Latest news with #A16Napa
Eater
28-05-2025
- Business
- Eater
A Brand-New A16 Drops in Napa
Another A16 restaurant from Shelley Lindgren and partner Kitty Oestlien is on the precipice of opening: A16 Napa debuts on Thursday, May 29, at 821 Coombs Street, spreading out in a 4,000-square-foot space in downtown Napa, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. This new location joins the original Marina restaurant, along with Rockridge and a Ferry Building outpost. The new spot shares many of the Italian dishes and pizzas that have kept the restaurant going for 20 years, but the Chronicle teased a couple of new dishes, including pancetta-wrapped pork rolls and hearth-cooked octopus. The wine list skews toward Italian bottles, but will also feature California-made, Italian-inspired wines. For those looking for a lunchtime bite, A16 Napa is also expected to add lunch service in the coming weeks. Dave McLean is back with a new brewery Dave McLean, the popular brewer behind the original Magnolia Brewing, is fully back on the local beer scene with his new company, Hidden Splendor Beer, the San Francisco Standard reports. McLean has consulted for other breweries since selling Magnolia in 2017, but now beer aficionados will be able to sip on his own brand's pilsners and lagers as soon as this summer, which will be released to local bars and restaurants. Also in the works: a San Rafael restaurant and pub from McLean, set to open this fall. Crowdfunding starts for new women's sports bar in Marin Isabella Woods and Soledad Jean-Pierre of Marin are set on opening a new women's sports bar in Marin County, and they're hoping the Bay Area will back them, the Mercury News reports. Dubbed The Twelfth, the duo launched crowdfunding efforts on Friday, May 23, aimed at raising $425,000 for their new bar. No location is set quite yet, but Woods and Jean-Pierre are currently searching for a home for their bar. Run away to Tahoe and open a new restaurant If you happen to have a cool $4.9 million and change rattling around in your bank account, SFGATE reports that Kings Beach restaurant Caliente is up for sale. Caliente closed up after 18 years in October 2024, and the restaurant (with a fun second-floor outdoor deck) is now for sale. What does this have to do with the Bay Area? Not much, just let Eater SF live vicariously through this idea that a local might snap up this deal, and let us know if you do wind up picking up the space for a restaurant. Sign up for our newsletter.
San Francisco Chronicle
28-05-2025
- Business
- San Francisco Chronicle
Beloved Bay Area Italian restaurant opens first Wine Country location
When Shelley Lindgren, owner of the Bay Area's beloved Southern Italian restaurant A16, signed a lease for a new outpost in Napa late last year, the plan was to spruce the place up a little and open it quickly. But she quickly changed her mind, undertaking a major renovation that pushed the opening back three months. 'We wanted to be here for a long time,' said Lindgren, who grew up in the North Bay and opened the first A16 in San Francisco's Marina District 20 years ago. 'It started off as, 'Let's see how it goes,' but it feels like the community is very pro-business in Napa. There's a welcoming spirit.' A16 Napa finally opens on Thursday, offering its signature Neapolitan-style pizzas alongside a bevy of new dishes — like pancetta-wrapped pork rolls and octopus cooked in a hearth — inspired by Italy's Puglia region, located in the heel of the country's geographical boot. The new restaurant joins another A16 location in Rockridge and a spinoff location in San Francisco's Ferry Building. It's the first restaurant to occupy the 4,000-square-foot downtown Napa space at 821 Coombs St. since Miminashi, a high-end Japanese izakay a, closed in 2020. Lindgren removed Miminashi's hand-carved wooden door and soft serve window, and tore out the wooden drop ceiling which once gave Miminashi the intimate vibe of an Izakaya. Without it, the Mediterranean-inspired A16 feels lighter, bigger and airy. The centerpiece of the fresh look, from designers John Hurley, Justin Haffen and A16 partner Kitty Oestlien, is a custom white overhang floating above the bar, decorated with dried herbs and chilies. Large chandeliers made in Morocco hover over tables; a long parklet filled with two dozen olive trees and benches seats an extra 30 people outside. (The restaurant can fit about 100 people total.) There are a few remnants from Miminashi: the massive, three-sided bar, now covered in bright, white tiling, and the hearth next to the kitchen where dishes will be grilled within view of diners. The current hearth — or focolare, in Italian — section of the menu features dishes like bombetta Pugliese ($16), pork neck wrapped in pancetta; spot prawns ($16); King Trumpet mushroom topped with caper salsa verde ($12); lamb skewers ($18); and octopus ($26). Yet Lindgren said her team is in the early stages of experimentation with the hearth; a week ahead of opening day, a chef was prepping lobster tails for it. The restaurant will serve plenty of A16 staples including eight types of pizza ($22-27), burrata ($20), pork meatballs ($16), cannellini beans ($8) and fave e cicoria ($16), a Puglian speciality consisting of fava bean puree topped with dandelion greens, garlic and Calabrian chili. Steamed mussels ($22), whole fish with a tarragon salsa ($52) and cavatelli with white ragu sauce and porcini mushrooms ($32) are among a handful of dishes that are, like the grilled section, exclusive to the Napa location. For dessert, in addition to A16's popular chocolate budino ($15) and tiramisu ($14), the new spot will serve a lemon verbena panna cotta ($15) and olive oil cake with poached cherries ($15) using olive oil from Napa's Hudson Ranch winery. Soon, several flavors of gelato will be added to the mix, including honeycomb and stracciatella. While the wine list is Italian-heavy, it will also showcase many California producers making Italian-inspired wines, including Lindgren and Oestlien's brand Tansy. 'One natural link between Puglia and Napa is through Zinfandel, which shares genetic roots with Primitivo,' said Lindgren, who pointed to an old vine Zinfandel from Napa's Matthiasson made from vines planted in the 1880s. Several of the Napa offerings are ones patrons would be hard-pressed to find elsewhere, like a Staglin Sangiovese that's typically reserved for wine club members, and Continuum's Sentium, a premium Sauvignon Blanc crafted by Robert Mondavi's grandchildren. Lindgren's husband, Greg Lindgren, who owns the San Francisco bar Rye, has created the cocktail menu featuring aperitifs, like a grappa spritz and amaro old fashioned, and frozen specialties. In a few weeks, A16 Napa will add lunch service.
