The Napa General Store is five years young. It used to be an old hay barn. The building goes back to the 1800’s. Jim, the owner has owned a restaurant in San Francisco called, ‘The Gold Coast’ on California Street. Jim is a cool laid-back Northern California type of person. The ease at the General Store is just like being on a farm with good food and many bottles of wine everywhere. The cuisine is Pan-Asian with many guest dishes from a plethora of culinary disciplines.
Napa General Store sells local olive oil, local art, and spa products made with grape seed extract, which is an anti-oxidant. This place is fun. Jim has a Mahatma Gandhi-like calm personality. No kidding. Not only will you be licking your lips, you will be breathing the place. Everything is prepared at a Napa pace…slow studied and easy.
Napa General Store is cool. It is understated quality in all of its aspects. Jim and his wife are ready for anything—even a ballroom trip, only to return to have brunch. Jim got started in the restaurant business by Illogical elements. He studied English literature and became a producer. He went broke and ended up cooking in Mill Valley. The rest is history… Jim looks for high quality and hard to find wines. He usually has a dozen to fifteen wines to taste; some are organic. Jim is under the radar in buying wine. You can’t find his wine anywhere. A lot of the wines never leave Napa.
The Spring rolls have a lot of “spring” to them. Cilantro pesto with sesame crackers is a great green, which is inviting of good fortune. Round Pond “Olive Oil” is super cool. Lunch is served to six o’clock. There are also private events held in the evening. The cuisine is just right. You can enjoy breakfast, or brunch early, lunch or late lunch, or an early dinner.
Napa General Store is spacious with soft, high ceilings. The things that are sold here are those that only small wineries produce. There are 300 to 400 cases. Some are sold as low as one hundred and twenty dollars. Many of them don’t have a winery or wine tasting room. There are ninety seats outside for ballroom dancing. The Napa River flows right by the Napa General Store as it heads towards the San Francisco Bay. Yahoo! I am sitting on the dock of the bay watching the tide go away… On cold days there is a wood fireplace at your convenience. You can see the old Pullman Railroad cars outside across the deck. Sit back and watch the Napa Valley wine train go, “Choo! Choo!”.
I just finished drinking a local wine with the husband and wife team by Bill and Roxanne Wolf—Pinot Gris, Oak Knoll, Napa Valley, 2005. Bill makes the wine and Roxanne is an artist that designs the haunting labels.
The service here is cherry sweet along with the hospitality that is extra cherry sweet from Thailand. This place is all about tasting small production wines than you know. If you don’t see the sun, how would you know the shine?