Vella Cheese Company of California
Four generations of Vellas have made jack by hand in a 1904 building on Second Street East since 1931. Bon Appétit put the Dry Monterey Jack among the top 25 cheeses in America.1
Why go
Gaetano Vella, known as Tom, founded the company in 1931 on a site that had been a brewery.1 His son Ignazio ran it for decades and was called the godfather of artisanal cheeses before he died in 2012 at 82.1 The company is still the family's: Sally Vella is president, her daughter Chickie manages the facility, granddaughter Miranda Luddy keeps the books and her brother Gabe makes the cheese.1 About a dozen Italian-style cheeses and a run of jacks come out of it, all made by hand.1 The milk comes from one local dairy, and the whey goes back to that dairy and out to the vineyards.2 Chickie Vella's account of the method is four words long: We've been doing it the same way for years.
1
Order this / avoid
- Order: the Dry Monterey Jack. It is the cheese Bon Appétit named.1
- Avoid: Sunday and Monday. The store is shut.2
What locals & experts say
- Bon Appétit, quoted by the Sonoma Index-Tribune, on naming the Dry Monterey Jack one of America's top 25 cheeses:
while other artisans gave up and folded their hand, the Vellas kept at it.
1
Good to know
- Hours: 10am to 5pm, Tuesday through Saturday.2
- The building dates from 1904 and the operation has not changed much inside it.1
- The Bon Appétit list carries no year in the source I read, so take the placement as real and the date as open.
Verdict
should-visit — Four generations of one family have made cheese by hand in a 1904 building on Second Street East since 1931, and the Sonoma Index-Tribune names every one of them: Tom Vella who started it, Ig who was called the godfather of artisanal cheeses and died in 2012, Sally who runs it now, Chickie on the floor, Gabe making the cheese. Bon Appétit put the Dry Monterey Jack among the top 25 cheeses in America and wrote that other artisans folded while the Vellas kept at it. The milk comes from one local dairy and the whey goes back to it and to the vineyards. The rung stops short of the top because that placement carries no year, and the profile behind the family roster is about eight years old.