Leelanau Cheese makes premiere Raclette in Suttons Bay

SUTTONS BAY, MI - Since 1995, Leelanau Cheese Company has been carefully crafting award-winning artisan cheese at a small facility in Northern Michigan.

The traditional European Alpine chees, Raclette, is the main focus for managing partners Joshua Hall and Gary Smith who took over operations in 2021. The cheese is traditionally served melted over potatoes, bread or vegetables

Leelanau Cheese Company was founded by John and Anne Hoyt in 1995 and over the course of 25 years, they developed a local and international reputation for their cave-aged, award-winning, European-style cheeses.

“We want to continue the tradition of what has worked. This is one of the most storied and decorated cheesemakers in the country here at Leelanau Cheese,” Hall said.

Hall and Smith both have a decade of experience in the dairy business. Hall directed the dairy manufacturing efforts of Michigan State University’s Dairy Foods Complex and has won awards for his cheese. He is a licensed Certified Cheese Professional from the American Cheese Society.

Smith also has a background from Michigan State, holding bachelor’s and master’s degrees in food science. In 2011, he started working at MSU Dairy as quality assurance manager and food safety officer.

Raclette is made twice a week at the facility near Suttons Bay, where they take local milk and form it into a large curd. A cheese harp is then used to cut the cheese into small curds, and it is then hooped, pressed and put into a machine that presses the curds into a traditional cheese wheel.

Once the wheels are created, they are taken to the subterranean cheese cave, which is where all the microbial magic happens. The wheels of cheese are placed onto shelves inside the 55-degree cave, where they will age as mild Raclette for three to five months.

The wheels of cheese are flipped and washed with a brine solution every other day.

“This is so we can ensure that the right type of microbes are growing on the surface. This is sort of the magic part of this cheese is the wash, the finish, the affinage of the cheese,” said Hall as he took MLive on a tour of the chilly cheese cave.

In addition to Raclette, they also continue to produce different varieties of fromage blanc, which is a spreadable cream cheese.

Visitors are welcome to view their cheesemaking process through windows in the shop. Cheese is made on Mondays and Wednesday, with the exciting process of curd hooping happening around 10:30 a.m. on those days.

The creamery located at 3324 S W Bay Shore Drive in Suttons Bay, and is open to visitors Monday-Saturday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. They are closed on Sundays.

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