24 hours in Napa

Yesterday was our last full day in Napa, which is somewhat bittersweet as Napa has been incredible and I don't want to leave but at the same time I am very much looking forward to Mendocino (our next stop on the Californian road trip that is our honeymoon).  As such, we decided to do all our favourite things yesterday and I thought I would share them with you as a Napa round up/guide to what to do if you only had 12-24 hours in the delight that is Napa (you may notice that there is something of a food and wine focus to this list)...

Coffee


First up is finding the right cup of Joe (see what I did there?) which I find surprisingly difficult in the States sometimes.  However, never fear as in Napa the Napa Valley Coffee Company will come to your rescue.  Not only is this some of the nicest coffee I have tried, there are about 24 different options to choose from (Cubana anyone??), the store itself is this incredible wooden archive of interesting bits and pieces whilst the staff are just lovely.  If you are feeling peckish the bagels looked pretty good too.

Shopping

I put this in for completeness but shopping is really not what you come to Napa to do (I know - who'd a thought it, wait 'til I get to San Fran though).  There are no shops in Napa itself - that would be silly as it would mean one less restaurant.  However, there is an out of town mall affair should you want to flex the plastic.

Lunch


Phew, back to food.  Now, for reasons that will become clear when you get to dinner you really need to be strategic about the timing of lunch - as close to midday as possible is what is needed.  Clearly, lunch in Napa can mean only one thing.  Oxbow Public Market and specifically the lovely Pica Pica.  Both of these have been mentioned before but I now have the pictures to show how great the market is.  It is a complete emporium of food loveliness.  The food is the best of its kind, well priced, and mixed in with a few antique stalls and an organic market.  Really you could live here for the rest of your days and be happy.  My personal recommendation is of course the Pica gluten free vegan taco with garlic yuka fries - so lovely for me, not so lovely for Jonathan (seriously the amount of garlic is incredible).

Wine


We are in Napa so of course the best 24 hours in Napa recommendations have to include wine tasting somewhere.  Earlier in the week we did a tour of the Mondavi vineyard but this guide is for Napa town so we went to Taste at Oxbow i.e. near to Oxbow market - see you don't even have to walk very far here.  Now Taste offers wines from two houses so it is great to have a variety of wine to try.  However, the real secret to the awesomeness of this experience is the lovely Mallory Uran.  Mallory took us through our tasting and not only is she ridiculously knowledgeable about her subject but she is one of the nicest people you could meet.  It really felt like we were just spending time with a friend who happened to know an awful lot about wines.  The good thing about tasting outside of a vineyard (although I would definitely still recommend a vineyard tour) is that you get to taste a broader range of wines so start to learn a little more about what to look out for.  After such a nice time tasting we dragged ourselves away to dinner...

Dinner


Oh Ubuntu how I love you and your 8 course tasting menu with wine pairing.  Dear God the food here is like nothing else on earth.  They are so clever and the restaurant was clearly full of vegetarians and non-vegetarians alike.  The food is just amazing and the wine is pretty good too.  The restaurant is also very well designed with a quite cool, laid back atmosphere.  Less cool and laid-back is me as Aaron London the head chef at Ubuntu was there last night so (buoyed by my 8 glass wine pairing; thank goodness Jonathan and I decided to share that) I asked for a signed menu - which I have and which was hand delivered by the chef.  Yep, still a little embarrassed by being a groupie...

If you wanted a non-veggie restaurant (seriously why you would not want to go to Ubuntu I do not know) another great place that we went to earlier in the week was Farmstead.  It works on similar principles to Ubuntu (save for the obvious difference) in that it uses all locally grown food (i.e. from their garden) and serves beautiful dishes with the minimum amount of interference.  Again, the restaurant itself had a great atmosphere and very knowledgable staff.

So having eaten yourself silly it is time to bed and for us now time to leave Napa.  As I say, the only condolence is the potential greatness of our next stop as this one really has been a wonderful one.

Until the next post, AD xx