KATIE D.I.D. BLOG

Tim and I and our youngest did some day tripping over the holidays....Napa was on the itinerary. I have an Aunt who lives in Napa, so we visit whenever we can. Sacramento is only a little over an hour away....so there are really no excuse not to go all of the time!

However, it seems that we have been remiss in not visiting the town of Napa itself....we have concentrated our visits to the wineries up the valley (can you really blame us?) So.....I have been meaning for awhile now to visit Napa proper. There has been quite a lot going on there in the last couple of years....it is enjoying quite a Renaissance!

We had lunch at the Kitchen Door (located at the new Oxbow Public Market ), the latest restaurant in the line up by Chef Todd Humphries with partner Richard Miyashiro. I was very relieved when I heard of its opening, since one of my favorite restaurants in the Valley, Martini Grill (a Humphries restaurant) had closed. So the dreamy food lives on! I had a delicious lunch of Pork Roulade with Creamy Polenta and Root Vegetables in a light mustard seed sauce....oh my....soooo good!

The Oxbow Public Market is such a cool addition to Napa. Oxbow Founder, Steve Carlin, is responsible for the San Francisco Ferry Building Marketplace which I wrote about awhile back. These marketplaces are full to the brim with fantastic food purveyors, and if you are like me and love to taste a bit of this and a bit of that, you love these sorts of places! After lunch we had ice cream.... I had Cardamom ice cream at Three Twins Ice Cream and it was delicious!

After lunch, it was on the the shopping.....which is the point of this blog post. Food does have a way of getting me sidetracked.

Anywaaaaay... I came across a fantastic shop in the new Napa Riverfront that I thought you would all enjoy!

The Riverfront is a new development built on the Napa River as part of a redevelopment effort that included flood abatement design and include new bridges. The whole effect is very European in appearance as the walkways and shops take full advantage of the river front views.

This is where I found Liken Gallery...

Liken Gallery is owned by the amazing Michael Holmes. Michael is most well known for his design of spectacular weddings and events in the Napa and Bay Area. Click on over HERE for a little peek at Michael's genius.

If you look at Michael's events in the website, you can see that some of the amazing props used at his events have ended up in his gallery.

On the Street side of the Riverfront, Michael opened another boutique called Ivy, Twig and Twine which was all decked out for the Holidays. It is equally as beautiful but with a little more whimsy ....