Somehow, I’ve wound up in a city where the “lack of nightlife” is front-page news. No jest: The headline to the main story in the Feb. 10 edition of the Napa Valley Register read “Dullsville: Council ponders Napa’s lack of nightlife.” Even sadder was the accompanying photograph, captioned “Comedian Mark Day jokes about his teeth while performing at Uva Trattoria in 2006.”
That’s right: Despite the fact that Uva Trattoria consistently presents live jazz bands five nights a week, the county’s only daily newspaper had to go back three years to find a file photo to illustrate this story—and it showed a guy pointing at his teeth. The article itself, by veteran City Hall reporter Kevin Courtney, reported that the Napa City Council had discussed the dearth of evening entertainment at an “informal retreat” with city staff. One suspects they weren’t considering more venues for stand-up dental humor, but it’s also clear that jazz and dinner music aren’t enough to create a vibrant scene.
Courtney’s article quoted council member Jim Krider as saying that if county residents can have a “right to farm,” then city residents should have a “right to party.” Of course, pursuing either activity has consequences for neighbors who engage in neither. Residents of one downtown neighborhood made that Lucite-clear to the city last year, complaining that a newly opened, youth-oriented café on Main Street was drawing a noisy, potty-mouthed, cigarette-smoking clientele. Needless to say, that business didn’t last; at this writing, the site remains empty.
It’s true that the proprietors of the Smoking Cat, later renamed Café Revolution, could have done a much better job of fitting into a neighborhood that includes an elementary school just across the street and a family’s bedroom overlooking the café’s smoking patio. But to their supporters, the whole episode seemed to illustrate that Napa’s famed “No Fun Ordinance”—stipulating that “each and every frustrated, angry citizen has the right to complain about their neighbors and friends having more fun than they, and to petition for an abatement of such detrimental activity”—was the real deal, and not merely an inside joke created by former city attorney Tom Brown.
So yes, Napa will never be Austin, Texas, where entertainment venues line the blocks, each an easy stumble from the next. And that’s OK with many Napa residents—this county’s demographics tend to skew older than any other Bay Area county, and live jazz is plenty exciting for a lot of us. But that doesn’t mean everyone else has to stay home. In Napa’s evolving downtown, the entertainment scene is changing. Here are some of the developments I’ve noticed.
Salsa dancing on First Street. The irrepressible Ceja family of Ceja Vineyards has opened a “tasting salon” on First Street that, on Saturday nights, transforms into a sala de salsa, complete with 7 p.m. dance lessons from scion Ariel Ceja. Open until the astonishing—for a tasting room—hour of midnight on Saturday, the salon offers plenty of floor space, a good-sized bar, a water cooler and a capacious couch, where patrons abandoned by Terpsichore can still enjoy a view of swiveling hips. The crowd is a cross-section of the new Napa: Long-married couples and visitors out for a spree mix it up with young hospitality workers, dropping by to unwind after their long week of catering to tourists. That familiar face at the bar just might be your waiter from the night before. There’s no cover charge or minimum, and although the Cejas’ wines aren’t cheap, they’re worthy of slow sipping (www.cejavineyards.com).
More than jazz at Silo’s. Silo’s Jazz Club, at the historic Napa River Inn, rose last year from the ashes of an earlier, well-intentioned but ahead-of-its-time salsa/jazz room. Vocalist Wesla Whitfield and her husband, pianist Mike Greensill, are the club’s resident performers most weekends, weaving a powerful spell around classic numbers from what they call the “great American songbook.” Early this year, the club began booking a new Napa group called the Juliane Band. With a lineup that includes accordion, mandolin, guitars and percussion, soprano Juliane Poirier Locke sings pop gems from the Youngbloods, Monkees and Left Banke along with folk favorites.
Audiences seem to enjoy the music: During a one-month stint of Wednesday night performances, the Juliane Band consistently drew a local crowd of 40 to 60 people. Manager Keith Stansberry has been looking into booking other Bay Area groups; bandleader/broadcaster Mal Sharpe dropped by one Wednesday to check out the room and left smiling. Comfortably appointed with stools, armchairs and couches, Silo’s sells wine, beer and light bites including pizzas and salads, and presents music beginning at 7 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday (www.silosjazzclub.com).
Dinner music. Napa restaurants that serve music along with their menus include Piccolino’s and Ristorante Allegria on First Street (Allegria’s accordionist, Lou Zanardi, can play nearly 1,000 songs from memory), Elements Restaurant and Enoteca on Second Street, Kelley’s No Bad Days on Pearl Street and, of course, the venerable alehouse Downtown Joe’s. For a jazz brunch, check out Bleaux Magnolia; for music with oysters, consider Pearl. And just across the freeway, Suppertime (relocated to the Factory Stores shopping center) also hosts live appearances by local bands.
Schedules and cover charges will vary, and this list is bound to be out of date by the time you read it—I’m confident Napa will be offering even more lively entertainment by May. And much of it will be free, including the summertime Chefs Market series, now on Thursday evenings, and the weekend concerts in the beautifully refurbished Veterans Memorial Park on the west bank of the Napa River.
So: Dullsville? I think not, but your mileage may vary. To find out more about Napa’s arts and entertainment scene, check the Register’s weekly calendar listings (comprising all items of local interest, published Thursday and available online at http://www.napavalleyregister.com/helios/events) and the “Master Arts & Culture Calendar” that’s lovingly maintained by Arts Council Napa Valley at http://www.nvarts.org.
