Jane Burns
Hook’s Cheese in Mineral Point dates back to the 1870s. The freshest curds can be found after 10 a.m. on Fridays.
When I was a kid, my dad’s idea of a perfect day was packing our family into the Ford woody wagon and driving around the Driftless. My siblings and I were jammed into the back seat and knew that if we were lucky, there might be one prize that made the nausea-inducing hills and family bickering worth the ride: cheese.
My dad seemed to know every cheesemaker within a 100-mile radius. How, I have no idea. We’d pull up to those one-level rectangular buildings and be welcomed into dank little factories, health codes be damned. You want fresh curds? You want squeaky? Try them when some guy in a white apron and matching hat hands them to you straight out of the vat.
Though many of those little factories have disappeared, the experience of getting cheese that fresh endures. And cheese remains the perfect companion on a drive along the breathtaking roads of southwestern Wisconsin.
Iowa, Sauk and western Dane counties are not the cheese epicenter that Green County is, but come with the bonus of an exhilarating drive. Massive hills and low valleys come with lost cellphone signals and deer to dodge, not to mention wild turkeys and sandhill cranes. In other words, you gotta earn the cheese.
A good place to start is in Mineral Point. Even if Hook’s Cheese is regularly found at the Dane County Farmers’ Market and local stores, there’s something special about seeing its humble factory. The original part of the building dates to the 1870s as part of a hotel, and it’s been a cheese factory since 1929. Hook’s sits at the bottom of a hill, and cheese caves and cold storage units have been built into the ground behind it. The most dramatic way to get to it is to turn left off 151 and head down Shake Rag Street to get a sense of old Mineral Point, with its sandstone cottages once occupied by Cornish miners.
You can stop by the factory to buy cheese Monday through Friday, and if you get there at about 10 a.m. on Fridays, you’ll get the curds just moments after they’ve been bagged. (Pro tip: Have napkins handy; super fresh curds aren’t just squeaky, they’re deliciously slimy.) Hook’s doesn’t offer tours, but there’s a view of the make room from the store.
When meal time rolls around there are great options as you head to your next destination. Bob’s Bitchin’ BBQ in Dodgeville indeed has some bitchin’ barbecue, but also a dish that couldn’t be more Wisconsin: tomato and grilled cheese soup, which is simply tomato soup with melted cheese curds, topped with garlic croutons.
Jane Burns
The Pleasant Ridge Store, between Dodgeville and Spring Green, now operates as a country tap with a good craft beer selection and daily food specials.
Keep heading north out of Dodgeville and the fun drive really kicks in. One of the most famous cheeses in America, Uplands Cheese Company’s Pleasant Ridge Reserve, is made in a factory nestled off Highway 23. Uplands isn’t open to visitors but seeing the home turf of the actual Pleasant Ridge is well worth the drive and, dare I say, rather pleasant. Elevation rises as you head east on Highway ZZ, which offers stunning views of the Wisconsin River valley. Granted, these are hard for a driver to appreciate for fear of flying off the road.
Where ZZ meets Z sits the Pleasant Ridge Store, more of a country tavern with a great local beer selection, daily specials such as ribs or prime rib, and a deck with a gorgeous view. It looks like the kind of joint so remote it couldn’t possibly make a go of it, but the collage of funeral cards of regulars shows this place has meant something to people for a long, long time.
The true cheese factory experience can come if you head north to Plain, seven miles north of Spring Green (get there via Highway Z to T to 23) and home of Cedar Grove Cheese. For $3, visitors can get the lowdown on the Cedar Grove operation, which makes 12,000 pounds of cheese a day. The best times to see what’s going on are mornings (but call first to check days and times).
Drive east on Highway 14 to see more cheese action at Arena Cheese, where the store includes a window to the factory. Fresh curds are available Monday through Friday (still warm in the mornings). Cheeses for sale range from Arena’s signature Colby Jack, and novelty cheeses loaded with everything from blueberries to chicken soup. Like Cedar Grove, early in the day is best if you want to see cheese being made. Most important, though, is the Instagram moment that Arena Cheese provides — the giant mouse out front.
Carr Valley Cheese
At the Carr Valley shop in Mazomanie, try the plentiful samples and look for the odd-shaped “orphans.” Don’t leave without some Cocoa Cardona!
Heading back toward Madison affords opportunities near Mazomanie to work off all the cheese with a hike, but another stop should come first: Mazo’s Carr Valley Cheese store. Though there’s no production on site, Carr Valley offers the most samples, dozens of its own cheeses, and tiny packages of “orphans” — odd shapes left over after cheese is cut and packaged. Curds are fresh on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Like Arena, Carr Valley is a perfect place to stock up on sausages, meat sticks and landjagers from area meat markets, full supplies if you want to have a picnic nearby.
So now for the exercise (or at least the picnic). For a walk, there’s Dane County’s newest park, Morton Forest, which rises above the landscape south of Mazo with two lookouts about a quarter mile above the park’s entry. The distances to the scenic overviews are just .3 and .25 miles; all told the park has two miles of trail.
Also worth checking out is the Pleasant Valley Conservancy, 4554 Pleasant Valley Road, Black Earth, a site maintained by the Prairie Enthusiasts. Visitors are welcome at its restored prairies and oak savannahs with one significant caveat for some — no dogs allowed.
There’s a much gentler stroll at Rettenmund Prairie near Black Earth and if you want no walk at all, just nibble your cheese at Lake Marion Park off County Highway KP just south of Mazomanie.
This time, I didn’t take the ride with my siblings, and sadly, I never will again with my dad. But if you sit atop a hill with a bag of curds and a bit of aged cheddar, it’s easy to appreciate what he knew all along on those drives through the Driftless: This is a perfect day.
Hook’s Cheese Company
320 Commerce St., Mineral Point; 608-987-3259
Bob’s Bitchin’ BBQ
167 N. Iowa St., Dodgeville; 608-930-2227
Pleasant Ridge Store
4948 County Road Z, Dodgeville; 608-935-1014
Cedar Grove Cheese
E5904 Mill Road, Plain; 608-546-5284
Arena Cheese
300 U.S. Highway 14, Arena; 608-753-2501
Carr Valley Cheese Store
428 Wall St., Mazomanie; 608-401-1043
