Tillamook Closes Bandon Retail Store

Tillamook Cooperative Creamery has closed the Bandon Cheese retail store in Bandon, Oregon.  Thus ends a chapter of Oregon cheese history devoted to the long (and strange) saga of Tillamook and the Bandon Cheese factory. Let's review:

Tillamook purchased Bandon Cheese in 2000, taking over the Bandon brand for itself. In 2002, Tillamook closed the Bandon factory outright, leaving the retail store as the remaining outpost and symbol of Bandon's cheesemaking past. Now, the retail store is gone as well.

Another aspect of the sordid Tale of Tillamook and Bandon encompasses Tillamook's misguided pursuit of its newly acquired "Bandon" trademark. Tillamook threatened the city of Bandon, Oregon with a lawsuit for violating its intellectual property by using the name "Bandon." Here's some of the back story on this issue from RoguePundit. Even the folks in Bandon, Ireland began to worry (reg req'd) that they, too, would suffer the infamous wrath of TIllamook.

And, as Willamette Week reported last year in this article, Bandon Cheese is now actually made in Wisconsin (although according to the Bandon factory's original recipes) and shipped back to Oregon for packaging and distribution.

Comments

[ExtraMSG]

I used to love Bandon's cheese when I was growing up. I preferred it over Tillamook and it was even cheaper. My family started to buy nothing else. I didn't know that they had been bought until just last year when I had mentioned to someone that their cheese wasn't as good as it used to be and they pointed out all the problems with Tillamook. Sad. For yellow American cheddar, it was good stuff.

[d]

Hi
Just wanted to say that only the organic line of Bandon is made in Wisconsin. The rest is still made at the Tillamook plants. As if it really makes a difference.....

[maggie]

Capitalism is weird.
How could a case like that even go to court?
Well, just another example of why it's important to know who's making the stuff you put in your pie hole.

I can't believe I just found this site. It's great!

[J]

We were at the Bandon store the day before it closed, very sad that Tilamook closed it.
Tilamook used to be a small cheese making place back in the 70's, I remember watching them make cheese the old fashioned way. Now it's a factory tour.. how boring... I hope someone buys the old Bandon property and continues the old tradition of making cheese.

[Amy]

I remember when it was still the Bandon Cheese co-op and all our neighbors were members. All their milk went to the cheese factory except for two weeks a year when they had to clean all the equipment and then our neighbors would give us more milk then we could ever use. Fresh butter, cream and of course milk - yum. Every week we would go into town and stop by the factory where they had free tastings of all their cheeses on the counter. What a wonderland for a ten year old.

This is a sad day in the history of Oregon cheese making. We actually lived in Langlois and has anyone here heard of the long defunct but apparently award winning Langlois Blue? James Beard was a big fan. What I've heard about it would make a great story.

[Rick Donaldson]

Regarding Langlois Bleu cheese. I took a tour of the plant with my parents and sisters during the summer of 1956. It was located on the west side of US 101. When we returned in August 1957, the factory had burnt to the ground. I have one picture of the inside of the factory and a postcard.

Rick

[Sande]

I, too, am VERY UPSET about the demise of Bandon cheese. Money rules. They sold out to Tillamook. I will NEVER by Tillamook cheese again.

[John Tindell]

When I moved to Bandon in 1999 I was fortunate enough to work for a few months at Bandon Cheese Factory. It is too bad that all of the blame for the demise of Bandon Cheese is heaped upon Tillamook. The truth is that the people who were running the cheese factory and retail store by 1999 (with the exception of the old guy, Joe, and the master cheese maker) were utterly incompetent. By the time the deal with Tillamook came along, they really had no choice but to sell other than passing the business on to a family that cared little and knew next to nothing about continuing the tradition that was Bandon Cheese.
Yes, they sold out to Tillamook but only with the hope that the Bandon Cheese would continue in some fashion. As it turns out, even Tillamook couldn't keep that product profitable. But there are lots of other great cheeses out there.

[Gary Romele]

Well, the Bandon Cheese factory was torn down a couple of weeks ago. It is all very disappointing. The empty spot reminds me of a missing front tooth exposed by a sad lonely smile. I will miss that wonderful little treasure.

[P. Magnusson]

Goodbye, Bandon Cheese

Oh creamy, fanciful, Bandon cheese,
Oregonian by location
You tempted an entire nation.

Cranberry walnut, a favorite choice,
Many tourists purchased to imbibe
The pounds gained were not easy to hide.

Destroyed by a second string cheese foe,
A vacant building at the roadside,
Swept away by a corporate tide.

Sorrow gives me new voice,
Fond memories of gastronomical bliss,
My fetish started with a Bandon curd's kiss.