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Eat, Drink, Read, Repeat

You couldn’t ask for much better publicity than the Oxbow Public Market has been receiving for the past few months: Big spread in the Los Angeles Times. Big spread in the Press Democrat. Scads of articles and column mentions everywhere from the San Francisco Chronicle to NorthBay biz. It’s all added up to great coverage for Napa’s long-awaited version of the San Francisco Ferry Plaza marketplace.

Unfortunately for the early birds who rushed to Napa, articles in hand, to sample the market’s delights once it opened to the public Dec. 15th—there wasn’t much there.
Many purveyors who’d signed up to open their Oxbow stalls in the autumn, when the market was originally slated to welcome shoppers, had to tend to their Christmas business before focusing on the new location.

Instead of a thriving, European-style artisan market, early visitors found chain-link fences limiting access to what one local called an “airport-like” space, with new shops scattered among shuttered ones and walled-off sections where some businesses were still moving in. But if you stopped by in December and found yourself underwhelmed, it’s time to give the Oxbow another try.

All of the central stalls are filled, and restaurants are serving casual meals throughout the day. Check out Pica Pica Maize Kitchen, which offers arepas—a Venezuelan corn flatbread with the diner’s choice of fillings—as its signature dish.

Hot-pressed sandwiches and regionally sourced comfort food are on chef Sarah Scott’s simple menu at Folio Enoteca, where you can meet for lunch at the friendly 14-seat counter or carry out prepared dishes and bottles of wine. There’s also a tiny winery behind glass. An oyster bar is in the works, and burger specialist Taylor’s Automatic Refresher was hiring for its Oxbow location at press time.

You can also bring your market bag and do some shopping. Five Dot Ranch is selling antibiotic-free, grass-fed beef; other purveyors include artisan charcuterie The Fatted Calf, St. Helena-based Model Bakery and a gleaming new fish market. Jars of spices and herbs from allspice to zhug (a Yemeni hot pepper blend) are arrayed on the shelves at Whole Spice, where owners Ronit and Shuli Madmone are happy to share recipes and lore.

As the weather warms up, expect the market’s outdoor stalls to offer fresh fruits and vegetables daily. Located on First Street next to COPIA, Oxbow Public Market currently opens at 10 a.m. and closes at 6 p.m., but when summer comes and the outdoor deck is completed, vendors are expecting to stay open later in the evening. Keep up with the developments at www.oxbowpublicmarket.com.

Howdy, neighbor!
Bring along (or be) a Napa County resident and enjoy free tasting at more than 100 wineries that usually charge visitors for samples. The Napa Neighbor discount program varies from place to place, but you can usually count on at least two people tasting for free as long as one shows a Napa identification card.

Many of the 104 participating wineries extend the privilege to four people, along with VIP discounts and tours; others have limited hours when the program is available or require appointments.

A detailed list—it runs to 11 printed pages—is available on the Napa Valley Vintners Web site at www.napavintners.com.

One hundred-plus wineries sounds like a lot, but that’s only about a quarter of the total now operating in Napa County; so it’s a good idea to consult the list before you hit the highway. And remember, the program is just for Napa wineries—despite the photo accompanying the Vintners’ full-page ad for Napa Neighbors, which ran in the Napa Valley Register over the winter. It pictured, complete with wine-label coasters, a table setting at the luxurious Goldeneye tasting garden. Goldeneye is a property of Napa’s Duckhorn Cellars, but it’s located in Mendocino County’s Anderson Valley, three hours away.

But it’s tough to quibble with such an extensive list (AlphaOmega to ZD) right here at home.

You could look it up
For the first time, Napa library patrons interested in viticulture, enology, wine connoisseurship and tourism—and the many jobs available in these areas—have one place to search or browse for knowledge on everything from grape-growing to running a bed and breakfast: The Napa City-County Library’s main branch in downtown Napa has created a special section for books and magazines on the county’s two leading industries, wine and hospitality.

Drawn from both existing library books and new acquisitions, the Wine and Hospitality Collection includes more than 500 books, periodicals and nonfiction movies such as “The History of Wine” and “Mondovino.” (For feature films like “Sideways,” you’ll still need to consult the library’s main DVD collection.)

It was longtime Napa librarian Anne Moya who first sparked the idea of assembling a unified collection for career-seekers and casual readers. “Agriculture is enormously important to Napa,” Moya says. “And the public is much more interested because of the boutique wineries and tasting rooms that have developed over the past five to 10 years.”

Moya’s cause got a boost last year when a pair of Napa Valley Register business columns cited some impressive numbers: Hospitality, now the second largest industry in the county after wine production, employed more than 17,500 people in 2004, with a payroll exceeding $500 million—figures expected to grow by 22 percent in 2008.

Another 8,000 employees worked in the local food and beverage service industry. All told, visitors to the Napa Valley are estimated to spend $1 billion each year on dining, drinking, wine and lodging.

Library leaders found those figures compelling and gave Moya and library associate Helene Crane the go-ahead to begin assembling the new collection, now housed in the periodical room.

The library welcomes visitors seven days a week at 580 Coombs Street, Napa; for hours, visit www.co.napa.ca.us/library or call (707) 253-4241.