Nibbling through Napa

AudioDad's sisters are celebrating birthdays this week, so we thought it might be fun to have a family day with them in Napa. We decided to meet up at Oxbow Public Market and I was glad to see how popular it has become. I remember taking Munch there when it first opened and was so concerned that it would quickly close due to lack of foot traffic. My last couple of visits though, Oxbow has been as crowded as the SF Ferry Building Marketplace, and it looks like a sit-down restaurant is now in the works where the Wine and Cheese Merchant used to be. Now all it needs is a great kitchenware store!
First stop was a peek into the pastry case at Ca' Momi Winery and Enoteca-
we haven't eaten there yet, as it is a fairly recent addition, but the aroma of their wood fired pizzas puts them as a must-try on my next visit. Another merchant I haven't yet purchased from is Five Dot Ranch, but I imagine we'll also bring something home from there soon-
Next, Munch made a beeline for her Dungeness crab friends in the tanks at Kanaloa Seafood Market-
She loves to talk to them and I'm not quite sure she has realized yet their fate as someone's dinner!
Having arrived before the rest of the family, we had a little time to kill so the next stop was Oxbow Cheese Merchant-
As always, we found plenty to taste and buy!
Everyone arrived soon after that-
so it was time for lunch- Gott's Roadside for them, and a pabellon cachapa (shredded steak, black beans, and plantain on a corn pancake) with yucca fries from Pica Pica Maize Kitchen for me- After lunch, we wandered through the market, tasting chocolate sauces at Anette's Chocolates and olive oils from The Olive Press, where I bought a jar of olive oil salve- just right for my winter-dried hands, before buying ice cream for the kids at Three Twins and some cold cuts from Fatted Calf Charcuterie (MUST go back for more bierwurst!)-
Next we crossed the Napa Valley Wine Train railroad tracks and the First Street bridge over the Napa River to get to the downtown area.
We passed a dirt lot with Dim Sum Charlie's food truck,
which is also the location of Napa's Food Truck Fridays (I hear that Spencer On the Go, from Food Network's Great Food Truck Race, can be found here occasionally- my to-visit list is quickly getting longer!)
At the Napa Riverfront
we peeked into kitchen window at Rotisserie and Wine hoping for a Tyler Florence sighting, but it was too early for dinner serviceso we took a few more pictures and wandered up and down Main Street, popping into a few boutiques,
but not finding Sift Cupcakery which seems to have recently moved to another shopping area a few miles away, so we hopped into our cars for a quick stop-
and left with a half dozen cupcakes