As soon as you walk into the Oxbow Market, on First Street in the city of Napa, you will find it bustling with people mesmerized with the abundance of locally grown produce, exquisite restaurants, and artisan markets. For lunch, or dinner, there are seven restaurants, all featuring fresh, local ingredients in everything from wood fired pizza to locally sourced meat and fish and shellfish as well as sweet treats that are out of this world.
There are nine stores within Oxbow Market and three café markets, including bakeries, chocolate and ice cream shops, local cheese, wine, and olive oil merchants. For a quick break in my day, I picked up several cupcakes from Kara’s Cupcakes, and ate one at Ritual Coffee.
My all-time favorite is the peanut butter chocolate ganache cupcake. The ganache frosting is rich and dense on top of a soft, moist chocolate cake. I ordered an iced mocha to accompany the cupcake. If you like your espresso drinks to actually taste of coffee, then this is the place for you. Made with top quality, organic coffee beans, the mocha has a bold coffee flavor. The chocolate they use melds well with the coffee. Ritual Coffee uses a dark chocolate from Recchiuti Confections, a local source from San Francisco. Oxbow Market is definitely a place for any foodie to carve out time for. Incorporate this hot spot into your stay at our Napa Valley inns and let us know what you think!
