{"id":6028,"date":"2026-04-02T03:00:29","date_gmt":"2026-04-02T03:00:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sutyo.com\/5-urban-artisan-creameries-making-great-cheese\/"},"modified":"2026-04-02T03:00:29","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T03:00:29","slug":"5-urban-artisan-creameries-making-great-cheese","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sutyo.com\/tr\/5-urban-artisan-creameries-making-great-cheese\/","title":{"rendered":"5 Urban Artisan Creameries Making Great Cheese"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Yoav Perry at Perrystead Dairy<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Recently, Ohio’s Department of Agriculture has done some bragging\u00a0about the\u00a0Buckeye State leading the nation in the amount of \u201cSwiss Cheese\u201d produced in the state. While there are a good number of small artisan cheesemakers in the Buckeye State, the big tonnage comes mostly from large manufacturers making ingredient or commodity cheese.\u00a0 Urban Stead Creamery<\/a> in Cincinnati is cut from a different cloth. In fact, as one of a very small number of urban artisan cheesemakers, the 8-year-old company is even markedly different from other artisan cheesemakers.<\/p>\n

The United States\u2019 cheese renaissance that began with a few goat lady makers in the 1980s is still made up primarily of small rural makers. Many of them are intentionally located on the same farm, where the high-quality milk is produced by forward-thinking farmers and their carefully-tended four-legged charges. But a few rare exceptions are bringing great milk into city neighborhoods to be coaxed into cheese.\u00a0 Those city-made wheels might be sold to local restaurants as easily as they are distributed to specialty retailers both near and far.\u00a0 This is the unique world of urban artisan cheesemaking.<\/p>\n

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Urban Stead<\/a>, Cincinnati<\/h2>\n
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Andrea Siefring-Robbins and Scott Robbins of Urban Stead, photo credit Jon Medina<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The milk used for Urban Stead\u2019s cheeses including StreetChed and Misty River Camembert is produced about 50 minutes north of Cincinnati at Bohl\u2019s Jersey Farm, says co-founder Andrea Siefring-Robbins. Each week on Sunday, a staffer drives to pick up fresh milk. Cheesemaking takes place Monday to Thursday, and by the weekend, Robbins and her husband Scott are helping in the tasting room inside the creamery shop. Yes, they operate a bar in their creamery where neighbors from the Evanston, East Walnut Hills and Walnut Hills neighborhoods can enjoy a local craft beer and a cheese plate that might feature the creamery\u2019s Aged Gouda and its Tomme d\u2019Evanston. Andrea says a rural cheesemaking operation was never on the couple\u2019s radar.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing an urban creamery aligns with our life and our lifestyle,\u201d she says. \u201cMy mom told me never marry a military man and don\u2019t ever marry a farmer. I remember being at family weddings and my uncles having to leave to milk cows and then come back.\u201d Scott\u2019s experience in the restaurant business helped push the Robbins toward the idea of adding the tasting room.\u00a0Urban Stead has a staff of 11 total operating the milk hauling, cheesemaking, and tasting room.<\/p>\n

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Perrystead Dairy<\/a>, Philadelphia<\/h2>\n
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Yoav Perry at Perrystead Dairy<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Tenaya Darlington, in a cover story for Food and Wine<\/em> magazine, made a bold declaration\u2014the world\u2019s best cheeses are now made in the United States. One of the 25 world-class American artisan cheeses featured in the article is Intergalactic, a geo-ripened bloomy lactic cheese turned out by a tiny creamery adjacent to the Fishtown neighborhood of Philadelphia\u2014one of the country\u2019s largest cities.<\/p>\n

Yoav Perry, who launched Perrystead Dairy in 2021 believes there are only about 20 artisan creameries worldwide located within city limits. Perry\u2019s cheeses are made from milk from a single-farm source just about 40 miles from the Philadelphia creamery.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s commonly held that farmstead cheesemaking produces the best cheeses. In fact the term farmstead cheese<\/em> is used only for cheeses that are made at farm-based creameries, where the milk never leaves the farm. That designation is one that often separates the great from the good in the cheese shop cases. It\u2019s indisputable that milk quality<\/em> is crucial to quality cheesemaking, and before even discussing the differences between raw and heat-treated milk, farmstead makers point out that milk is fragile and can be damaged if not handled properly.<\/p>\n

In such operations, milk travels by gravity from the milking barn to the creamery, and farmstead makers describe udder-warm milk cascading gently into the cheese vat without so much as a ripple of turbulence. But it is also generally accepted that a single source of high-quality milk is the next best thing, and allows the cheesemaker to start on near-equal footing.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou need world-class milk if you want to make world-class cheese,\u201d Perry says. \u201cI know my farmers\u2019 operations, I have been there, and it\u2019s spectacularly good milk,\u201d he says. \u201cA certified milk hauler gets it to us within hours, so it\u2019s very fresh.\u201d The farm Perrystead currently works with does all the right things, utilizing breeds suited for grazing and cheese production, and taking care with feeding and animal health in order to produce high quality milk. Perry pays well-above average premiums for milk of that quality.<\/p>\n

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Perrystead Dairy\u2019s Madcap<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

No one can argue with the creamery\u2019s results. Perry strives for inventiveness, using unique cultures and coagulants, and the creamery focuses on small-format beauties like Intergalactic, washed-rind Moonrise, and a spruce-wrapped cheese named Treehug, all of which have become sought after and awarded. The Real Philly Schmear is a spreadable, all-natural cheese that is actually made in<\/em> the city whose name is part of the ubiquitous cream cheese brand.\u00a0 A cone-shaped number named Madcap is\u00a0 the newest cheese in the regular line-up. It was created by two of the creamery\u2019s novice cheesemakers (less than five years experience) and like Intergalactic, it is coagulated with cardoon thistle flowers, giving it vegetarian cred.<\/p>\n

Perry also notes that distributing from the tiny creamery right into the Interstate 95 corridor has allowed the cheeses to flow freely to multiple metros in addition to Philadelphia, stretching from Maine to Virginia. Sure there are challenges to urban cheesemaking, Robbins says,\u201cThe lack in the number of them is evidence that there are a specific set of challenges to urban cheesemaking. There are challenges to every business model, of course. Compared to farmstead, where getting the cheese to market is a challenge,\u00a0 getting close to the customer is not a challenge for us.\u201d The advantages of an urban location also include a broader labor pool, she says.<\/p>\n

Perry points out that a small urban footprint has guided his company toward producing small cheeses that require less aging time and space. Perry has compiled a list of at least 19 city-based cheese operations, and he muses about forming an official collaborative organization. Below are three more urban cheese operations of note in the US.<\/p>\n

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Tulip Tree Creamery,<\/a> Indianapolis<\/h2>\n
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Laura Davenport of Tulip Tree<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Founded in 2014, this artisan cheese and butter maker is located on the northwest side of Indiana\u2019s capitol. The company uses fresh milk from small Indiana family farms. <\/em>Cheeses including Trillium and Foxglove are loosely inspired by old world classics, but strive for uniqueness. The creamery makes a gouda and an Alpine, and a cheese called hops that is infused with craft beer. Batches are made with numerous beer styles from as many as eight different Indiana breweries.<\/p>\n

Tulip Tree also offers cheesemaking and pairing classes, and like Urban Stead and Perrystead the creamery has integrated itself into the local food and restaurant community.\u00a0 Tulip Tree\u2019s owners have an affinity for gardening, so all of their cheeses are named for plants. Co-owner Laura Davenport<\/a> notes that the creamery is able to market products through a multitude of farmers’ markets and to restaurants in Indianapolis and in Chicago, and that some products are developed exclusively for local sales.<\/p>\n

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Beecher\u2019s Handmade Cheese,<\/a> Seattle<\/h2>\n
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Beecher\u2019s Handmade Cheese\u2019s Marco Polo photo credit Beecher’s<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Seattle\u2019s Pike\u2019s Place Market has been home to Beecher\u2019s since 2003. The company sources from local farms to produce an array of cheeses, focused largely on British inspired Cheddar, and was among the first US artisans to make a clothbound cheddar\u2014its Beecher\u2019s Flagship. It also operates multiple cafes offering a \u201cworld\u2019s best\u201d mac and cheese dish,\u00a0 elevated grilled cheese sandwiches, and fresh cheese curds to go.\u00a0 Marco Polo, a clothbound with pepper corns, might be this author\u2019s favorite spiced cheese.<\/p>\n

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Hill Valley Dairy<\/a>, Milwaukee<\/h2>\n
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Henningfield Family of Hill Valley Dairy<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Veteran cheesemaker Ron Henningfeld and his wife Josie operate this creamery on the first floor of a large four-story building in Milwaukee\u2019s Walker\u2019s Point neighborhood. They make an array of cheeses including Cheddar and Alpines in the same building where Clock Shadow Creamery was launched in 2021, in fact, Henningfeld worked for that operation (and previously at Uplands Cheese), developing the brand for Hill Valley, which was then launched in late 2023. Clock Shadow was operated by Bob Wills of Cedar Grove Cheese<\/a>, and the brand continues, but is now made at the main Cedar Grove facility near the town of Plain, in central Wisconsin.<\/p>\n

The Henningfelds source their grass-fed milk exclusively from the third-generation farm Ron grew up on, which is now operated by his brother\u2019s family. The creamery also features a cheese shop and tasting room.<\/p>\n

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Hill Valley Dairy cheeses<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The company produces Cheddar, Goudas and Alpines, many with added flavor ingredients. Ron Henningfeld says they are most excited about Alpines like the award-winning Alina.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlpines are taking off for us and that\u2019s where our attention is focused,\u201d he says. \u201cBut also fresh curds. It works for us in that it is made right in the city in Milwaukee, and our neighbors know that they can come right in and get fresh curds.\u201d Young cheese are aged on site, while the Alpines are aged in a dedicated aging facility near the farm, about 35 miles from the city.<\/p>\n

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