Port Townsend has a new kid on artisan cheese block

As a young artist studying in Baltimore, Will O'Donnell found himself drawn irresistibly to one recurring feature of the many gallery openings he attended: the fuzzy white imported cheeses on the hors d'oeuvres table.

Years later, after giving up art — "I wanted to do something more meaningful," he explains, half-joking — to work as an organic farmer, he finds himself back at the cheese table. Along with partners Matt Day and Ryan Trail, O'Donnell has launched the Mt. Townsend Creamery, a new name on Washington's growing list of artisan cheese makers and a company that will participate in the Seattle Cheese Festival this weekend at The Pike Place Market. (See accompanying story.)

Following the trail blazed by specialty coffees, wines and ales, Northwest artisans are carving a reputation among the ranks of quality American cheeses — not so long ago considered, by food snobs at least, a contradiction in terms.

The creamery, gleaming with new stainless-steel equipment in the back, is just up the hill from downtown Port Townsend (338 Sherman St., 360-379-0895), housed in an old Department of Licensing Building that was crammed from floor to ceiling with junk before the three partners took it over and completely remodeled it. In front is a cozy retail space that will open in August.

Making cheese in an urban setting — well, as close to urban as you can get in Port Townsend — wasn't O'Donnell's first choice. He struggled for years to establish a farmstead operation, hoping to partner with an area dairy. "I wanted to do it on a farm," he recalls. But the complexities of federal dairy regulations made the costs of farmstead operation prohibitive.

He met Trail through a childbirth class both attended when their wives were pregnant. Trail had moved to the area from Fort Collins, Co., where he was a plant engineer for the New Belgium brewery, makers of "Fat Tire Ale" and other popular specialty micro-brews. Trail brings his production and engineering background to the partnership; he and O'Donnell will handle most of the cheese-making duties while the third partner, Day, an MBA with an entrepreneurial bent, will focus on the business end.

You can't make good cheese without good milk. Two local dairy farms will furnish quality milk from grass-fed hormone-free herds. The Dungeness Valley Farm in Sequim, a family operation run by Jeff and Debbie Brown and their daughter Sarah, is one of the creamery's suppliers. While most commercial milk comes from Holsteins, the black-and-white spotted cows known for the large volume they produce, the Browns' milk is from a small herd of Jersey cows. The much smaller Jerseys don't produce the massive amounts Holsteins do, but they are known for their rich, high-butterfat, sweet-tasting milk — ideal for cheese makers.

Cheese glossary

What is the difference between farmstead and artisan cheese?

Farmstead cheeses are made by hand on the farm, in small batches, from milk produced by the farmer's own dairy animals — goats, cows, or sheep.

Artisan cheeses are crafted with the same care and attention to detail, but are made at a creamery from milk transported there, ideally very quickly.

"I milked Holsteins for 17 years," says Jeff Brown, "then I got good cows." The Browns, coincidentally, are also in the process of opening what will be one of the state's few licensed raw-milk dairies. Milk will go from their farm to the Creamery's cheese vat in less than 24 hours. The Mt. Townsend Creamery appears to be at a fortuitous starting point, as Northwest cheese making begins to gather steam.

"Now is the perfect time," smiles O'Donnell.

For starters, there will be three cheeses, with names that evoke their Olympic Peninsula birthright. Cirrus, a camembert-style soft cheese; SeaStack, another soft-ripened cheese; Trailhead, a natural-rind tomme made in 5-pound wheels. The cheeses will be hand-crafted from pasteurized milk; there will also be a raw milk version of the Trailhead, aged a minimum of 60 days in accordance with federal law. All the cheeses are excellent; the mild but sophisticated Trailhead, with its complex, subtly earthy tones, is particularly good.

Since launching April 29 the cheese has been such a success that they have been selling out everything they make at the Port Townsend Farmers Market (http://www.ptguide.com/farmersmarket/). They will debut here at the Seattle Cheese Festival this weekend. Beginning May 20, selected cheeses will be available at the Ballard Farmers Market and June 3 at the Magnolia Farmers Market.

Their Web site will launch in June; they are also talking to various restaurants and cheese distributors and hope to be in some Seattle-area retailers by fall.