The Oxbow experiment

Napa Valley's newest culinary draw is a throwback to the days when farmers loaded their wagons with watermelons and wine, converged on a warehouse in the middle of town, and sold directly to residents of nearby neighborhoods.

Oxbow Public Market, a soaring postmodern warehouse along a sharp bend of the Napa River on the edge of downtown Napa, is where butcher, baker and candlestick maker are gathering in a bold experiment to show that what's past is what's new.

The farmers are coming, too, but they aren't expected to arrive en masse until the growing season picks up this spring. They will occupy 10 stalls along the east side of the building, forming a daily farmers market.

Already, 16 other merchants have moved in, and by the end of the year, the complex's full complement of 22 businesses is to be operating. This week, two more – both cafes, Rôtisario and Taylor's Automatic Refresher – are to open.

They'll join a lineup that includes a wine shop and bistro with what is believed to be the nation's smallest bonded winery, a young but highly regarded charcuterie that has moved its entire production from Oakland into the complex, and a Marin County ice-cream maker who this summer is to hook up a custom-made bike so visitors can crank out their own milkshakes.

Some of the businesses are run by high-profile names in the North State's wine and food culture, while others are small and largely unknown independent artisans who for the first time are making the dicey move from concentrating solely on production to retail sales.

"Supermarkets have made it difficult for artisan producers to succeed. Most end up selling to supermarkets at a much lower cost than if they've sold their products on their own," says Steve Carlin, who sees Oxbow as a vehicle to correct that inequity.

Carlin is Oxbow's mother hen, scrambling about the barnyard to keep his brood focused on marketing in addition to their usual preoccupation with production.

Oxbow is the realization of Carlin's vision that producers of handcrafted foods deserve a better venue in which to express themselves and to make a living than the customary supermarket.

He spent 20 years helping build Napa Valley's Oakville Grocery into a small but prosperous group of specialty-food stores before selling his half of the company to move to Tuscany. He returned a year later, convinced that the close rapport he developed with merchants in and about Florence could be replicated in the United States, simply by returning to the 18th century's model of the public market.

First, he spent three years as project director of Ferry Building Marketplace on San Francisco's Embarcadero, retooling the beaux-arts landmark into a fashionable food court.

Encouraged by the success of that culinary complex, he assembled a group of partners, rounded up $11 million and built Oxbow, the prototype of an anticipated chain of similar collectives. (Sacramento is high on his list of prospective sites; see story at right.)

"This is the way I like to shop. I want to know the people I'm buying from, and I don't mind paying a little more for that," says Carlin, sitting at a table at the back of Oxbow as employees of the nearby Rôtisario cafe finish installing equipment they'll need to turn out the rotisserie chicken, hanger steak and pork loin on their menu. "I want a relationship with people I trust. For me, it's personal."

He's mindful that Oxbow shares the parking lot with another hopeful effort to appeal to residents and tourists alike with a gastronomic theme. But while neighboring Copia: The American Center for Wine, Food and the Arts struggles to establish its identity and attract a steady clientele, Carlin is confident that the time has come for his agrarian ideal to resonate with consumers.

Oxbow, he says, is the next step in the evolution of the farmers market, already popular and already providing shoppers concerned about the source of their foods with an outlet where they can mingle with growers and other purveyors.

About the writer:

• Call The Bee's Mike Dunne, (916) 321-1143. Read his blog at www.sacbee.com/appetizers. Back columns: www.sacbee.com/dunne.