CALISTOGA – On a recent Sunday evening at Hydro Grill & Bar, co-owner Alex Dierkhising stood at the bar with a glass of wine, chatting easily about his place.

Hydro Grill is a deft mix of cozy, airy, sorta wine country, and sorta not. It's got tall brick walls, loads of arched windows, lofty exposed beams and quirky art – like the mermaid, barely noticed, swimming through the air, high in one corner.

The comfort of the place comes from more than the look. Hydro's crowd is often local and always friendly. On this recent Sunday night, with six members of the jazzy Swing 7 band playing away and taking up one large corner, the place was a festival.

Dierkhising and partner Gayle Keller have been running this and All Seasons Bistro across the street for more than 25 years. He is, like lots of people around here, easygoing, relaxed with his world, and happy – totally happy – to be living in this town at the narrow north end of Napa Valley.

"The only real bad complaint I've gotten was from someone on Yelp," he said over the swing music. Around him, some people listened to the band, others talked. "She said this place had nothing in it but a bunch of depressed local drunks."

"They may drink, and they may be local," Dierkhising said, "but they sure aren't depressed."

As he said that, he pointed to a group at the opposite side of the bar. Ron Vuylsteke, a winemaker at Tudal Family Vineyards and a regular, saw him point and gave a big happy wave.

There are loads of reasons not to be depressed in Calistoga, even if you're just visiting, and even if you're not in Hydro Grill. The stores, restaurants and streets are filled with not-depressed people.

Calistoga is old Napa and still a small town. In its way, it's also a hidden part of the region. Despite the big-time success of Napa, Calistoga still feels a lot like the valley did before the wine world exploded here.

It's the least polished piece of Napa Valley, and because it's on the northern end, the least visited (though in high summer and during the harvest, Calistoga's packed like the rest of Napa).

Clearly, though, this is big-deal wine country, and it's an integral piece of the valley that's become the epicenter for American wine. Vineyards are everywhere, up hillsides, along the highway, sometimes planted in little lots between houses. There's great food, wine bars and expensive resorts if you want them. But there's also something more, something comfortable and engaging and earnest about Calistoga.

Here, many of the wineries are smaller and family-owned. There's a high incidence of dogs in and around the tasting rooms – Vincent Arroyo Winery, for instance, has Labrador retrievers JJ and Bodega, who climb stacks of barrels to fetch tennis balls – and almost no incidence of snootiness. (For more on the wineries, see the If You Go box on Page 13).

And the restaurant scene, which ranks in quality with the rest of the valley, has a more casual feel, plus there are plenty of tiny eateries and bars with decidedly smaller-town sensibilities.

And that's the difference. Calistoga is a genuine small town, too, with lots of people like Dierkhising or Mark Wilkinson, who've lived here for decades or were born and raised here.

"I think Calistoga has more soul, so to speak, than some of the other towns in the valley," Wilkinson said. (He, too, by the way, is one of the not-depressed locals often hanging around Hydro Grill.) "The other towns are very nice towns, but some feel 'over-quainted.'

"In Calistoga, there are real hardware stores and real markets and the person in the restaurant or bar or shop owns the restaurant or bar or shop, and they probably have for years."

Wilkinson falls in the born-and-raised category. His father, John "Doc" Wilkinson, was a young chiropractor who came to Calistoga in 1946 with his wife, Edy. In 1952, he founded Dr. Wilkinson's Hot Springs Resort, now one of the iconic establishments in Calistoga for both the spa and the lodging. Today it's run by Mark and his sister, Carolynne, and the place manages – like so many places here – to feel both modern and rooted.

Call The Bee's Rick Kushman, (916) 321-1187. Listen to him Thursdays at 8:40 a.m. on NewsTalk 1530 (KFBK) and 8:50 a.m. on Armstrong & Getty, Talk 650 KSTE.