheeses from over 200 of America's and Europe's most prized producers.
About Sue Conley, Co-Founder, Cowgirl Creamery:
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."
