{"id":2428,"date":"2023-07-27T15:43:52","date_gmt":"2023-07-27T15:43:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/?p=2428"},"modified":"2023-07-27T15:43:52","modified_gmt":"2023-07-27T15:43:52","slug":"oakville-grocery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/?p=2428","title":{"rendered":"Oakville Grocery"},"content":{"rendered":"

We have a weakness for old grocery stores that have metamorphosed into gourmet shops serving the wine tasters who have flocked to Wine Country.\u00a0 There\u2019s Lombardi\u2019s Love Lane Market<\/a> in Long Island\u2019s North Fork.\u00a0 We can remember when the Dry Creek General Store<\/a> was a place to buy work clothes, tins of nails and sandwiches (served only on sliced white or whole wheat).\u00a0 We still mourn the demise of the Jimtown Store<\/a>.\u00a0 The grandaddy of them all is the Oakville Grocery on Route 29 and the Oakville Crossroad in Napa Valley.<\/p>\n

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Photo courtesy of Destination Wineries.<\/em><\/p>\n

There\u2019s an Oakville Grocery in Healdsburg and it\u2019s a fine shop.\u00a0 We go there when we\u2019re in Sonoma County.\u00a0 But the real deal is located, of course, in Oakville.\u00a0 According to their website (https:\/\/oakvillegrocery.com\/<\/a>) there\u2019s been a store at that spot since some time in the 1870\u2019s.\u00a0 At various times it specialized in dry goods and farming supplies; then it was called Oakville Mercantile.\u00a0 Since wine lovers (re)discovered Napa Valley in the 1970s, it has supplied excellent lunches to visitors and locals alike.<\/p>\n

Oakville Grocery\u2019s story has intersected with the wine trade over the decades.\u00a0 Prohibition almost put them out of business; only nearby bootlegging saved the store.\u00a0 It hosted a Great Chefs cooking lessons program run by Margit Mondavi, the wife of Robert Mondavi.\u00a0 For many years, beginning in the 1970s through 2003, Oakville Grocery was owned by Joseph Phelps, who also owned one of Napa Valley\u2019s great vineyards.\u00a0 It t is now owned by a Frenchman, Jean-Charles Boisset, whose roots are in Burgundy\u2019s C\u00f4te d\u2019Or.<\/p>\n

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Photo courtesy of Oakville Grocery.<\/em><\/p>\n

Today \u2013 and for as long as we can remember Oakville Grocery \u2013 it specializes in upscale fare.\u00a0 There\u2019s an espresso bar where you can get freshly ground coffee.\u00a0 There\u2019s a selection of imported and local cheeses, with California\u2019s products standing up quite well against the French and Italian imports.\u00a0 Freshly made salads are available, as are hand-made pizzas fired where the hardware was once stored.\u00a0 This being Napa Valley, they also have \u00a0a great wine selection.<\/p>\n

But the main attraction is the deli counter which occupies almost the entirety of the middle of the store.\u00a0 Yes, you can get a ham and cheese, but why bother?\u00a0 You can do that at home.\u00a0 There\u2019s a California-fied Muffaletta, the glory of New Orleans reinterpreted for the wine folks.\u00a0 How about a hot Chicken and Gruyere or Rocky\u2019s Reuben?\u00a0 A word to the wise: The sandwiches are enormous, enough for sharing.\u00a0 It\u2019s important to put food in your stomach if you\u2019re going to continue wine tasting in the afternoon, but there are limits.<\/p>\n

There is a (mostly) shaded area next to the store where you can eat and drink your purchases.\u00a0 They try to style it as a picnic area, but there is neither grass nor trees to be seen.\u00a0 Make sure to get a table in the shade \u2013 midday in Napa Valley gets quite hot \u2013 but don\u2019t plan on lingering.<\/p>\n

We know places in New York and Paris that are as rich in history as in cuisine.\u00a0 The Oakville Grocery is one of these too, but it is a great deal more rustic than those places, as it should be.\u00a0 This is a deli in Wine Country, after all.\u00a0 But if you\u2019d like a great meal in a place your great-great-grandparents might have frequented, then the Oakville Grocery is for you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We have a weakness for old grocery stores that have metamorphosed into gourmet shops serving the wine tasters who have flocked to Wine Country.\u00a0 There\u2019s Lombardi\u2019s Love Lane Market in Long Island\u2019s North Fork.\u00a0 We can remember when the Dry Creek General Store was a place to buy work clothes, tins of nails and sandwiches … Continue reading Oakville Grocery<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2428"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2428"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2428\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2431,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2428\/revisions\/2431"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2428"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2428"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2428"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}