Oxbow Public Market: Napa's emporium of healthy, affordable, sustainable food
Oxbow Public Market in downtown Napa is a foodie’s paradise, minus the pretension and outrageous prices, with a strong accent on organic and local. Rows of fresh food choices are as plentiful inside the barn-like building as rows of vineyards in the Napa Valley.
Along Oxbow’s two wide aisles are 17 restaurateurs and food & beverage merchants. All emphasize local, organic and sustainable products. There are numerous indoor and outdoor tables where you can enjoy your lunch, coffee or glass of wine at Oxbow, with some overlooking the Napa River where it completes an oxbow-shaped curve. But calling it a food court would just be wrong. No establishment that even remotely resembles a Sbarro or Panda Express can be found here.
A few highlights: Hog Island Oyster Co. serves fresh shellfish from Tomales Bay, grilled or on the half-shell. C Casa is a taqueria that uses only grass-fed beef, free-range chicken, sustainable fish and no lard. Ca' Momi serves Italian pastries and wood-fired pizzas. Pica Pica serves zesty Venezuelan fare and Latin drinks. And at the Oxbow Wine Merchant, you can sit down to taste any of the week’s 15-20 wines with fresh-baked bread from The Model Bakery and cheese from the Oxbow Cheese Merchant. Sustainably produced meat, seafood, coffees, teas, olive oils, produce, ice cream and cupcakes are also sold by specialty-shop purveyors.
Next door at 610 First Street is Gott’s Roadside (formerly Taylor’s Refresher), which is also considered part of Oxbow. It’s a diner with a twist, playfully calling its selection “tray gourmet,” with wallet-friendly diner prices and entrees that source local ingredients, just like the rest of Oxbow’s restaurateurs.
Loosely modeled after the fabulously successful Ferry Building Marketplace in San Francisco, Oxbow has become quite a community gathering place, with tourists also in the mix, when live entertainment is offered. Locals Night is on Tuesdays (music from 6-8 p.m.), Latin Night on Fridays (7 p.m. to close) and outdoor jazz on Sundays (summer only). Cooking demonstrations and special wine tastings are also common at Oxbow.
HelloSanFrancisco Tip: The Napa Farmer’s Market is conveniently right next to Oxbow in its parking lot. It happens Tuesdays and Saturdays, 7:30 a.m. to noon, from May to October.
Posted by Bob Cooper
