An Old Wisconsin Cheese Factory Is Now a Hotel for Dairy Lovers
The historic cheese landmark also boasts a restaurant serving butter boards, hand-cut cheese curds, and butter-basted beef.
Courtesy of Seven Acre Dairy
Dairy devotees can now spend the night inside a true slice of American Dairyland history. Just south of Madison in Paoli, Wisconsin, Seven Acre Dairy Company recently opened inside a refurbished cheese factory with an eight-room boutique hotel, restaurant, and café, plus a micro-dairy churning out butter and soft-serve ice cream.
Built in 1888, the 21,000-square-foot factory is on the National Register of Historic Places. While it operated for nearly a century, at its peak in the 1950s, it was one of the state’s biggest dairy manufacturers.
“We want guests to feel and sense that history from the moment they drive onto the site and step into the business,” says Nic Mink, chief restoration officer and proprietor of Seven Acre Dairy. “This place has been so important to the food of the region [as a cheese and butter factory] that we loved the idea of continuing that legacy. “
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Run by Landmark Creamery — a local operation specializing in artisan and small-batch cheeses — the on-site micro-dairy isn’t the only nod to the factory’s past. “The design vision for the property is centered on this building’s history,” says Mink. The Creamery Room features an eight-foot circular window where a cream tank was once stored, and the Swiss Room is an homage to the 200-pound wheels of cheese that were made in the factory for more than 25 years and aged in caves located directly below the room.
Courtesy of Seven Acre Dairy
But while the inn’s rooms and suites were named to honor the building’s former life, the design and amenities were given the modern treatment. Spacious rooms are filled with local art and custom furniture made using the original building’s reclaimed wood, and bathrooms are stocked with products from a nearby…
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