NAPA – Now's the time to visit the Napa Valley. The grape-crush rush is over and traffic has mellowed, but there are still wine- making activities to see, especially on the winery tours.

Yes, the Napa Valley is all about vino, but the valley and its environs brim with high-end restaurants. You need some bucks to dine at places such as the French Laundry (where reservations are two months out), the Restaurant at Meadowood Resort, Go Fish, La Toque and Tra Vigne.

But it is possible to eat more casually in the valley, and for less moola. Recently, for the second time in a few months, we stopped at the oddly named Taylor's Automatic Refresher in the town of Napa, part of the fabulous Oxbow Public Marketplace and a short stroll from the must-visit Copia.

It's a comfortable, immaculate room starkly decorated in the industrial style – high ceilings, exposed ductwork, galvanized tin trim. The white walls and plentiful windows light it up. Choose a booth or stools at a counter, or a picnic table outside. The play list of music is varied and not overwhelmingly loud.

We ordered a lot of good stuff from a to-the-point menu with a price range of $2 (french fries) to $14 (ahi burger, fish 'n' chips).

Our lunches included a blue cheese burger, an ahi burger, a kosher hot dog, a Chinese chicken salad, heaping plates of fries and onion rings, and luscious milkshakes built with Double Rainbow, named "the country's best ice cream" by Chocolatier magazine.

The menu lists eight entries under the "Burgers" heading, and we were happy with our hearty, pink- centered patty. The sandwich was bold with blue cheese teamed with lettuce, tomato, pickles and "secret sauce." The toasted egg-bread bun held it all together.

Though the fresh tuna on the ahi burger was cooked rare as advertised, and the ginger-wasabi mayonnaise was tasty, we thought too much Asian slaw masked the taste of the fish. Further, at the price, a more generous portion was due.

Chinese chicken salad can be bland or great – the latter found at the Tao Tao Cafe in Sunnyvale. Taylor's version delivered multiple layers of complementary flavors and contrasting textures – cabbage, wontons, rice noodles, peanuts, scallions and sesame seeds lending crunch to sliced, grilled chicken breast animated with piquant vinaigrette.

We topped the hot dog with sliced jalapeños, relish and Dijon mustard, but missed the pop that comes when a wiener is wrapped in natural casing. The bun was fresh but the fat dog was salty, even when we tasted it without the salty condiments.

The onion rings were appropriately dark and crisp (as were the fries) and not overbattered. But the food was nearly upstaged by those milkshakes – banana on one visit, fresh blueberry on another.

On our most recent visit, daily specials included Virginia-style pulled pork, chicken tortilla and spicy tomato soups, and a pumpkin-flavored shake.

It should not have been even mildly surprising (but was) that Taylor's has a wine list – reds and whites by the glass and bottle. There's even a Schramsberg sparkler. What did catch us off guard was the $5 corkage fee in a burger joint.

Later in the day we returned to the Oxbow to sample the spectacular pork roulade sandwich at the Fatted Calf Charcuterie, (707) 256-3684.

A counterman explained that a cut called the "pork center" – pork belly attached to the pork loin – is boned and smeared with a mix of fennel, garlic, rosemary, lemon zest, salt and pepper, then rolled up and roasted. Thin slices were cut and stacked on a ciabatta roll with mixed greens, roasted tomato and aioli ($7.50). In a word: Wow!