Napa Nosh

Road trip Friday. To Napa, a town that's slowly being built into something...Not sure what yet. But there is a nice restaurant there called Ubuntu, beautifully designed even down to the restrooms, and there's a dining patio scented with jasmine. Four of us shared six dishes (all the food is meatless): Marcona almonds with lavender sugar and salt; a salad sourced mostly from the nearby organic garden and sprinkled with beet powder; artichokes and some sort of leafy succulent over pesto; braised chickpeas in a haunting broth; grits with a farm egg; mushroom pizza with a rich goat-cheese topping. Oh and the lemonade! Best I've ever tasted.
We strolled First Street, bought cupcakes at a sweet little place called Sift, and treated ourselves to pedicures. On the drive home, we stopped at Oxbow Public Market and ogled the goodies. For a final perfect nosh, try the olive bread at Model Bakery, just bursting with kalamata beauties. Then leave this sunny place and get back to the fog, where you belong.