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Changes are afoot at a venerable local institution. The Milk Pail Market, an open-air European-style market that draws residents across the border into Mountain View, is planning an internal remodel and working on reviving its cheese-tasting program. The Milk Pail has been tucked into a corner of the San Antonio Shopping Center parking lot for decades. In the 1970s, it was a working drive-through dairy. Mountain View resident Ross Snichols, who has been shopping at The Milk Pail for more than 30 years, recalls motoring up to the dairy window for his regular supply of milk. Today the market is a mecca for bargain-hunters and exotic-food lovers. Former Los Altos Mayor Marge Bruno braves the legendary chaos of the crowded market to seek out the rare, large Mexican papayas she loves, and to stock up on huge bags of steel-cut oatmeal, which her husband eats regularly for breakfast. "I've shopped there for a gazillion years. It's just kind of fun, the ethnic diversity there is amazing," Bruno said. "It's not everything-in-place and beautifully displayed - you are sort of on your own to fight for what you want." The market plans to stay open during the upcoming renovation, which is intended to improve the physical layout of the store. Weekend Milk Pail shopping can be a full-contact sport, with dodging and weaving carts and shoppers chatting in a profusion of languages. Owner Steve Rasmussen has made use of every available inch in the market, and savvy shoppers know to duck below the vegetable displays to seek out burdock root, lemongrass, bitter melon, golden ginger, a rainbow of fresh chili peppers or whatever unusual item the market got hold of that week. Peek around the bundles of fresh spinach to spot the sugarcane and rhubarb (a steal at less than $3 a pound), and remember to wend your way to the very back of the store, where a wall of dry goods offers hard-to-find bulk items such as soy flour, powdered milk and wheat berries. The Milk Pail is best known for its hundreds of European and domestic cheeses, organized by type and country of origin in banks of refrigerated cases. When Rasmussen bought The Milk Pail out of bankruptcy court in 1974, it was primarily a dairy, and he has been passionate about maintaining a focus on cheeses at this eccentric local landmark ever since. He said the store's petite size and simplistic market style keep the overhead low, enabling the rock-bottom produce prices for which it is known. "There are only a few businesses in the Bay Area that have the ability to dramatically discount based on their costs," Rasmussen said. "When you're dealing with farmers and the distributors who buy directly from farmers every day … (they) know we have the ability to sell overstock, especially over the weekend." What this means for consumers is a treasure-hunt-style produce section, in which different, hugely discounted items appear each week - sometimes 99-cent organic apples, sometimes 49-cent cactus fruit. Demographics have shifted at the market over time - the Milk Pail was once famed for its large Russian clientele. It still stocks Eastern European specialty foods but has expanded in recent years to draw more Asian and student shoppers, including a steady contingent of Stanford students and professors. The cozy, homegrown style of the market its one of its appeals. This summer Milk Pail customers contributed to a donation-drive for a U.S. airbase in Kirkuk, Iraq, where Rasmussen's cousin Tavis was stationed. If you ask nicely, employees stocking produce can advise you on which peppers to buy, titrated to your tolerance for spice. And checkers will sometimes volunteer recipes as you pass through with a basket of quirky items. "An awful lot of the cheeses that we sell are actually produced by people I know," Rasmussen said. "That's a very fun part of what we do." He anticipates resurrecting the market's cheese-tastings, which in the past raised money for non-profits while giving him a chance to educate people about the history of the dairy industry and the evolution of cheese-making. "It's a wonderful opportunity to bring much more information into our community," Rasmussen said. "Many people still think that milk comes from stainless-steel trucks (rather than cows)." The Milk Pail is located at 2585 California St. in Mountain View. Hours are 8:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. weekdays, 8:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturdays and 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sundays.
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