cream of the crop

IN A TINY TOWN OUTSIDE MADISON, WISCONSIN, A CENTURY-OLD CREAMERY HAS BEEN REVIVED AS A BOUTIQUE HOTEL AND CULINARY DESTINATION. FOR VISITORS TO PAOLI, SEVEN ACRE DAIRY COMPANY ANCHORS A SWEET WEEKEND GETAWAY. FOR SMALL DAIRY PRODUCERS, IT'S RESHAPING THE FUTURE.

- JULIA SAYERS GOKHALE

after 20 minutes on dark backroads, Paoli, Wisconsin, emerges out of the darkness like a shining star-literally.

Holiday lights guide the way to Seven Acre Dairy Company. It's quiet as I drag my suitcase up to the front, but then a trolley bell dings. The doors burst open and a rush of people stream out, laughing, hugging, wishing each other Merry Christmas. I squeeze past them into the lobby to find Mrs. Claus reading stories to a gaggle of wide-eyed children. A little boy spots Santa across the room, chases him down and grabs his hand: "Will you come sit with us?"

A weekend full of festivities has just kicked off at Seven Acre, a former dairy factory that's now a boutique hotel, eatery and microdairy. After checking in, I snag a table in the restaurant for the prix fixe holiday menu. I'm finishing up a brownie topped with the dairy's own peppermint soft serve when co-owner Nic Mink sinks into a chair across from me. "Oof," he says, "That was a lot." Seven Acre has seen nearly 400 people through the door tonight-and it's only Wednesday. Over the weekend, they're expecting several thousand for their inaugural Christkindlmarket (December 13-15 this year), no small undertaking for a place less than a year old.

But let's back up a minute. In 1888, a group of dairy farmers opened the Paoli Co-Operative Creamery on this site just southwest of Madison. It was one of 31 dairy factories along the Sugar River in the easternmost watershed of the Driftless Area-a spot known for dairy production. For almost a hundred years, the factory made some of the region's best butter and drum Swiss cheese. (Most Swiss today is produced in blocks.) But the consolidation of the dairy industry in the 1970s took a toll, and the factory closed in 1980.