From Kansas farms to Austin bands, Cheese Plus owner Ray Bair's life experiences span quite a broad spectrum.

In this podcast, Ray takes us back to the early '70s, when he'd spend summers on his grandparents' farm in Kansas. He'd return for the school year to his hometown of Dallas, where he spent his high-school days and stuck around a few years after graduating. A job lured him to Austin, where he later found work at the nascent Whole Foods Market. That eventually helped him land in the Bay Area several years later.

Check back Thursday for Part 2, when Ray will talk about his time with Whole Foods around here and his eventually coming to own Cheese Plus (one of our favorite stores in San Francisco!). He'll also reflect on what the coronavirus pandemic and subsequent economic shutdown portends for small businesses like his.

We recorded this podcast on Zoom during quarantine in San Francisco in April 2020.

Photography by Michelle Kilfeather