Wave of restaurants rolls into downtown Napa
By Jeff Quackenbush, Business Journal Staff Reporter
2010 saw 13 new venues; Oxbow market sees surge
Click for list of restaurant openings in downtown Napa since late 2009
NAPA — Downtown Napa has seen 13 restaurant openings since December 2009.
This year, 2010, was a “banner year” for restaurant openings, which dominated downtown retail real estate, but openings for 2011 likely will be at a slower pace, according to Coldwell Banker Commercial Brokers of the Valley agent Cathy D’Angelo Holmes, who has been involved with several of those lease deals.
“If we have four or five open in 2011, I think we will be doing great,” she said. “In 2010 it was all about openings planned in 2009.”
At this point, two restaurants set to open next year are Eiko’s in Altamura Enterprises’ Napa Town Center and an unnamed “high-profile” restaurant in the largest restaurant space at Oxbow Public Market.
The area now has 60 restaurants and 21 tasting rooms, according to Craig Smith, executive director of the Napa Downtown Association. Part of the increase is thanks to a move by the Legislature two years ago to allow more alcoholic beverage licenses than would be allowed a 75,000-resident city because of 3 million to 4 million tourists who visit the valley annually.
New restaurants run the gamut from everyday-priced street food at the vintner-grower Ceja family’s Bistro Sabor to high-end cuisine at Masaharu Morimoto’s sixth restaurant, Morimoto Napa, at The Riverfront.
Celebrity chef Tyler Florence’s Rotisserie & Wine restaurant and adjoining store are set to open by early December at The Riverfront, according to a spokeswoman.
“You really have to be on your game to compete,” Mr. Smith said.
It’s been an active year for restaurant business, too. Carpe Diem wine bar opened in June, and business has been increasing since, including in the usually slower fall months after the winegrape harvest, according to owner Stephanie Kendall.
“Who would have thought that in mid-November there would be lines out the door?” she asked.
On the eastern edge of the downtown area, retailers, wine-tasting venues and restaurants in the 40,000-square-foot Oxbow Public Market have experienced a significant increase in revenue and customer traffic in the past 12 months, according to founder and Chief Executive Officer Steve Carlin.
“It’s partly due to the fact that we’re full for the first time,” he said. “There is thriving lunch and dinner business. The farmer’s market has been operating in the parking lot this year. There’s more notoriety for the market and the tenants.”
The market opened nearly three years ago, just as the recession was beginning, and there was a slow start in landing tenants, according to market spokesman Tom Fuller. But now the main hall is fully leased with 23 tenants.
Oxbow Wine & Cheese Merchants recently relocated to the main hall from the restaurant space, and an undisclosed “high-profile chef” is said to be about to sign a lease for that space, Mr. Fuller said.
Also adding to the profile of Oxbow Public Market is the May opening of C Casa, “An Innovative Taqueria” venture by Tulocay & Co. founder Catherine Bergen. C Casa was among 29 new Bay Area restaurants to earn the 2011 Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand designation for under-$40 full meals.
“I chose Oxbow because it will be the place for the local people to hang out,” Ms. Bergen said. “Now the market hall is abuzz.”
Most public markets commonly are opened in downtown business hubs or historical areas of a city with mostly daytime customer activity, and that’s why the shops of Oxbow and the San Francisco Ferry Building Marketplace closed between 6 and 7 p.m., according to Mr. Carlin, also former project manager for the Marketplace.
“We don’t have that kind of density in Napa,” Mr. Carlin said. “We’ve had to be creative in supporting the local community.”
That innovation has come in the form of a number of local-serving attractions, which have led Oxbow management earlier this month to extend hall hours to 9 p.m.
The vision of farmers produce stalls around the outside of the market hall in the original vision of Oxbow has morphed with feedback from local agricultural producers into a hosted farmers market in the parking lot. A locals’ night on Tuesdays has pushed hours later, as has live music and dancing on Friday evenings. And “First Fridays,” started by Dim Sum Charlie’s in November, is a monthly gathering of food truck vendors in the Oxbow parking lot.
To complement the surge in openings of restaurants and wine-tasting venues, the downtown area needs to attract well-known national retailers, according to Strong & Haden Commercial Real Estate agent Matt Connolly, who is part of the marketing team for a number of vacant spaces in Napa Town Center.
“There has been a little resistance because of the overall state of the retail market and availability of financing in some cases,” he said.
The city of Napa found in a survey that a number of residents leave the city for clothing, athletic wear, home furnishings and electronics and that the downtown area needs a critical mass of “soft goods” stores, according to Jennifer LaLiberte, acting economic development division manager.
“We’re seeing a lot of retailer interest in downtown,” she said. “It’s the first time they’ve considered Napa more seriously as a place to recommend opening a store.”
New downtown retailers include high-end cookware vendor Napa Valley Kitchen Gallery, moving from Lincoln Avenue to Napa Square, and a women’s clothing store by Helen Lyall in The Riverfront. Gallery owner Lynn Campagna plans to have an olive oil bar and sell Riedel stemware.
A number of vacant storefronts on First Street present opportunities for co-locating national retailers who want to open next to each other to attract a pool of the right customers, according to Ms. LaLiberte. Regional and “mom-and-pop” retailers can be filled in around them.
Things needed to make that happen will be renovation or structural upgrades to some of the First Street spaces. Permits for that work could get fast-tracked on a case-by-case basis to bring needed retailers in, Ms. LaLiberte said.
Also to help with attracting retailers downtown is a fix to the somewhat confusing arrangement of one-way streets, including the outward direction of First Street toward Highway 29, according to Mr. Connolly. A forthcoming traffic study and plan in conjunction with the Downtown Specific Plan is expected in 2011.
Restaurant openings in downtown Napa since late 2009
December 2009
Mini Mango Thai Bistro
Norman Rose Tavern
January 2010
Grace’s Table
February
Oenotri
April
Bistro Sabor
May
C Casa – An Innovative Taqueria
June
Carpe Diem
July
Morimoto Napa
Bui Bistro
August
Fish Story
Graham’s Take-Away Foods
October
Ca’ Momi Enoteca & Pizzeria
December
Tyler Florence’s Rotisserie & Wine
Coming in 2011
Eiko’s, at Napa Town Center
Unnamed “high-profile chef,” at Oxbow Public Market
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Great update on the happenings of Downtown Napa. I’m excited for what 2011 has in store for us.
by Ariel Ceja
I love small locally-owned businesses, and this one has a great idea of pairing two things I love–dim sum and airstreams. The food was fairly tasty; I would rate it on food alone to be about a 3. I grew up in the Chinese restaurant business so I can make most of the items on the menu myself, and I live in the Bay Area, so we have a plethora of choices for dim sum. Though pricey (about 8 times more than the cheapest hole-in-the-wall dim sum you can find, and on par with the fancy dim sum restaurants that have beautiful décor and impeccable service), the items were fresh and light, and not outrageously priced considering it is near downtown Napa.
Now onto why I’ll probably never go there again. The first thing I noticed was the restaurant’s slogan on the back of a worker’s t-shirt: “We love you long time.” This phrase was used by Vietnamese prostitutes to solicit American soldiers during the Vietnam War and depicted in the movie Full Metal Jacket. The movie was adapted from a book written by a Vietnam vet, and variants of the phrase were common in this period and earlier periods of US occupation in the Asia Pacific region.
When I asked the cashier whether he knew the reference to their slogan, he replied “Yep,” with a smirk. “That’s pretty offensive,” I said. At this time, another guy popped his head out from the window of the airstream. He questioned whether I knew the exact sentence, telling me the phrase is actually, “I love you long time.” When I asked his slogan alluded to the original phrase, he said not at all and that it meant he loves his customers and there is love in his dumplings; he added that he trademarked their slogan. He made no attempt to apologize that he offended a customer.
The expression is not “I love you long time” as he stated, but “Me love you long time.” The restaurant is changing one pronoun–from “me” to “we”–in which one rhymes with the other. It’s clearly a reference to the expression. The business name is probably another reference as no one who owns this business is names Charlie; “Charlie” referred to communist forces in general, both Vietcong and North Vietnamese. To boot, the menu includes an item called “ten dolla make you holla.” The offensiveness of making a joke of the phrase goes beyond the idea of Asian prostitution. America invaded Vietnam, and much of the fighting was guerilla warfare that resulted in a huge number of civilian causalities. Many of the women were peasants forced into prostitution as a result of the war. On a political level, it’s offensive for an American to make light of a US invasion of a poor Asian country. On a cultural level, it’s offensive for a white male to serve Asian cuisine, while mocking a very sad moment in its history.
I hope he considers changing his slogan as he seemed like a nice guy with a cute business idea. For someone who is running a restaurant in one of the culinary capitals of America, you’d think he would want to present himself as more refined than the likes of 2livecrew. Even though the dumplings were overpriced, I would have probably gone again if it hadn’t been for this incident. As an Asian American woman, this event was as absurd to me as a white American serving soul food while hanging a confederate flag out his window.
by Maris3045
Great article Jeff! Very informative and interesting. You do great work!
by ricardo kanakari