Editorial: Cheese Factory comes to City Council

City Council to consider 2004 use permit appeal at meeting tonight amid rumors Plaza deli is reopening soon.|

SAGA OF THE SONOMA CHEESE FACTORY

Over the weekend of June 22-23, the Sonoma Cheese Factory served ready-made sandwiches from their storefront at 2 W. Spain St., but much of the shop was still kept under wraps. The shop closed when the sandwiches were gone, and there's no word yet about their summer schedule.

The Viviani Trust will appeal the Planning Commissions' denial of their 2004 use permit before the Sonma City Council on Monday, June 24.

Many articles about the Sonoma Cheese Factory's efforts to remodel have appeared in the recent past in the

index-Tribune.

You can find them here.

'What happens to the hole when the cheese is gone?' – Bertolt Brecht

Consider this Sonoma, the last time you bought a Sonoma Cheese Factory sandwich, Paul Ryan was Speaker of the House of Representatives.

Consider further: The last time you pierced a cube of habanero jack with a single-use toothpick at the Cheese Factory tasting counter, Barack Obama was president.

Unlike the slow aging of a Parmigiano Reggiano, things can change fast in cheesemonging circles.

And they'll likely change again on Monday, when the Sonoma City Council considers a request by the Sonoma Cheese Factory to re-certify its 15-year-old use permit, the renewal of which the store's ownership, the Viviani Trust, believes is key to a remodel that can breathe fresh life into a curdling business.

It's been a tumultuous last few years for the Cheese Factory, one of the Plaza old-school tourist staples, where plenty browse, some buy, but far too many leave with little more than a bag of salt & pepper Kettle chips.

Various plans for bringing the specialty shop into the 21st century foodie world have been in the mix in recent years – most notably a proposal last year to transform the factory into a 25,000-square-foot multi-vendor food market in the mode of the Oxbow in Napa or Ferry Building in San Francisco.

The plan won approval that spring in a 5-2 vote of the Sonoma Planning Commission, but neighboring building owners quickly filed an appeal and, well, far be it for Sonoma to let someone proceed on a development you wish you were doing yourself.

The idea -- deemed potentially too popular, ergo bringing traffic – died a death slower than the aging timetable for a block of bitto storico.

While the expansion proposal ground to a halt, Viviani siblings Maria Viviani and Nina Viviani Respicio, controlling partners in the trust, announced the indefinite closure of the Cheese Factory on Dec. 31, citing an expectation of heavy financial losses during the slow winter season, while promising to reopen in the spring.

Then in February, the Viviani Trust sought the re-certification of the Cheese Factory's 2004 use permit, under which it would realize its multi-vendor dreams, but without an expansion of the building – to 'make the SCF better, not bigger,' Maria and Nina wrote in a message to stakeholders.

But the Planning Commission denied the request, citing the fact that the Cheese Factory already had Planning Commission approval of the 25,000-square-foot expansion; though that approval was under appeal, the commission rightly repudiated the notion of having two separate use permits approved simultaneously by the city.

Meanwhile, the Cheese Factory has remained closed, now long past the 'slow season,' and with the touristy summer in full bore, showing no signs of opening.

Whispers that the closure was part of a calculated strategy to impress upon city officials the necessity of a remodel to save the venerable Plaza business are not few, nor are they particularly hushed.

'The way it looks from up here is that we're being played,' Planning Commissioner Larry Barnett asserted Feb. 25, upon denying the re-certification of the permit.

To say the Viviani Trust has played its hand curiously this past year is an understatement.

Perhaps the oddest moment, from this column's perspective, was in March of 2018, when a Los Angeles-based consultant with the Viviani Trust named Aaron Marzwell called the Index-Tribune pretending to be someone named 'Bob,' a 'Petaluma resident,' and asked for dirt on the Sonoma Planning Commission. A simple reverse-search for the phone number on our screen unmasked Marzwell pretty quickly and he skedaddled off the phone never to be heard from again.

A year later, communications remain beyond the control of Viviani Trust functionaries, as emails this spring between estranged brother David Viviani and Trust banking officials were leaked to the press, strengthening rumors that David Viviani, 74, was negotiating a buyout of the Cheese Factory lease in order to, in his words, 'rebuild the SCF.' The deal went nowhere and in May Maria and Nina issued a statement describing David as 'scheming' and 'one of our biggest hurdles' and stressing once and for all their brother will have 'nothing to do with the Sonoma Cheese Factory.'

The Sonoma Cheese Factory saga has had more last-minute twists than an M. Night Shyamalan screenplay.

But at long last the season finale of 'American Havarti Story' is upon us June 24, when the council considers the Cheese Factory's use permit.

While many Sonoma residents would welcome a return to form of the iconic Plaza business, the council would be wise to consider the permit carefully, with a detailed understanding of what sort of remodel and business expansion the Viviani Trust hopes to undertake within the confines of the permit.

The past year's permit maneuverings have at times seemed as much machination as application, and the council should demand transparency.

After all, as T.S. Eliot once observed, 'Never commit yourself to a cheese, without first having examined it.'

Jason is off merrymaking next week; he'll be back in July. Email jason.walsh@sonomanews.com.

SAGA OF THE SONOMA CHEESE FACTORY

Over the weekend of June 22-23, the Sonoma Cheese Factory served ready-made sandwiches from their storefront at 2 W. Spain St., but much of the shop was still kept under wraps. The shop closed when the sandwiches were gone, and there's no word yet about their summer schedule.

The Viviani Trust will appeal the Planning Commissions' denial of their 2004 use permit before the Sonma City Council on Monday, June 24.

Many articles about the Sonoma Cheese Factory's efforts to remodel have appeared in the recent past in the

index-Tribune.

You can find them here.

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