New spirit, fashionable dining lift downtown Napa's appeal

May 14, 2008|Kathleen Thompson Hill, Globe Correspondent

NAPA, Calif. - If you're headed to Napa, you're either going to the valley, the county, or Napa itself. The formerly neglected downtown Napa, 55 miles northeast of San Francisco, is one of those places where you wish you had purchased a craftsman or Victorian house 10 years ago when nobody went there. Visitors were all attracted to the "up valley" glitz of romantic wineries and restaurants in Yountville, Oakville, Rutherford, St. Helena, and Calistoga. The Napa River seemed to flood downtown every other year, a disastrous problem neglected by officials.

Then two of the biggest names in food and wine saved the city. Recognizing that the city of Napa was dying on the vine, the late Julia Child and wine mogul Robert Mondavi raised millions to build COPIA - The American Center for Wine, Food & The Arts, across the river from downtown. Next door to COPIA, Oxbow Public Market, a relative of San Francisco's Ferry Building Marketplace, features interesting restaurants and elegant food-related vendors.

Downtown Napa now basks optimistically in a spirit of renovation. Residents voted themselves a hefty tax to control the river, with resulting construction interfering slightly with some restaurants' decks and the growth of new three-story buildings overlooking the water. Main Street is straight but somehow runs along the bending river. The historic Napa Mill/Hatt Building on the southern end houses the fashionable restaurants Angèle, Celadon, and The General Store along with the truly charming Sweetie Pies bakery.

Two blocks north on Main sits the renovated 1879 Napa Valley Opera House, where everyone from Jack London and John Philip Sousa to Arlo Guthrie, Queen Latifah, and Rita Moreno has performed. Here you'll find Mexican, vegetarian, and Vietnamese eateries. Also in the city are Ubuntu, which is always packed and whose food focuses on the restaurant's own biodynamic gardens; Pizza Azzurro, which just moved to a new location with hip metallic decor; and Pearl, a favorite of many.

But there are less well known places that the locals gravitate to. One is the irreverent Kelley's No Bad Days Cafe, featuring bright Baja décor mixed with political jokes, books, and live jazz on no-corkage Thirsty Thursdays. Kelley Novak owns the revered Gatsby-esque Spottswoode Winery in St. Helena with her mother and sisters. Kelley Novak grows organic vegetables for the restaurant at her vineyard home and makes the best grilled cheese sandwiches anywhere with Vermont's sharp white cheddar from Cabot, along with a killer spinach salad with Thai peanut dressing. Try the light taquitos, chicken satay, crispy calamari, or Nicoise salad with seared tuna.