Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Celluloid & Cellulose: Movies & a Meal
COPIA's on-site gourmet restaurant, Julia's Kitchen, is named for Ms. Child and
operated by celeb chef Tyler Florence. It's not cheap, although a lower-priced
bistro section is in the planning for late 2009. Until that opens, there are two
ways to snag an affordable meal here:
1. Search the Copia website for discounts and promotions
2. Attend Friday night movies, where three to four truly gourmet courses are
served, and a classic flick is shown, for $29—one of the best bargains around.
The grounds, as you might expect, are beautiful, so make sure you roam the
backyard, and there's a random but high-quality food-oriented museum on the
second floor that's also worth a look. Make sure you pick up one of its Wine
Country passports, which includes discounts at wineries all over Napa. While
you're there, walk across the parking lot to Oxbow Public Market (p. 233) for
some lunch or dinner. There are big doings in this part of town; a new 315-room
Ritz-Carlton is planned for next door; that should tell you a lot about the kind of
patron COPIA is shooting for.
Another gold mine for foodies who want to learn about quality cuisine without
having to enroll in a 6-week course,
The Culinary Institute of America
5
(2555
Main St., St. Helena;
%
707/967-2320; www.ciachef.edu/california)
runs a West
Coast branch at Greystone, a most impressive, castle-like building (once a winery)
about 30 minutes north of Napa. Unlike COPIA, it's aimed mostly at food profes-
sionals, and most courses take at least a few days to complete. But the most afford-
able and practical way to dip into this institution's knowledge base is to go to the
institute's theater, where one of the school's chef-instructors conducts regular culi-
nary demonstrations for as little as $15, including tastes and receipt of the recipe
(which changes every few days, so you can go twice). Those usually fall Monday
and Friday at 1:30 and 3:30pm, Saturday and Sunday at 10:30am, 1:30pm, and
3:30pm. Like COPIA, there's also a pricey restaurant here, in this case under the
Wine Spectator
rubric.
During the active harvest period (Aug for whites, Sept-Nov for reds), most
wineries will automatically gear their tours toward including one or two show-
and-tells (always paid, about $35-$70) which walk visitors through the process as
it's happening. Don't expect to be asked to get your feet purple in an old-fash-
ioned stomp—Lucy Ricardo notwithstanding, there are machines for that nowa-
days. Wineries that have their own on-premises vineyards, especially, will be able
to show you the process from plant to press (many properties, even the most illus-
trious ones, actually buy their grapes from farms with no visitor facilities, depriv-
ing you of the fruit-picking portion of the process), so ask your prospective
winery if the grapes are grown on-site.
Perhaps the cheapest way to participate in the harvest and crush is to attend
the packed
Sonoma County Harvest Fair
(www.harvestfair.org; $6),
held in Santa
Rosa the first weekend of October. The highlights: a competition between some
