Visiting The Creamery in Beaver, Utah
If you’ve traveled through Southern Utah on I-15 in the past year, you’ve probably noticed The Creamery, in a stately new building near Beaver. On a recent trip, I talked my husband Kim into stopping for a visit, to break up the monotony of convenience store pit stops.
The new venue is a big improvement over the Dairy Farmers of America’s old cheese factory store. But you can still get free samples and buy “squeaky cheese,” a.k.a. cheese curds.
The cheese factory located behind the store has been there for more than 60 years, supplied with milk from local dairy farms. I wondered why it’s called Cache Valley Creamery, when the actual Cache Valley is in the north end of Utah, at least 200 miles from Beaver. I can’t explain this curious geography fail, maybe someone else can?
The store has a sampling room where bits of cheese are set out on cookie sheets, with toothpicks. The day we stopped in, there were bits of sharp, Monterey Jack, and curds.
Next to the samples, refrigerators were stocked with a wide variety of cheeses in all shapes and sizes.
I don’t know when a home cook would be able to use a 10-pound block of pepper jack cheese — maybe nachos for a high school football team?
Ever the bargain hunter, I bought “trim ends,” which are misshapen pieces of cheese left over when a block of cheese is cut and packaged. Trim ends are just as flavorful, but usually cost less. I got almost a pound of pepper jack cheese for $2.50. I also bought a 1-pound bag of salsa-flavored cheese curds, for $6.
The retail section has shelves of Utah products, although I noticed that some are Amish-made outside of Utah. One of my favorite Utah products — Utah Truffles!
Kim got a generous scoop of lemon bar-flavored ice cream, for around $3. There are 24 ice cream flavors to choose from.
The cafe serves a “very dairy” menu – lots of cheese-y breakfast and lunch sandwiches, yogurt parfaits, mac ‘n’ cheese, and deep-fried cheese curds.
I had a seriously great sandwich — Avocado Bacon Cheddar for $12, that included a choice of fries, chips or soup (I had tomato). It was a bit pricey if you’re comparing it with the fast-food stops along I-15. But I liked the creamy tomato soup, and the sandwich was luxurious, with melted cheddar and thick-cut applewood smoked bacon on toasted 11-grain bread.
Judging from the number of people there on a Friday afternoon, this is a popular stopping point if you’re heading to or from St. George or Las Vegas for the weekend. There are outdoor picnic tables, which would be nice during warmer weather.
The place reminded me of Rowley’s Red Barn in Santaquin. Both are just off of I-15 for easy stops, and both market local farm products. The difference, of course, is that the Red Barn is tied in with Payson Fruit Growers and Mountainland Apples, and the Creamery is tied to cheese. But both provide a retail market for other local food finds.
One piece of advice — don’t make the mistake (as we did) of forgetting that this place is in Beaver, NOT Fillmore. After getting off the Fillmore exit, we meandered past the historic capitol building (yes, Fillmore at one point was the capitol of the Utah Territory). We ended up running over a Christmas tree, since the driver in front of us hadn’t tied down the tree in the back of his pickup truck. When it suddenly fell out on the road, Kim wasn’t able to stop in time to avoid crunching it. Luckily only a few lower branches were damaged. At that point, I decided I’d better consult my phone for directions to “that cheese factory place,” and Siri was able to direct me to BEAVER, about 50 miles down the road. But hey, it was definitely an adventure! The Creamery’s address is 165 South 500 West, in BEAVER.