With flights available from Oxbow Wine Merchant & Bar, the adjacent Cheese Merchant invites visitors to stay and sample artisanal and farmhouse cheeses with their wine.

Super Marché

The Oxbow Public Market captures the hearts and appetites of Napa.

BY CHLOÉ HARRIS
PHOTOGRAPHY BY FRANKIE FRANKENY

Tucked between busy Highway 29 and the meandering Silverado Trail, Napa has long been the city that Wine Country forgot. Unlike Napa Valley whose big-name restaurants and posh wineries lure more than five million international tourists yearly the little town on the banks of the Napa River has remained sleepy. But Napa's historic downtown is beginning to wake up. Since December 2007, cars cruising north on the Silverado Trail have a new reason to brake for town: the Oxbow Public Market.

Situated at the heart of the city and next door to Copia, Oxbow Market's 40,000-square-foot space is both a local gathering spot and a culinary destination. The building resembles a contemporary barn, with a red brick exterior and a modernized gambrel roof of galvanized steel beams and glass. Ten permanent farm stands line the building's eastern face, while inside, the light-filled market smells like freshly baked waffle cones and bustles with 25 retail spaces and a few casual dining options. The buzzwords are, of course, "local," "artisanal" and "sustainable."

Napa is a sophisticated community that's been underserved from an artisanal-food standpoint," says Steve Carlin, the market's founder and CEO, who spread his roots in the business during a 20-year tenure at Oakville Grocery, a Wine Country mainstay. "We have great restaurants here but limited places to shop," he says. "I thought it was time to fill that void."

LEFT: A chalkboard at Fatted Calf lists charcuterie made in-house by owner Taylor Boetticher. RIGHT: At Three Twins Organic Ice Cream, the waffle cones are baked fresh.

Besides the popular Saturday-morning farmers market in the Copia parking lot, there has been a conspicuous lack of specialty-food retailers in town. Until now, the closest gourmet markets Dean & DeLuca and Sunshine Foods in St. Helena were nearly 20 miles up the road. Oxbow, says Carlin, "is about local producers and local customers supporting each other."

Just a few months after opening, the Oxbow Cheese Merchant and Oxbow Wine Merchant & Bar (which share a separate retail space next door to the main market) have gained a following. Oxbow cheese specialist Kate Arding attributes the fan base to co-manager Ricardo Huijon a 10-year veteran of the cheese counter at Dean & DeLuca. But few can underestimate the allure of a sunny riverside shop stacked to its rafters with international cheeses or the appeal of the adjacent space filled with small-production wines ready to sample.

LEFT: The Oxbow Public Market buzzes with out-of-towners and locals alike. At Folio Enoteca & Winery, wine enthusiasts can see the winemaking process at work. RIGHT: At the Model Bakery, morning buns and English muffins are fresh treats for early birds.

"Its been going like gangbusters here!" says Arding, who is still a bit amazed at the crowd. "The marketplace is generating a lot of interest among locals. We hope the community will want to hang out here and come together around great food."

Brimming with culinary goods ranging from handcrafted salumi to organic ice cream, Oxbow is already a production hub for several Bay Area vendors. In side-by-side storefronts, St. Helena's Model Bakery and San Francisco's Fatted Calf charcuterie have both moved their operations into the Napa market. The Model Bakery produces all the cakes, cookies and breads for the company's two locations, while Fatted Calf's shop is hung with handmade sausages and meats that are cured and dried before being packed off to weekend farmers markets in San Francisco and Berkeley. San Rafael-based Three Twins Organic Ice Cream also churns its sweet stuff in-house.

LEFT: Cheese specialist Kate Arding (on the left) worked at Cowgirl Creamery in Point Reyes and Neal's Yard Dairy in London before landing at Oxbow Cheese Merchant. RIGHT: Of the sundry spices and herbs at Whole Spice Company, nearly a third are organic.

At Folio Enoteca & Winery, an 80-square-foot corner of the market designed by Cass Calder Smith, the Michael Mondavi family is bringing winemaking to the public. With 12 oak barrels two with translucent lids for viewing the fermentation process the "microwinery" will produce roughly 1,000 cases of Oberon wine each year. At the counter, a seasonal menu by chef Sarah Peterson Scott (formerly of Robert Mondavi Winery) features ingredients "foraged" throughout Oxbow. If you taste something you like, ask Scott for the recipe: She's happy to spill the beans and will even supply a shopping list.

For savvy shoppers, Oxbow offers a global selection. Tillerman Tea Company sells fine loose-leaf and sachet teas from China and Taiwan, while Heritage Culinary Artifacts is stocked with heirloom kitchen goods sourced anywhere from Oklahoma to Avignon. The second-generation importers at Whole Spice Company offer aromatic herbs, spices and blends (including garam masala, gumbo filé and curry) in bulk. Venezuelan is the fast food of choice: At Pica Pica Maize Kitchen, the signature dish is the arepa, a corn-flour cake stuffed with traditional fillings.

FAR LEFT: Fète offers stylish accoutrements for entertaining at home. TOP RIGHT: The variety of salumi at Fatted Calf is dried and cured on site. LEFT: The Oxbow Wine Merchant & Bar offers a selection of food pairings made with ingredients from the market.

With such a wide range of tempting products and no shortage of sustenance, some locals have already become regulars. T Beller, an interior designer and director of Napa Valley Arts and Lectures, says, "It's my new conference room away from work." Beller recalls, "One day, I met girlfriends for a birthday lunch. We had courses from four different merchants and then ice cream from Three Twins. After lunch, I had an impromptu design meeting on the back deck and then an Arts and Lectures committee meeting, during which we sampled cheeses. I left with takeaway dinner."

"Traditionally, communities were defined by their local foods, shops and agriculture," says Carlin, who was inspired by the artisans of Europe to bring the familiarity of the local butcher and baker back to Napa. "I hope Oxbow will articulate these elements of our community and become an important local gathering place." If Beller's day at the marketplace is any indication, his goal has already been realized.