Beloved Bay Area Italian restaurant opens first Wine Country location
But she quickly changed her mind, undertaking a major renovation that pushed the opening back three months. 'We wanted to be here for a long time,' said Lindgren, who grew up in the North Bay and opened the first A16 in San Francisco's Marina District 20 years ago. 'It started off as, 'Let's see how it goes,' but it feels like the community is very pro-business in Napa. There's a welcoming spirit.'
A16 Napa finally opens on Thursday, offering its signature Neapolitan-style pizzas alongside a bevy of new dishes — like pancetta-wrapped pork rolls and octopus cooked in a hearth — inspired by Italy's Puglia region, located in the heel of the country's geographical boot. The new restaurant joins another A16 location in Rockridge and a spinoff location in San Francisco's Ferry Building. It's the first restaurant to occupy the 4,000-square-foot downtown Napa space at 821 Coombs St. since Miminashi, a high-end Japanese izakay a, closed in 2020.
Lindgren removed Miminashi's hand-carved wooden door and soft serve window, and tore out the wooden drop ceiling which once gave Miminashi the intimate vibe of an Izakaya. Without it, the Mediterranean-inspired A16 feels lighter, bigger and airy.
The centerpiece of the fresh look, from designers John Hurley, Justin Haffen and A16 partner Kitty Oestlien, is a custom white overhang floating above the bar, decorated with dried herbs and chilies. Large chandeliers made in Morocco hover over tables; a long parklet filled with two dozen olive trees and benches seats an extra 30 people outside. (The restaurant can fit about 100 people total.)
There are a few remnants from Miminashi: the massive, three-sided bar, now covered in bright, white tiling, and the hearth next to the kitchen where dishes will be grilled within view of diners. The current hearth — or focolare, in Italian — section of the menu features dishes like bombetta Pugliese ($16), pork neck wrapped in pancetta; spot prawns ($16); King Trumpet mushroom topped with caper salsa verde ($12); lamb skewers ($18); and octopus ($26). Yet Lindgren said her team is in the early stages of experimentation with the hearth; a week ahead of opening day, a chef was prepping lobster tails for it.
The restaurant will serve plenty of A16 staples including eight types of pizza ($22-27), burrata ($20), pork meatballs ($16), cannellini beans ($8) and fave e cicoria ($16), a Puglian speciality consisting of fava bean puree topped with dandelion greens, garlic and Calabrian chili. Steamed mussels ($22), whole fish with a tarragon salsa ($52) and cavatelli with white ragu sauce and porcini mushrooms ($32) are among a handful of dishes that are, like the grilled section, exclusive to the Napa location.
For dessert, in addition to A16's popular chocolate budino ($15) and tiramisu ($14), the new spot will serve a lemon verbena panna cotta ($15) and olive oil cake with poached cherries ($15) using olive oil from Napa's Hudson Ranch winery. Soon, several flavors of gelato will be added to the mix, including honeycomb and stracciatella.
While the wine list is Italian-heavy, it will also showcase many California producers making Italian-inspired wines, including Lindgren and Oestlien's brand Tansy. 'One natural link between Puglia and Napa is through Zinfandel, which shares genetic roots with Primitivo,' said Lindgren, who pointed to an old vine Zinfandel from Napa's Matthiasson made from vines planted in the 1880s. Several of the Napa offerings are ones patrons would be hard-pressed to find elsewhere, like a Staglin Sangiovese that's typically reserved for wine club members, and Continuum's Sentium, a premium Sauvignon Blanc crafted by Robert Mondavi's grandchildren.
Lindgren's husband, Greg Lindgren, who owns the San Francisco bar Rye, has created the cocktail menu featuring aperitifs, like a grappa spritz and amaro old fashioned, and frozen specialties. In a few weeks, A16 Napa will add lunch service.
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