A Perfect Match

Copia finds itself in the arms of the CIA.

The nearly decade-long identity crisis for the monumental, wavy-lined grey building sitting alone and abandoned on the banks of the Napa River at Oxbow has finally been resolved. Copia, named for the Roman goddess of plenty and opened at the turn of the 21st century to house Robert and Margrit Mondavi’s dream of a center to celebrate wine, food and the arts, has been bankrupt since 2008. Since then, like a sleeping princess waiting for aprince to come and revive her, many suitors have approached and been found wanting. Now, at last, her Prince Charming (who happens to have been an old family friend) has come. The venerable Culinary Institute of America (CIA) has purchased the Copia building and grounds on the north side of Napa’s First Street. Going forward, CIA at Copia, together with CIA at Greystone, will comprise the institute’s California campus. You can almost hear the city of Napa sigh with relief.

Clay Gregory, CEO of Visit Napa Valley, calls the CIA ownership “the absolute best possible use for that building. It’s a natural fit. They can use the demonstration kitchens; they can open the restaurant and the store. It’s perfect.”

“The building was built to celebrate wine, food and the arts,” says Jill Techel, mayor of the city of Napa. “[CIA] certainly has connections to food and wine, and it’s intending to put a museum in the building. It’s wonderful that it’s going to be able to come in and create the energy that was the original thought behind Copia.”

Techel’s excitement may be colored by the memory of all the dreaded scenarios that could have ensued when Copia, having struggled for years to meet expenses, finally succumbed, with $80 million in debt. “There was concern that Copia closing would drag other things down,” she recalls. “That maybe the Oxbow District wouldn’t be successful. Thankfully, the opposite has happened.” As the economy recovered from the recession, Napa’s downtown kept building. Beautiful new hotels appeared. The Riverfront became a destination unto itself, Todd Zapulski’s First Street Napa development of hotel and retail establishments got underway, and the city was hopping. Now, with Copia under CIA ownership, all seems right in the land.

“It’ll bring even more vibrancy to the Oxbow District and downtown Napa,” says Techel. “As it hosts events there, people will see the other things there are to do in Napa. So they may make their first visit here as a CIA-inspired moment, but once they see the revitalized downtown, they’ll come back again. So we’re excited. We’re thrilled.”

The brand new Culinary Institute at Copia will combine the key elements of the Mondavi dream and the CIA, which was founded in 1946 and is one of the world’s most prestigious institutions for culinary education. Between the Greystone and Copia branches, the CIA will offer educational experiences for degree students, enthusiasts, visitors and highest level industry professionals, all of whom can expand their knowledge and go forth to celebrate food and wine in all aspects of creation and production. The arts of the original dream will be present in the exquisite artistry of the food and in the background. Local museum exhibits, open to the public free of charge, will work to enrich the visitors.

Running the new Copia

Overseeing both Copia and Greystone will be Tom Bensel, Greystone’s current managing director, who possesses a wealth of experience not only in food preparation but also in the retail and management of food and wine. His culinary career started with his graduation from the CIA at Hyde Park campus (New York) in 1976. Since then, he’s been executive chef for Hilton in Fort Lauderdale; regional vice president for Wolfgang Puck Worldwide in Beverly Hills, vice president of operations for the Left Bank Restaurant Group in San Jose and, prior to assuming his current role at Greystone, was director of retail for La Boulange (now La Boulangerie) in San Francisco. He says the mission of CIA at Copia and CIA at Greystone are intertwined and reflect the institute’s mission “to provide the world’s best professional culinary education.”

“We work very hard to be completely aligned, wherever possible, with the Hyde Park campus,” says Bensel, explaining that the CIA (with campuses in New York, St. Helena, Singapore, San Antonio and now Napa) sees Greystone and Copia, together, as the California campus. “It’s all the Culinary Institute,” says Bensel. “We look at it as the California campus with a facility at Copia and a facility at Greystone.”

While all CIA campuses share the same mission, the offerings differ slightly according to location. The main campus in Hyde Park, N.Y. offers a wide range of associate and bachelor’s degree programs in subjects like culinary science, management and applied food studies, and the California campus offers an associate degree in occupational studies (AOS) in either culinary arts or pastry and baking arts. Greystone offers a certificate program in advanced wine and beverage which, in August, will become a nine-month, 1,000-hour graduate certificate program available to students who already have a four-year bachelor degree in hospitality. “We also offer a more condensed program for our bachelor students in Hyde Park,” says Bensel, “where they can come out to Greystone for a semester and do a deep dive into the business of wine.”

The Culinary Institute of America is dedicated to preparing its students for all phases of the food industry, from cooking skills to the business and science of food. “We’re always looking for what’s next,” says Bensel, “and what we can teach our students that’s going to make them successful as they go out into the industry. We want to teach our students to always be forward thinking.” He adds that one of the reasons CIA wanted to acquire Copia was to take some of the strain off Greystone. It wanted to focus more on the degree programming students there and make Copia more outwardly focused.

“Copia’s the gateway to Napa Valley on many different levels,” says Bensel. “So a lot of what you’ll see moved down to Copia from Greystone is the enthusiast programming and consumer-facing business as well as our consulting business.” He says it’s also started an executive MBA program, which is in the early stages, but will be based at Copia as well. Now, the CIA at Copia is set to assume the role originally visualized; as an influencer in the world of food for professionals and enthusiasts alike. “We impact a lot more than just industry people,” says Bensel. For the public, the facility will be open free of charge, and visitors will be able to enroll in cooking classes or demonstrations, or wine classes or tastes, for a single day or multiple days.

Copia and Greystone

Bensel allows that, while the focus of each facility is distinct, there’ll inevitably be some overlap, which will provide visitors with tasty choices. So while the CIA at Greystone will focus on its students and the two-year degree programming, it’ll continue to run the Illy Café, the two restaurants and the store (all on site). Meanwhile, the Copia facility will focus on the public and professional students, with demonstration kitchens and classes. It’ll also welcome the public to its restaurant and retail store—the former student-run, and the latter operated by professionals. Greystone, with its popular barrel room and impressive venue, will continue to host weddings and special events, “but not as much,” says Bensel. Copia, with its beautiful natural setting and amphitheater, will also begin to host weddings and events. “Everybody in Napa is trying to get into it.”

Designed with the plan in mind

The Copia building was designed for conferences, and CIA always has a steady flow of industry conferences on its calendar. Its Strategic Industry Group works with industry leaders to set the conversations that are important to the food industry, and it partners with institutions like MIT Media Lab and Harvard Medical School to expand the thinking and exploration around the world of food. Recent conference topics ranged from the future of food, robots and food preparation, innovation and sustainability and keeping healthy kitchens, all the way up (literally) to vertical farming: growing food on the sides of buildings. “We feel our role and responsibility doesn’t end when we our students graduate,” says Bensel. “We need to be a part of that outside community, because it lends credibility and relevance to what we teach.”

Copia will open its doors to local nonprofits as well, such as the Napa Valley Grapegrowers and the UC Ag Extension. “We certainly look forward to partnering with the community,” says Bensel. “It was in Bob Mondavi’s original vision, and I think it can only benefit us.” He says CIA wants to partner with the city and county to give local nonprofit events the advantage of reduced rates and a beautiful theater and location. “It doesn’t have to be food-themed,” he says, but “most of these things have to do with what Napa’s all about, and as it happens, Napa is a lot about food.”

How the new Copia will look

The new Copia will be an active facility for high-level conferences, demonstration kitchens, cooking classes and theater experiences, set in a museum for the culinary arts with its own retail store and two restaurants.

Visitors entering CIA at Copia will first become sensitized to the importance of food and wine in the Napa Valley as they pass by the new Vintner Hall of Fame, made up of materials and plaques from the Hall of Fame currently in the barrel room at Greystone. Then, Bensel visualizes, visitors will be able to settle in to the theater and watch a film showcasing the beauty and history of the Napa Valley. This will give them ideas of where to go and what to try. The film, which he says he will work with local people to put together, will run during the day when the theater isn’t otherwise in use.

CIA will also move some of the personnel from Greystone to Copia offices to free up Greystone for a major renovation on its third floor. “The lecture theater will stay the same,” he says. “We’ll concentrate our degree programming at Greystone. We’ll have a consulting wing [here at Copia] where different companies and organizations come work with us for ideas and product development. We’ve been doing all that at Greystone and we just ran out of room. Copia lets us accommodate more people.”

Bensel says the Copia project, especially the second floor, will take between one and two years to complete. “We hope to open the restaurant and retail store, as well as start wine and cooking demonstration classes mid to late April.” Events will be listed as taking place in St. Helena until the permit processes are complete. Opening night for Flavor! Napa Valley is in March, as well as some of the wine seminars during the course of the weeklong event. The restaurants and retail store will open by the end of April, the food demonstrations and wine classes in the theater will begin then as well.

“We’re working through the parking issue,” says Bensel. “We own the parking lot and we’re working with Steve Carlin, founder of the Oxbow Public Market, to reconfigure it. If we re-stripe the lot, we pick up 30 spaces.” And maybe take out the circle? “The circle is required by the fire department,” he says, “so the hooks-and-ladders can turn around.”

Ownership and plans for the south lot aren’t part of the CIA deal and are as yet unresolved. “The challenge will be if the south side develops,” says Mayor Techel, “and we’re looking at a parking structure in the future as something we’ll need to do.”

“I think,” says Bensel, “Based on the demand we have for our public-facing business as far as the enthusiast and consumer audiences as well as the food business school industry—and all the demand we can’t meet at Greystone because we don’t have the space—this expansion gives us the confidence that we can succeed here.”

He thinks the plan for the CIA at Copia is “pretty solid” based on the years of experience at Greystone. In addition, he reminds, Napa has changed dramatically in the years since Copia was first opened. Now the adjacent area is alive with the Westin Hotel and the Oxbow Market. Especially with the Oxbow Commons now finished and serving as a daily reward thanks to a visionary flood protection project which has directly opened the way to the rise of downtown Napa. “The amount of people in downtown Napa compared to 10 years ago is exponentially larger,” he says, “So you have people coming here now, and people are a key ingredient.”