By Gordon Edgar—
When I started at Rainbow in cheese in 1994, the department wasn’t really notable. It had been shrunk at some point previously and all we had at the 15th and Mission location were three cooler doors for cheese and soy cheese. Even some of those shelves were broken and at slightly weird angles. No one came to Rainbow for cheese in those days.
Soon after I got hired, we began making plans to move to our current Folsom Street location and cheese workers needed to figure out how to expand our cheese offerings into double the amount of space. The Cheese Department was a little bit of an afterthought and we feared—looking at the blueprints—that we would be lost in the back of the then-new store. With a queer cheese co-worker who was the previous buyer, we came up with new internal slogan: a triangle-shaped wedge of cheese with the phrase, “Cheese Pride! Cheese Visibility!”
This helped launch a new spirit in the department. Instead of shame at how little we had to offer, we took pride in our own idiosyncrasies as a worker-owned cooperative who worked in ways different than society was used to. Taking pride in ourselves allowed us to look forward to what we could become. It was transformative. It allowed us to believe in our own potential. It felt very San Francisco.
Eventually, we become a presence in the local cheese world. We also made the internal slogan and crude drawing into a literal cheese wedge by having an in-store artist make one to hang from the ceiling of the store. Not only did this, yes, increase our visibility, but it also served—and continues to serve—as a reminder that nothing has happened in our cooperative that hasn’t been at least a little influenced by the LGBTQ+ community.
It’s June. I’d love to write “Happy Pride!” and leave it at that, but, with the LGBTQ+ community (and especially trans folks) under attack along with so many other communities, it’s time to remember what binds us in solidarity. This includes a belief that a better future is possible and that we can depend on each other. As a cooperative, we have to believe that even as material conditions are hard right now. As a cooperative, we have to believe that, even as material conditions are hard right now, we, as part of the local community, need to continue to protect each other in order to survive this madness. Let’s all do what we can to breathe solidarity into being. Happy Pride Month!
A Highlight of My Cheese Year
In cheese news, I just got back from the annual American Cheese Society Judging and Competition in Minneapolis. After judging for more than a decade, I am now Vice-Chair of the volunteer committee that puts on the event every year. We meet via Zoom almost every month and then I take a week of vacation, along with a bunch of other cheese folks, to put in a bunch of 12-hour days to make the judging actually happen. This year there were over 1600 entries from the Americas, judged in about 120 subcategories by a team of 42 judges.
The judging and competition are always a highlight of my cheese year. It’s a pure event. The judging is anonymous, so there is no marketing, no lobbying, no reputational influence—just tasting and evaluating cheeses for what they are and what they want to be.
I tasted a lot of great cheeses, but, unfortunately, I can’t share any details until the results are released in July. Even I don’t know the winners! Rest assured that there are a lot of great cheeses being made in the Americas and that, every year, this competition brings awareness to great cheesemakers I have never heard of even after 30+ years as a monger.
As a cheese eater, you can look forward to finding some new favorites in the coming months on our shelves. Ask us in a couple of months!
(Please note that Rainbow will be closed on June 28 for Pride Sunday and closed at 6 pm on June 30 for inventory.)
Gordon Edgar loves cheese and worker co-ops and has been combining these infatuations as the cheese buyer for Rainbow Grocery Cooperative since 1994. He serves on the American Cheese Society Judging and Competition Committee and is a member of the Guilde Internationale des Fromagers. Edgar has written two books on cheese—”Cheesemonger” (2010) and “Cheddar” (2015)—and lives in San Francisco with his adorable white mini schnauzer named Fillmore Grumble. He writes about grief, and sometimes cheese, at https://bit.ly/42IwYf0
Over the Rainbow Cheese Counter
Published on June 11, 2026
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