[caption id="attachment_20889" align="alignright" width="200" caption="Cathy D'Angelo Holmes"][/caption]
For years, many said that if we brought great restaurants to downtown Napa, retail would follow. Retail has arrived.
This spring, downtown Napa will be blessed with two new retailers under Avia Hotel, West End Napa and Napa Valley Toffee Co. West End Napa owners Elizabeth O’Rielly and Kathleen Pfaff will open their concept store for one-of-a-kind furnishings made by Napa Valley artisans. West End Napa is a home furnishings, design services and gifts store that combines casual Napa Valley elegance with urban polish and contemporary style.
Napa Valley Toffee Co. has been in business for six years, hand-crafting toffee on-site and selling milk and dark chocolate English toffee along with assorted chocolates and truffles. Also on site will be wine tastings and sales along with local food products as well as a unique coffee bar.
Adjacent to these new additions to Avia remains only one 1,500-square-foot space that is available for lease.
These stores are in addition to Art on Fire: Pottery, Glass & Clay Studio and Another Man’s Treasure, featuring slightly used home furnishings, at the corners of First and Coombs. Playful Garden has relocated mid-block on First Street near Ceja Vineyards' tasting room.
As empty storefronts on First Street wait for more retailers, Napa Downtown Association's Art on First program is filling empty windows.
Helen Lyall has opened her eponymous women’s boutique at 650 Main St. in The Riverfront. She was in Vallejo for over 30 years but had a strong Napa clientele. Her son, Scott Lyall, will be opening a men's store next door this spring.
Lynn Campagna of Napa Valley Kitchen Gallery is buying new inventory to fill her 3,000-square-foot location at Napa Square behind the new Gordon Huether Gallery. One retail space is left in the recently built mixed-use property.
Without restaurants, we wouldn’t be talking about more downtown retail. Notable restaurants restaurant openings at The Riverfront in the past year have been Morimoto, Fish Story and Tyler Florence Rotisserie and Wine.
West End is searching for one more restaurant to round out 2010 leasing to Norman Rose Tavern, Oenotri and Graces Table. Only 3,000 square feet remains next to the John Anthony tasting salon.
Major remodeling is under way for the 4,555-square-foot Eiko’s restaurant is under construction in Napa Town Center. Eiko Nakamura, who ran Fujiya restaurant in Napa for 24 years, and brothers Mike and Rick Zaslove are transforming the former Piccolino's restaurant, which vacated last year, into a Asian-themed restaurant.
In the Oxbow district of downtown, Oxbow Public Market has attracted several new restaurants. The latest and largest of which is Kitchen Door, a new venture by former Martini House proprietors chef Todd Humphries and Richard Miyashiro.
