On Tuesday, Aug. 25, people were lined up outside 315 Second St. E. by 6 a.m. Vella Cheese Company had posted on Facebook the day before that it was closing after 94 years. According to the Sonoma Index-Tribune, Gabriel Luddy, a fourth-generation cheesemaker and one of the owners, spent that morning telling customers the shop would stay open for several more months while the remaining inventory sold.
The shop lasted about ten days. Its final day of selling cheese was Sept. 4.
Three weeks later, Oso Sonoma and the Parkside Wine Bar next door served their last customers on East Napa Street. Taken together, September's closures near the Plaza follow a pattern. Anything that could pick up and move, like a jazz series, had a new home within weeks. The businesses tied to a particular building, a 1904 stone factory and a restaurant kitchen that needed rebuilding, have no announced successor.
Ten days instead of several months
The shortened timeline says something about why Vella closed. The company's announcement blamed financial hardship, rising operating costs since the pandemic, and slow sales growth. "Our business has never fully recovered from the challenges of COVID," the post said, as quoted by the Index-Tribune.
Then the community bought out the stock so fast that the owners closed the retail shop about ten days after the announcement, months earlier than they had planned. That is how the Index-Tribune's Sept. 22 follow-up described it. The demand was real. It just showed up all at once, and too late to help.
Ditty Vella put it plainly to columnist Kathleen Hill, writing in the Sonoma Valley Sun on Sept. 4: "If everyone who came in to say how much they would miss our cheeses from all over the world actually came in to buy cheese regularly, we wouldn't have to close."
As of now, the company's own site says production has stopped and that retail and mail order are permanently closed. It leaves room for possible pop-ups of the remaining aged cheeses, but no dates have been set.
The buildings are what can't move
Vella was more than a shop on Second Street East. According to Hill's column, the stone building went up as a brewery in 1904. In 1931, Tom Vella, his wife Zolita Clerici Vella, and Celso Viviani turned it into a cheese factory. The Index-Tribune reports that local dairymen asked Tom Vella to open his own fromagerie, and that he created the dry Monterey Jack that became the company's signature.
The same column explains the history behind the other cheese name on the Plaza. The Viviani and Vella families eventually split, and the Vivianis started the Sonoma Cheese Factory. Hill writes that it "has not made cheese in years" and is no longer owned by the Viviani family. Its shop is at 2 W. Spain St. So the Plaza still has a storefront with "cheese factory" in its name. What closed on Sept. 4 was the long-running cheesemaker on Second Street East.
There is one hopeful note, and it is unconfirmed. Hill wrote that "another Sonoma food family is hoping to rescue Vella's cheese factory," without naming the family or giving terms. We found no later report of a sale, a new tenant, or a formal historic designation for the building.
The Oso and Parkside story also comes down to the building. Chef David Bush, who co-owns both businesses with Kelley Bush, told the Index-Tribune that the kitchen and building badly needed updating. "When it came down to it, it was too costly to spend the money on a building we don't own," he said. "We enjoyed serving the community, but the numbers just didn't make sense."
Oso ran for 12 years and won Best New Restaurant in the Index-Tribune's 2015 People's Choice Awards. It closed Sept. 26 with 14 employees. Parkside, at 5 E. Napa St., had opened in September 2023. Two years later, the Planning Commission approved Kelley Bush's appeal to add beer and live music, a change she said was meant to "bring more customers into our space." No new tenant, lease, or plan for either space has been reported, and the closure coverage did not name the building's owner.
The music only needed a room
Parkside had become a music venue as much as a wine bar. The Sonoma Valley Jazz Society, which has organized live jazz in the valley for 37 years, booked the performers there. Its partnership with Parkside included free Saturday shows once a month.
The jazz found a new home quickly and close by. The Index-Tribune reported Oct. 2 that Gehricke Wines, in the old fire station on Patten Street, "the very same block as Parkside," would host a Friday night jazz series starting Oct. 9 at 7 p.m. The full lineup was still being worked out at press time. Schedules are posted at sonomavalleyjazzsociety.org.
One piece is still unsettled. The Jazz Society had planned an artist-in-residence program at Parkside for jazz students from Sonoma State University. When the closure was announced in late September, the Society was still looking at venues near the Plaza for it. The Oct. 2 report on the move to Gehricke covered the Friday series and did not say whether the student residency would go there too. The same Oct. 2 column noted that the Sonoma Speakeasy, another local music room, has also closed temporarily.
| What closed | Where it was | Status as of Oct. 11, 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Vella Cheese Company retail shop | 315 Second St. E. | Closed Sept. 4; production stopped; no pop-up dates set |
| Vella's 1904 stone building | Second Street East | Unnamed "rescue" interest reported Sept. 4; nothing confirmed |
| Oso Sonoma | East Napa Street, next to Parkside | Closed Sept. 26; no reported new tenant |
| Parkside Wine Bar | 5 E. Napa St. | Closed Sept. 26; no reported new tenant |
| Jazz Society series | Parkside | Fridays at 7 p.m. at Gehricke Wines on Patten Street, starting Oct. 9 |
| Sonoma State student residency | Planned for Parkside | No venue named in reporting through Oct. 2 |
Cheese without the factory, for now
There are still ways to buy local cheese in town. The Epicurean Connection says on its site that it makes award-winning cheeses, runs ongoing cheesemaking classes, and opens a retail shop during classes. The Sonoma Cheese Factory on West Spain Street still runs its shop. Its posted daily hours of 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. come from an older page, so check before you go. For bread and pastry, Basque Boulangerie Café's site lists 460 First St. E., with daily hours and online ordering.
None of these replaces a dry Jack made at the Second Street East factory since 1931. For now, that depends on whether the rescue Hill mentioned actually happens.
Events this fall at public venues
The fall and holiday calendar mostly takes place at public sites with no lease to renew, and it is going ahead as scheduled:
- Oct. 17, 5 p.m.: Día de Los Muertos at the Sonoma Barracks, listed by Sonoma Parks.
- Oct. 31, 6:30 to 7:30 p.m.: A free Costume Campfire Program at the Barracks, per Sonoma Parks.
- Nov. 14 and 15: The VFW Auxiliary's free Veterans Holiday Market at the Veterans Memorial Building, 126 First St. W., from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday.
- Nov. 21, 5 to 8 p.m.: The Lighting of the Sonoma Plaza at One Sonoma Plaza.
- Nov. 28, 6:30 p.m.: Sonoma's Annual Lighted Tractor Parade around the Plaza.
The tractor parade will pass the empty storefronts on East Napa Street. A block over, on Patten Street, the Friday jazz series will be playing in the old fire station.
If you own property near the Plaza and want to talk through what a vacancy like Oso's or a building like Vella's could mean for your block, Avi Strugo follows these changes closely and is glad to have that conversation. Get in Touch With Avi.