CALISTOGA, Calif. — Downtown Calistoga’s hospitality scene is shifting on several fronts at once. What follows is what the public record, city officials and firsthand observation confirm about the latest changes, and where the open questions remain, as of late July.

Theorem’s Restaurants Pause as a Parcel Merger Continues

Theorem Vineyards owns two Lincoln Avenue properties for a pair of planned restaurants: the 1888 building at 1364 Lincoln Ave., next to Eight North Restaurant, slated to become the tasting-menu restaurant Ilora, and the historic brick Odd Fellows building at 1343 Lincoln Ave., across the avenue, slated for the more casual TR Bar. In 2025 the winery also bought the fenced empty lot next door to the Odd Fellows building, at 1339 Lincoln Ave.

Greg Desmond, Calistoga’s planning and building director, said Theorem is seeking to merge the Odd Fellows building and that adjacent lot into a single parcel, and that the merger continues to move through the planning process. The restaurant plans themselves have paused. Desmond did not say when the city expects further direction from the owners.

The pause coincides with a change involving the restaurants’ chef. Erik Anderson, reported by the San Francisco Chronicle as the culinary partner on both projects, is now identified by Roseacre’s website and multiple San Diego outlets as culinary director of that La Jolla project, which is preparing to open. Anderson no longer appears on Theorem’s team page, though Napa Valley tourism listings updated in May still name him on both Calistoga restaurants, with Ilora slated for fall 2026. Whether he remains involved, and whether the restaurants are proceeding, delayed or canceled, is not established.

A Sparkling-Wine Lounge Targets September

As two restaurant plans stall, another is moving quickly. Bubbles Calistoga, a sparkling-wine tasting lounge, is planned for 1120 Washington St., with founder Gregg Lamer, the LLC’s managing member, aiming to open in mid-September. State Alcoholic Beverage Control records list Bubbles Calistoga LLC as the applicant for a Type 41 on-sale beer and wine eating-place license, No. 680360, which permits beer and wine but not spirits and requires a working kitchen. The application went pending July 9 and is under review at ABC’s Santa Rosa district office.

Lamer, who has more than 30 years in wine hospitality and has held roles at Roederer Estate and Scharffenberger and run a multi-winery tasting room in Sacramento, describes a concept built on quarterly rotating flights of about 20 sparkling wines by the glass — organized around domestic, Champagne and global themes — with small plates, a bottle club and an online marketplace. He said a fuller announcement is coming in the next few weeks. The storefront’s building-permit status was not available.

Now Open: Eight North and Five Senses

Two downtown restaurants that opened within the past year now appear fully up and running. Eight North, a wine-focused restaurant, bar and event space at 1374 Lincoln Ave., opened in November 2025 in the former Brannan’s Grill space, which had sat vacant for nearly a decade. It is owned by the mother-daughter team of Betsy and Sarah Lawer of Lawer Estates, whose Calistoga and Knights Valley vineyards supply much of the wine list, alongside a rotating selection of local wineries that lack their own storefronts. Executive chef Abby Burk, most recently executive chef at Sam’s Social Club at Indian Springs Resort in Calistoga and before that at Lucia at Bernardus Lodge & Spa in Carmel Valley, centers the menu on a wood-fired grill, with nods to the Lawers’ Alaska roots such as fresh Alaskan seafood. Since a soft opening, the restaurant has repainted its exterior, brought on a new general manager — Neil Robinson, previously the opening general manager of Fleetwood at the Calistoga Motor Lodge — and settled into regular service.

Five Senses, the modern Japanese restaurant at 1227 Lincoln Ave. from owner and head sushi chef Spencer Conaty, profiled by Calistoga Currents as it prepared to open, is now open, serving Wednesday through Sunday from 3 to 8:30 p.m. Conaty built the space around a 25-foot sushi bar and has said he priced the menu with residents in mind, though checks can climb toward the high end for items like bigeye tuna flown in from Japan. A 3 to 5 p.m. happy hour has become a favorite window for locals.

Calistoga Fit on the Move

Calistoga Fit, the gym and studio operation led by owners Donavan and Jacqi Almond, is relocating. In a press release provided to Calistoga Currents, the studio said it will open a temporary Calistoga Fit Training Center at 2025 Grant St. on Aug. 1, with more than 4,000 square feet of indoor and outdoor space for strength and functional training, personal training and group classes. The building is the former golf pro shop — known locally as the Pro Shop — for a course that remains closed. The release said the move is temporary, with a permanent downtown location planned to open in early 2027.

The studio has also partnered with Dr. Wilkinson’s Backyard Resort & Mineral Springs, at 1507 Lincoln Ave., on an expanded premium membership beginning Aug. 1. Premium members will get access to the resort’s geothermal mineral pools, wellness programming, discounted spa services and food and beverage offerings at the resort’s restaurant, House of Better. The arrangement replaces the setup at Calistoga Spa Hot Springs at 1006 Washington St., where the gym has operated with access to that resort’s pools; the release did not say why that arrangement ended.

The Almonds framed the change as unexpected but positive.

“While this transition came unexpectedly, it has created an opportunity to build something even stronger for our members,” they said in the release.

The Depot Reopens, in Part

The Calistoga Depot, the restored 1868 train station at 1458 Lincoln Ave., has reopened with a partial mix of tenants. The property is owned by Boisset Collection, the wine and hospitality company led by Jean-Charles Boisset, which runs the Calistoga Depot Distillery brand there; Michael Madden operates the site day to day and reopened it in April 2024 after an extensive renovation. On a visit Sunday, it was running as a bar, distillery and music venue, with wine tastings offered at times.

Earth & Sky Chocolates, run by Robbie Schmidt, appeared consistently open, and the site also houses the Sarmentine bakery, which Calistoga Currents has profiled. Several of the renovated railcars sat unfilled or open only intermittently. Built in 1868, the Depot is one of California’s oldest surviving railroad depots and a longtime downtown landmark, and which of the remaining railcars will fill, and when, is not yet clear.

A $40 Million Default Passes Its Deadline

The Calistoga Motor Lodge and Spa at 1880 Lincoln Ave. defaulted on a $40 million loan this spring. A notice of default recorded March 23 in the Napa County Recorder’s Office lists $40,983,711 owed, with RREF IV – D DLI Calistoga as lender. Calistoga Hotel Group LP, an entity of Eagle Point Hotel Partners, bought the property in 2015.

Weeks after the filing, the owners announced a multimillion-dollar expansion adding 50 rooms and an adults-only pool, and Eagle Point principal Stephen Chan called it a milestone. A representative declined to comment on the default when reached by the Napa Valley Register.

A notice of default opens California’s non-judicial foreclosure process and generally allows at least 90 days to cure before a trustee’s sale can be scheduled. That window closed in late June. Whether the loan was cured, the property changed hands or the case advanced has not been publicly reported, and the hotel continues to operate. Mayor Donald Williams has said roughly half the city’s general fund comes from transient-occupancy tax on hotel stays.

What Comes Next

Each of these is a story in progress. Calistoga Currents is checking state and county records for license, permit and foreclosure filings, and will report what it learns.

Readers with information about any of these projects can reach the newsroom at news@calistogacurrents.com.

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In the Calistoga Currents article “Under the Hood: Council Tables Fairgrounds Preschool Plan, Picks Grant Street for Repaving,” the Calistoga City Council considers the future of a community preschool, selects Grant Street for the next major repaving project, debates bike lanes and parking on Washington Street and agrees to revisit the city’s formula business ordinance. Three reader polls measure support for prioritizing Grant Street, preferences for balancing bike lanes with parking and views on updating restrictions on chain and formula businesses. The results favor repaving Grant Street first, redesigning Washington Street to preserve both bike lanes and parking and loosening the ordinance for small chains.

Question: The council chose to repave Grant Street next summer, delaying Washington Street. Do you agree?

Summary: Grant Street repaving decision. A majority of respondents (57%) support repaving Grant Street first because it is in worse condition and ready for work. Another 19% favor funding and fixing both streets together while 16% prefer Washington Street because it carries more use. Eight percent selected another option and no respondents supported fixing neither street. Total responses: 37.

Question: Adding bike lanes to Washington Street could eliminate at least nine parking spaces unless the street is redesigned at added cost. What should the city do?

Summary: Washington Street bike lanes and parking. The largest share of respondents (47%) favor paying to redesign the street so bike lanes and parking can both be accommodated. Keeping parking and skipping bike lanes and routing bikes to quieter streets each received 18% while 16% accept losing parking to add bike lanes. No respondents were unsure. Total responses: 38.

Question: Mayor Williams asked the council to revisit the 1996 ordinance restricting chain and formula businesses in Calistoga. What is your stance?

Summary: Formula business ordinance. The largest group of respondents (39%) favor loosening the ordinance for small chains. Another 29% want to strengthen it and close loopholes while 26% support clearer language. Only 5% prefer leaving it alone and no respondents selected another option. Total responses: 38.

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The views, opinions and data presented in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy, position or perspective of Calistoga Currents or its editorial team. Any content provided by our authors is their own and is not intended to malign any group, organization, company or individual.

Our illustrations are produced through a multistep process of generative tools, digital sketching and photo editing, often starting from our own images or sketches.

CALISTOGA, Calif. — Kevin Eisenberg set up a folding table at the farmers market mid-morning on July 25, collected endorsement signatures and explained why his campaign signs still carry a strip of tape over the word “council.”

“I’m not going to waste those signs,” he said. “With a few pieces of tape and a marker, I can update them for mayor. And I feel the same way about city finances. We have real expenses. We don’t have to confuse that with wasteful spending.”

Eisenberg, who is finishing his first term on the City Council, said he decided several months ago to run for mayor after talking with colleagues.

“I really didn’t want to run against a lot of people on council that I really respect, and we came to a very amicable and positive decision,” he said.

An Open Seat and a Filing Window

Williams announced in a July 1 update to his email list that he would not run again, and confirmed the decision to Calistoga Currents. He is in his eighth year on the council and his fourth as mayor.

“I think term limits are a good idea, so I won’t be a candidate for another term,” Williams wrote.

He said he was honored to have served and framed the decision in personal terms, writing that he has only so many lives to lead and must move on to the next one. He also said he hopes his encouragement has drawn residents into local government who might not otherwise have participated.

That leaves an open contest for a seat Williams has held since 2022, when he won it by 27 votes over Gary Kraus, a 16-year council veteran and retired Calistoga fire chief, after trailing on election night. He was first elected to the council in 2018.

The nomination period for the Nov. 3 general election opened at 8 a.m. July 13 and closes at 5 p.m. Aug. 7. Napa County’s candidate guide provides that if an eligible incumbent does not file for an office by that deadline, other qualified candidates for that office have until 5 p.m. Aug. 12 — a provision that now applies to the mayor’s race.

Three Calistoga offices are on the ballot: the two-year mayor’s seat and the four-year council seats held by Scott Cooper and Eisenberg, whose terms expire Dec. 31.

Eisenberg said he was, as of the interview, the only person who had submitted papers for mayor. He said Cooper and Lana Richardson had taken out papers for City Council.

Vice Mayor Lisa Gift did not respond to questions about whether she intends to run for mayor. Her council seat is not on this year’s ballot.

From Los Angeles Classrooms to Calistoga Schools

Eisenberg grew up in Los Angeles and studied theater arts at UC Santa Cruz. He earned a teaching credential at UCLA and a master’s degree from Cal State Dominguez Hills. He said he began teaching elementary school in Los Angeles Unified around 1980, later serving as a mentor teacher, math coordinator and bilingual coordinator.

He said he became an assistant principal and then acting principal at 29th Street School near USC, where the campus ran a joint teacher-training program with USC’s education department.

He and his wife, Mary, also a teacher, decided to leave Los Angeles when their children were 3 and 6. Eisenberg took the principal's job at Calistoga Elementary School in 1992 and stayed 13 years before moving to Calistoga Junior/Senior High School. He has lived in Calistoga 34 years. His campaign literature says he was instrumental in creating the Family Center. He said his last year as a principal was 2012 and that he closed out his career with a year and a half back in the classroom.

The classroom return changed how he thinks about management, he said.

“If I were in charge of the world, I would require all principals to take a year of teaching every 10 years,” he said. “You can’t just say, ‘Do this.’ You really have to involve the teachers. They have to buy into your vision.”

The best part of the high school job, he said, was lunch duty, where he talked with students about their classes and their plans. The lesson he drew was that instruction works better when students have some say in it.

After retiring, Eisenberg served as Rotary district governor for Northwestern California, District 5130, in 2014-15. He later held Rotary Foundation posts, which he described as a coordinator role for the Western United States. Rotary club materials identify him as an assistant regional Rotary Foundation coordinator for Zones 26 and 27 and as District 5130 foundation chair. He received the Gary Barrett Lifetime Achievement Award for service to Calistoga in 2015.

Four Years on the Council

Eisenberg said the biggest surprises of his council term were the pace of local government and the disconnect between Sacramento and the cities expected to carry out state law.

“They pass laws without regard to how they would be implemented,” he said. “Especially in areas like housing, there are contradictory laws that are really impossible to fully implement because they are at odds with each other.”

He said learning the city budget took sustained study and called that knowledge essential for a mayor working with staff and colleagues.

Calistoga has no term limits, and the two men leaving and seeking the mayor’s office land in different places on the question. Williams cited his support for term limits as his reason for stepping aside. Eisenberg said he opposes mandatory limits but would hold himself to two terms as a personal commitment.

“I don’t believe you should be in office forever,” Eisenberg said. “I’m not going to say it should be enacted in ordinance because I think ultimately the voters should get to decide.”

His campaign handout credits his council term with improved infrastructure, the fairgrounds community survey, better city management, approval of the Calistoga Resiliency Center to supply power during PG&E planned shutoffs, completion of the Vine Trail bike and pedestrian path, local control of downtown sidewalks and approval of mobile food trucks. The Vine Trail’s 8.2-mile St. Helena-to-Calistoga section, which runs from Pratt Avenue to the Calistoga Depot, opened in August 2024. Roughly 33 of the planned 47 miles are open, and the full route is intended to reach the Vallejo ferry terminal.

Housing and the Missing Middle

Eisenberg said the state’s housing mandates leave developers wide latitude and that a mayor’s influence should be aimed at what Calistoga workers can actually afford.

“The missing piece is the middle income,” he said. “You could have two parents working good jobs and they still can’t afford it.”

The arithmetic behind that gap has been the subject of prior Calistoga Currents and Napa Valley Features reporting. Countywide, the median home price sits near $937,500, while median household income is roughly $109,000. Qualifying for the median home under conventional underwriting at current rates takes about $230,000.

His campaign handout frames workforce housing as a priority “within the limits of water and space” and argues that cutting out-of-town commuting by 10% or 15% would produce noticeable reductions in traffic and pollution. He points to his own neighborhood, the Palisades subdivision, as a working example of market-rate and subsidized family homes built together.

He said Calistoga has met its low-income housing obligations. The city’s certified 2023-2031 housing element reports that Calistoga met all of its regional housing needs allocation targets during the 2015-2023 cycle, crediting local financing programs, zoning changes and a comparatively small allocation.

He pointed to the school district’s plans for the Gallis property, along with city-owned land, as opportunities to steer construction toward teachers and municipal employees. Calistoga Joint Unified School District bought the 16.4-acre parcel off Highway 29 in 2003 for a campus that was never built.

Superintendent Audra Pittman said the school board is committed to setting aside 20% to 40% of the homes for district employees, with the final share to be determined in work with the city and the developer. The homes are planned for ownership rather than rental.

“The idea is that the homes would go to district employees followed by city employees, followed by other employees of businesses in Calistoga,” Pittman said.

Pittman said the district is working with Rivercrest to submit its application to the city for entitlements, after which it would sell the property to a developer that meets the district’s requirements to build and sell the homes. The city’s Planning and Building Department did not respond to questions about the project’s application record before publication.

Asked about second homes absorbing middle-market inventory, Eisenberg said the city has almost no legal authority to restrict who buys a house.

He named the Yellow Rose project, which predated his council service, as the community’s largest missed opportunity of the past decade. The Yellow Rose Ranch application, filed by The True Life Cos. for 46.3 acres at 2650 Foothill Blvd., originally proposed 175 homes in 2018, including 54 affordable apartments. The current application before the city would subdivide the site into 46 single-family lots, and the city’s project page says no public hearing has been scheduled.

Infrastructure and the Cost of Full Service

Eisenberg called infrastructure the city’s biggest coming challenge, arguing that spending on roads, water and sewer now avoids larger bills later. His platform makes the same point in operational terms: Repaving is the moment to replace the pipe underneath it.

The scale is documented. City staff told the council in January that Calistoga expects to spend more than $73 million on water and wastewater upgrades over the next decade, covering two treatment plants, a dam and reservoir, about 20 miles of sewer collection lines and more than 40 miles of water mains. More than 10% of the city’s water pipes and 14% of its wastewater pipes will be more than 75 years old by 2027, and about 70% of Calistoga’s water travels more than 65 miles to reach the city.

That work is carried by roughly 1,600 water customers and 1,300 sewer customers.

“We’re a full-service city, but we don’t necessarily have the population that easily supports the full array of services that we provide,” he said.

He said residents nonetheless want local police, fire and recreation services and are willing to pay for the control that comes with them.

On the economy, Eisenberg said Calistoga is tourism-dependent and that denying it would mean denying facts. With the wine industry under strain, he said the city’s wellness businesses and its recreational assets give it room to broaden its appeal. He cited the Vine Trail, the Oat Hill Mine Trail — the 8.3-mile former mine wagon road that climbs from the Lincoln Avenue and Silverado Trail junction toward Pope Valley — and Mount Saint Helena.

He said he does not expect additional resorts or lodging capacity.

“I think we are saturated on resorts,” he said.

Rewriting the Formula Business Ordinance

Eisenberg said his goal for the city’s formula business ordinance is a rule that applies uniformly and can be defended.

“My goal with our formula business ordinance is to make it enforceable with the rule of law and also to make sure that we don’t need exceptions — that we can make it applicable to all, enforceable, with no exceptions,” he said.

Pressed on whether the current ordinance is unenforceable, he said on the record that legal advice indicates it needs fixing to be fully enforceable.

The ordinance, Calistoga Municipal Code 17.04.132, dates to 1996 and bars chain businesses from the city. It has been enforced against major operators, including Four Seasons. It came back into public view this month after Sarmentine, a French bakery with three Sonoma County locations, opened July 8 at the Calistoga Depot at 1458 Lincoln Ave. The city told Calistoga Currents the opening was handled administratively, based on the applicant’s representations, with no use permit, no conditions and no Planning Commission or council review. At the council’s July 14 meeting, Williams called the ordinance “wanting” and directed staff to bring it back. Vice Mayor Lisa Gift has said the amendments under discussion would address small family-owned businesses with more than one location.

Eisenberg said the revision is not an opening for national chains.

“There is no feeling on council that we are going to bring in national chains,” he said. “You’re not going to see a Burger King in Calistoga. There will be no golden arches.”

The Job and the Pay

Eisenberg estimated he spends about 20 hours a week on council work. The city’s posted stipend schedule, adopted as Ordinance No. 765 on Jan. 19, 2024, sets council pay at $950 a month, with the mayor receiving an additional $550. Eisenberg cited lower figures in the interview.

“Nobody is doing these jobs for the money,” he said.

His council committee assignments, as listed by the city, are the Active Transportation Advisory Committee, the Green Committee, the Napa County Climate Action Committee and the Napa Valley Transportation Authority board. He said he chairs the county climate committee and that a mayor should expect to add assignments rather than shed them.

Eisenberg said he exercises a couple of hours most mornings, riding a recumbent bicycle because a car accident at 16 left his neck fused from C1 through C6.

The Fairgrounds and What He Tells Voters

On the fairgrounds, Eisenberg said he would support a comprehensive plan reflecting the priorities identified in the community survey, to the extent they are physically and fiscally feasible and would protect the grandstands and the three major buildings.

That position arrives as the property’s future is actively in play. Williams said the council recently authorized the fairgrounds revitalization director to invite proposals from developers and operators interested in returning golf to the site, and that some of those proposals may reach beyond the former course to include the race track, the Great Lawn and the two houses on the property. He said the invitation does not commit the city to golf and that nothing has been decided.

His platform closes on what Eisenberg calls Calistoga’s small-town character: a place where families can thrive, where civic organizations carry part of the community’s health and where the police and fire departments are funded locally.

Asked what he would say to voters who oppose him, he answered in five words.

“May the best person win.”

Asked what he would say to Calistoga’s Latino residents, Eisenberg answered in Spanish, saying he is with them, that Calistoga is one community with different needs in different parts of it, that his years in the schools left him knowing many Spanish-speaking families and that he believes he is a candidate who can unify the city.

“I love Calistoga,” he said. “I feel I have the experience and the background to be a good mayor, and I am absolutely willing to put the time necessary into doing a good job.”

Eisenberg can be reached at calistogakevin@gmail.com. His campaign website is calistogakevin.org.

Editor’s note: Lana Richardson, named in this story as having taken out nomination papers for City Council, is a volunteer with Calistoga Currents.

--

Tim Carl is a Calistoga-based photojournalist.

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The views, opinions and data presented in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy, position or perspective of Calistoga Currents or its editorial team. Any content provided by our authors is their own and is not intended to malign any group, organization, company or individual.

Our illustrations are produced through a multistep process of generative tools, digital sketching and photo editing, often starting from our own images or sketches.

CALISTOGA, Calif. — “What’s a Soroptimist?”

That’s exactly what Reggie Wilford wanted to know when her friend Suzan Shaw asked her to be one. And now, a year after joining and taking part in all the group does for the Calistoga community, she says most people still couldn’t tell you who they are or what they do. In her new role of public affairs officer, she hopes to change that.

For starters, she said, they’re the ones who hold the annual Crab Feed the first weekend in March. They buy the crab, make the baked goods and staff the event with volunteers from within their membership. Donations pay for the wine and prizes. It sells out every year, but then what?

“Our mission is to develop and mentor women and make a difference in the lives of girls and women in the community,” Wilford said, “so a large portion of the proceeds after paying for everything goes toward scholarships.”

Each year interested students fill out applications that include personal questions such as what they have done to help their community and what they would do to help an unhappy roommate. Carla Surber, the college and career counselor for Calistoga High School, receives the scholarship applications from the students. She redacts all the names and passes them on to Monica Garibay, a member of the Soroptimist education committee who coincidentally works at the school. Garibay then meets with that committee, and they read the applications as a group against a rubric before deciding which ones best meet Soroptimist criteria.

“It’s very hard!” said Garibay, who takes part only as a resource to answer judges’ questions. “We have some amazing young students, and working at the school and having relationships with the students, I don’t want to be biased.”

This year’s CHS winners were Liliana Hernandez, Carolina Cuaxilo and Jasmin Robles. Winners from Palisades High School were Ella Marron, Mariana Sofia Martinez, Ytzel Cruz Cisneros and Jesse Vazquez Gonzalez.

The winners are then honored at a special ceremony for them and their families. Students can use their scholarships at either a college or trade school. The group also awards a “Live Your Dream” scholarship to a woman who has been out of school for a while and wants to continue her education. This year’s winner was Gabriela Garibay (no relation to Monica), a paraprofessional whose three years of helping in the classroom have inspired her to want to teach.

A few years back one of the high school winners was Monce Perez, who wanted to be an architect. During her first year at Sacramento State, she worked at an ice cream shop, but her schedule changed in her second year, making that impossible. When she explained to the Soroptimists what had happened, they gave her additional support. Now a college graduate, she is working as a designer to gather experience before she begins her studies for a master’s degree in architecture.

“The women from Soroptimist have kept in touch even now,” she said, “and my scholarship opened doors I didn’t know I could have.”

One of those was being able to enter a design competition in San Francisco that she won. This allowed her to go to Chicago for NeoCon, the “Super Bowl” of design competitions. While she didn’t win, she said the prize led her to see new products and make contacts and friends.

Soroptimist International Calistoga — this year celebrating its 70th anniversary — works with girls at Calistoga High School to help them develop and expose them to opportunities available to them beyond high school by way of membership in the S Club. A similar program at Palisades High School is called Pals. They recently held a session there where students learned how to conduct themselves in an interview and put together a resume. They also took a field trip to a roastery so they could roast coffee and make their own blend. The point, Wilford said, was to show them different types of jobs and help them grow as independent people.

“A lot of the females are brought up to marry, have children and stay home,” Wilford said. “That’s one of the reasons we try to mentor them on a regular basis to help them understand what they can do and give them the tools of independent thinking, leadership and career paths that are beyond just graduating from high school. It’s one of the reasons the scholarships we have been handing out for years is to help them financially to get to college.”

To that end, on Oct. 3 they will be collaborating with LatinaVIDA to host a daylong “Dream It, Be It” event at Napa Valley College. They will have speakers, moderators and a panel to help participants with brainstorming ideas, project planning and leadership essentials so they get excited about further education and know they can do it. While the day is targeted to young women, any student in the Napa Valley can come.

And there is so much more. Through their Read Aloud Partners Program they visit elementary school classrooms to read a book the teacher has approved and then provide a copy for each student to take home and share with siblings. Currently they read in 22 classrooms and purchase 500 books three times a year. They have given donations to Hearts and Hands Preschool, Napa Emergency Women’s Services, Collective Impact Program and UpValley Family Centers. During monthly meetings they invite speakers to help them learn, often about how they can further support community endeavors. They march in the Fourth of July and winter holiday parades alongside the young women they mentor.

For several years Wilford and her husband lived in Dallas and had a vacation home in Calistoga. Then three years ago, when they both retired, they moved here full time.

“I had a career in human resources in corporate America,” she said, “so for me getting involved in the community was super-important, and to be able to be around people and make a difference was important.”

She joined the Calistoga Cares Food Bank right away, and that’s where she met Shaw. You know the rest.

“We’re trying to stay present in the community so that people understand the good work we are doing,” Wilford said.

Adds Perez: “They aren’t just ordinary people. They have become my family. Anyone that’s lucky enough to have them in their life is really lucky, and if you have a chance to join them, do it — 100%!”.

—

Glenda Winders is a novelist, freelance writer and copyeditor for Napa Valley Features.

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The views, opinions and data presented in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy, position or perspective of Calistoga Currents or its editorial team. Any content provided by our authors is their own and is not intended to malign any group, organization, company or individual.

Our illustrations are produced through a multistep process of generative tools, digital sketching and photo editing, often starting from our own images or sketches.

CALISTOGA, Calif. — With a flash of steel and a spray of foam, Hugh Davies and his crew sabered open bottles of sparkling wine Thursday morning and poured them over bins of pinot noir, opening Schramsberg’s 2026 harvest.

The ceremony happens where the work happens: on the concrete slab above the winery where fruit is tipped down into the press and beneath which Jacob Schram's 1870s caves run back into the mountain. Roughly 60 to 80 people filled the pad at 11 a.m. — cellar and vineyard crews, family, guests — standing three deep as bottle necks flew and corks skittered across the asphalt.

Davies said the winery is now in its 62nd harvest, counting from the 1965 revival of the property by his parents, Jack and Jamie Davies.

A Winery Above the Valley Floor

Schramsberg carries a Calistoga address, 1400 Schramsberg Road, but it sits outside the appellation that bears the town’s name: The winery lies southwest of town, up off Highway 29 on the eastern flank of the Mayacamas range, inside the Diamond Mountain District.

Schram planted the first vines here in 1868 and dug the winery's caves in the years that followed. The estate sat idle for decades until the Davies family bought it in 1965.

The drive to the winery still shows the scars of the 2020 Glass Fire. The blaze started in Deer Park on the far side of the valley, crossed the valley floor and burned through the Schramsberg property, opening views of estate vineyards that the forest had largely hidden. Davies told Napa Valley Features last year that the winery ran on a generator for 77 days off the electrical grid before the fire closed in around them.

Davies addressed the gathering in English and then in Spanish, without notes or staging — closer to a family speaking to the people it works with than to a promotional event.

Vice President of Winemaking Sean Thompson, who joined the sabering line in a red hooded sweatshirt, is working his 21st harvest at Schramsberg and his 35th in the industry.

A Blessing With Roots

Sabering, or sabrage, traces to the Napoleonic era, when French cavalry officers opened Champagne bottles with their swords. At Schramsberg the practice has been folded into a blessing of the grapes: A bottle is struck open, then its foam poured over the fruit on the pad, a gesture meant to bring good fortune for the season.

The fruit under the foam was 10 tons of pinot noir from Casa del Sol, Chris Dearden’s vineyard off Las Amigas Road in Carneros, Davies said. The Richburg Vineyard in Carneros, which served as the winery’s first pick for years, comes in Monday.

The ceremony was not the winery’s first fruit of 2026. Davies said Schramsberg picked Dutton Jewel and Dutton Perry on July 16 and 17 in the Green Valley pocket of the Russian River Valley in Sonoma County. The winery picked more Dutton Perry this week along with its Keefer Ranch block in Green Valley and its Horseshoe Bend Vineyard in Occidental.

Acid Running High

The fruit is arriving with more acid than usual. Davies said acidities have run 1 to 3 grams per liter above normal so far. The Casa del Sol pinot noir on the pad Thursday measured 18.5 Brix and 11.2 grams per liter of titratable acidity. A Dutton Perry lot recorded 18.8 Brix and 14.1 grams per liter, and a Dutton Jewel lot came in at 20.2 Brix and 12.8.

High acid at low sugar is the profile sparkling producers chase because it gives the finished wine its lift and its ability to age.

Davies said the vintage is unlike anything the winery has seen since 2015 in timing and in low yields, though he cautioned there is a long way to go. The mechanisms differ: 2015 was the fourth consecutive drought year and the vines put on very little growth, while 2026 was pulled forward by a warm March and early bud break followed by considerable shatter during bloom in pinot noir, especially in western Sonoma County. What the two years share, he said, is fruit depth and elevated acidity.

“I love the 2015s. They are bright and vibrant,” Davies said.

Chardonnay yields look light as well, Davies said, though closer to normal than pinot noir. Clusters are light and berries are small across the board, with more to learn as picking continues.

Steve Matthiasson, owner of Matthiasson Wines, described the same pattern from the valley floor, where bloom stretched across roughly six weeks.

“Very light crop, small clusters and surprisingly small berries, healthy vines, quality could be really good,” Matthiasson said, adding that he expected to start with whites in early August and sparkling fruit before that.

A Short Crop in a Soft Market

The ritual is celebratory. The economics around it are not. Napa’s 2026 crop is shaping up as one of the lightest in memory, a swing that eases years of wine oversupply while cutting income for growers who sell fruit by the ton. Vineyard consultants and growers interviewed by Napa Valley Features this month described wineries ending automatic contract renewals, walking away from signed agreements and pressing for lower prices — pressure a light crop does not relieve.

Family, Foam and the First Press

Monique Davies and two of the couple’s three sons, Nelson and Hughie, joined Hugh for a toast beside the bins, glasses of rosé raised over fruit still wet with sparkling wine. A third son, Emrys, is working in Idaho this summer.

Then the forklift moved in, the bins tipped and the juice ran toward the press. The pageantry lasted a few minutes. Davies said cabernet could finish as early as late September or early October at the current pace.

--

Tim Carl is a Calistoga-based photojournalist.

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The views, opinions and data presented in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy, position or perspective of Calistoga Currents or its editorial team. Any content provided by our authors is their own and is not intended to malign any group, organization, company or individual.

Our illustrations are produced through a multistep process of generative tools, digital sketching and photo editing, often starting from our own images or sketches.

CALISTOGA, Calif. — Ever since she arrived in Calistoga, owning her own business was something Martha Torres thought of as the American dream.

Now, thanks to son Bryan Villa Torres, that dream has come true. Together they co-own Mis Raíces, an ice cream shop on Lincoln Avenue that she runs with the help of her daughters, Jacqueline and Jessica, and her granddaughter, Itxel Robles.

The rest of the Villa Torres family had never thought of starting a business.

“It was really my mom’s dream,” Bryan said.

Martha immigrated to California from Veracruz in 1990 and decided to raise her children in Calistoga. She began Martha’s Cleaning Services, working in Calistoga, St. Helena and Santa Rosa. But the ice cream shop beckoned.

The Mis Raíces property had passed through several owners over the years and was most recently known as Café San Marco. Bryan was in high school when his mom first learned the property was available. She was unable to purchase it then, but in 2020 she received another opportunity to purchase it, and he decided to help her finally become the owner. They have been running Mis Raíces for the past four years.

The family kept the same menu from the previous owner, continuing to have the same ice cream and espresso and the same vendors while removing pastries and adding their own recipes. Bryan invented the Mazapan Shake, Gansito Shake and Maria's Galleta Shake, which are customer favorites. Other popular flavors include banana with chocolate chips, pineapple coconut and pistachio.

Mis Raíces offers 10 ice cream flavors that they switch up occasionally. The source for their ice cream is Fruta in Sonoma County.

Martha said one of the surprising things about becoming a business owner was getting unexpected support from others, especially her children.

“Overall, the support of my children was crucial,” she said. “Sometimes I want to give up, but they tell me to keep going.”

Since this is a family business, everyone pitches in wherever help is needed. Bryan deals with finances and keeping equipment up to date. Martha restocks items, picks up the ice cream and helps out on weekends. Jessica deals with payroll. Jaqueline runs the shop full time and helps with marketing, and Itxel works at the shop, as well.

Bryan also works as a warehouse manager at Wine Service Co-Op, and Martha continues to run her cleaning service.

For an ice cream shop, the off-season can be a challenging time for business.

“There could be good days, and there could be bad days,” Martha said. “We have to communicate to get through the hard days.”

Bryan agrees.

“We all have to do our part and help promote each other so that we’re all around for many years.”

Martha and her family would like to give a huge thank you to the local businesses and residents as well as those from out of town who show support. This includes a Yelp recognition for top three coffee shops in Calistoga and a Best of the North Bay award from the North Bay Bohemian for Best Smoothie.

“We didn’t enter or anything,” Jacqueline said. “We just got a call and got the plate.”

In the future they hope to find a bigger space with more seating room and to expand their menu.

“I want this to be a place that’s like a family for people to be comfortable to come and eat their ice cream or coffee and for it to taste like a place they want to come back to,” Martha said.

Mis Raíces, at 1408 Lincoln Ave. in Calistoga, is open Sunday through Thursday from noon to 8 p.m. and Friday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. For more information, visit their Instagram @mis_raicescafe or call 707-403-5077.

—

Vanessa Herrera Ortega is studying journalism at Santa Rosa Junior College. She is a graduate of Palisades High School in Calistoga.

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CALISTOGA, Calif. — Desde que llegó a Calistoga, tener su propio negocio era algo que Martha Torres consideraba como “el sueño americano.”

Ahora, gracias a su hijo Bryan Villa Torres, ese sueño se ha hecho realidad. Juntos son copropietarios de Mis Raíces, una nevería en Lincoln Avenue que ella opera con la ayuda de sus hijas, Jacqueline y Jessica, y su nieta, Itxel Robles.

El resto de la familia Villa Torres nunca había pensado en iniciar un negocio.

“Realmente era el sueño de mi mamá,” dijo Bryan.

Martha emigró a California desde Veracruz en 1990 y decidió criar a sus hijos en Calistoga. Inició Martha ‘s Cleaning Services, trabajando en Calistoga, St. Helena y Santa Rosa. Pero la nevería la llamaba.

La propiedad de Mis Raíces había pasado por varios dueños a lo largo de los años y era conocida más recientemente como Café San Marco. Bryan estaba en la preparatoria cuando su mamá supo por primera vez que el local estaba disponible. Ella no pudo comprarlo en ese entonces, pero en 2020 recibió otra oportunidad de adquirirlo, y él decidió ayudarla a convertirse finalmente en la dueña. Han estado operando Mis Raíces durante los últimos cuatro años.

La familia mantuvo el mismo menú del dueño anterior, sirviendo los mismos helados y espresso y usando a los mismos proveedores, mientras eliminaron la repostería y agregaron sus propias recetas. Bryan inventó el Mazapán Shake, el Gansito Shake y el María’s Galleta Shake, que son los favoritos de los clientes. Otros sabores populares incluyen plátano con chispas de chocolate, piña coco y pistachio.

Mis Raíces ofrece 10 sabores de helado que cambian de vez en cuando. Su proveedor de helados es Fruta, en el condado de Sonoma.

Martha dijo que una de las cosas sorprendentes de convertirse en dueña de un negocio fue recibir apoyo inesperado de los demás, especialmente de sus hijos.

“En general, el apoyo de mis hijos fue fundamental,” dijo. “A veces quiero rendirme, pero ellos me dicen que siga adelante.”

Como es un negocio familiar, todos ayudan donde se necesite. Bryan se encarga de las finanzas y de mantener el equipo actualizado. Martha reabastece los productos, recoge el helado y ayuda los fines de semana. Jessica maneja la nómina. Jacqueline opera la nevería a tiempo completo y ayuda con el marketing, y Itxel también trabaja en el local.

Bryan también trabaja como gerente de almacén en Wine Service Co-Op, y Martha continúa con su servicio de limpieza.

Para una nevería, la temporada baja puede ser un momento difícil para el negocio.

“Puede haber días buenos y puede haber días malos,” dijo Martha. “Tenemos que comunicarnos para superar los días difíciles.”

Bryan está de acuerdo.

“Todos tenemos que hacer nuestra parte y ayudarnos a promocionarse mutuamente para que todos estemos aquí por muchos años.”

Martha y su familia quieren dar un enorme agradecimiento a los negocios locales y residentes, así como a los que vienen de fuera de la ciudad y muestran su apoyo. Esto incluye un reconocimiento de Yelp como uno de los tres mejores cafés en Calistoga y un premio Best of the North Bay de la revista North Bay Bohemian al Mejor Smoothie.

“Nosotros no escribimos ni nada,” dijo Jacqueline. “Simplemente recibimos una llamada y nos dieron la placa.”

En el futuro esperan encontrar un espacio más grande con más asientos y expandir su menú.

“Quiero que este sea un lugar que sea como una familia, donde la gente se sienta cómoda para venir a comer su helado o café y que sepa a un lugar al que quieran regresar,” dijo Martha.

Mis Raíces, en 1408 Lincoln Ave. en Calistoga, abre de domingo a jueves de 12 a 8 p.m. y viernes y sábado de 11 a.m. a 9 p.m. Para más información, visita su Instagram . —

Vanessa Herrera Ortega estudia periodismo en Santa Rosa Junior College. Es egresada de la preparatoria Palisades High School en Calistoga.

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The views, opinions and data presented in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy, position or perspective of Calistoga Currents or its editorial team. Any content provided by our authors is their own and is not intended to malign any group, organization, company or individual.

Our illustrations are produced through a multistep process of generative tools, digital sketching and photo editing, often starting from our own images or sketches.

CALISTOGA, Calif. — Journalism has been a part of my life for over a decade, beginning during my time at Sonoma State University and continuing through hundreds of published stories covering sports, community events and the people who make local communities special. As I join Calistoga Currents as a sportswriter, I’m excited for the opportunity to introduce myself and reconnect with readers throughout the area.

I graduated with a bachelor’s degree in communications from Sonoma State University, where I spent three years writing for the Sonoma State STAR, the university’s student newspaper. My time at the STAR provided valuable newsroom experience and helped establish the foundation for my career in journalism. Covering athletics, campus news and feature stories taught me the importance of accuracy, thorough reporting and meeting deadlines while telling stories that resonate with readers.

Beyond journalism, I gained experience in communications and public relations through an internship with Taun’Toro Salsa, where I assisted with social media content, marketing initiatives and community engagement efforts — culminating in a capstone PR campaign for my senior project. The experience provided a broader understanding of strategic communications and audience development while reinforcing the importance of effective storytelling across multiple platforms.

Since graduating, I have authored more than 400 published articles covering a wide variety of topics, with much of my work focused on local sports and community-centered reporting. Throughout that time, I’ve had the privilege of covering championship teams, profiling local leaders and highlighting the stories that often go untold but help define a community. Pat Hampton gave me my initial chance at the Calistoga Tribune, and I am so grateful for her seeing me all the way through from “Jacob Turner, Intern” in my first published byline to “Jacob Tucker’s View From the Bleachers” becoming a recurring series around the San Francisco Giants, Golden State Warriors and other local professional sporting events.

In addition to contributing to the Mud City Times, my freelance work has expanded beyond traditional community journalism in recent years. I have written feature stories for Stockton Cargo SC, a pre-professional soccer club competing in the United Soccer League W League. Those assignments have included an initial season preview as well as in-depth profiles on players, coaches and club leadership, offering readers a closer look at the personal journeys and experiences that shape organizations both on and off the field.

While my professional experience has continued to grow, the principles that first drew me to journalism remain unchanged. The most meaningful stories are often found closest to home. Whether covering local government, community events, business developments or the accomplishments of local residents, I believe strong community journalism plays an essential role in preserving the stories, history and identity of a town.

I am grateful for the opportunity to join Calistoga Currents and contribute to its mission of serving the community through thoughtful, accurate and engaging reporting. I look forward to meeting new people, sharing important stories and helping readers stay connected to the issues, events and individuals that make Calistoga such a special place. Thank you for reading along.

—

Jacob Tucker covers sports for Calistoga Currents.

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The views, opinions and data presented in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy, position or perspective of Calistoga Currents or its editorial team. Any content provided by our authors is their own and is not intended to malign any group, organization, company or individual.

Our illustrations are produced through a multistep process of generative tools, digital sketching and photo editing, often starting from our own images or sketches.

CALISTOGA, Calif. — A preschool searching for a home, two battered streets competing for one paving budget and a modular office building dominated a roughly two-and-a-half-hour Calistoga City Council meeting July 14 at the Community Center — before Mayor Donald Williams closed the evening by asking his colleagues to reexamine the ordinance that has kept chain businesses out of town for three decades.

All five council members participated, with Councilmember Irais Lopez-Ortega attending remotely from Los Angeles, where she was attending the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials conference.

Preschool Proposal Tabled Without a Decision

The council spent more than an hour on a proposal from Hearts and Hands Preschool to convert a roughly 580-square-foot house adjacent to the RV park at the city-owned fairgrounds, then voted 5-0 to table the item to a future meeting without giving staff direction.

The nonprofit, described by council members as the city’s last community preschool, is licensed for 30 children and currently serves about 15 to 17 between the ages of 2 and 4. It must vacate its current location by Sept. 30, and board president MaryAnn Salinger told the council the fairgrounds house is the only confirmed option left after months of searching, though two other possibilities are being explored.

“Our only option right now, in all honesty, is trying to get this facility and then looking for another temporary facility that we could be in between September 30th to whenever the house would be ready — otherwise we just shut our doors down on the 30th,” Salinger said.

Deputy City Manager Rachel Stepp told the council that converting the residence to an institutional day care occupancy would trigger commercial fire sprinklers, ADA improvements, new water service and other upgrades that staff roughly estimated at $300,000 to $400,000, plus about $35,000 in water infrastructure — costs the preschool, not the city, would bear. The house and its garage offer about 830 usable square feet; the preschool’s current license would require roughly 1,225 square feet indoors and about 2,250 square feet of fenced outdoor play space. Planning and Building Director Greg Desmond estimated permitting alone would take six to nine months before an approximately six-month construction period.

Salinger said the numbers did not surprise the board.

“We do have some funders that are ready to cut their checks as soon as we get an agreement,” she said.

City Manager Mitch Celaya recounted months of work with the preschool’s board, the county, the school district, nonprofits and local churches that produced no viable alternative. Both public speakers on the item opposed the fairgrounds site, citing cost, safety and the property’s emergency-staging role during wildfires.

Vice Mayor Lisa Gift argued for keeping the option alive, noting the house has sat unused since the city bought the 70.6-acre fairgrounds from Napa County in 2024.

“While we haven’t used that building in two years, we also have no immediate future plans to use that building,” Gift said.

Williams opposed the location, citing safety concerns near RV park traffic and a desire to preserve flexibility as the city develops a long-term vision for the property.

“We can’t be supportive of every organization in every way,” he said.

Councilmember Scott Cooper said he could not decide without input from the Fairgrounds Advisory Committee, which staff confirmed had not weighed in. Gift then amended her motion to table the item, which passed unanimously.

Grant Street Wins the Paving Contest — and a Move to Waive Old Debts

With Gift recused because she lives near Washington Street, the remaining four council members voted unanimously to direct staff to bid the Grant Street repaving project this winter for construction next summer, choosing it over a competing Washington Street project.

Public Works Director and City Engineer Derek Rayner told the council the city’s budget can support only one of the two collector roads this cycle. Grant Street, rated 22 on the 100-point pavement condition index — “very poor” — would cost about $1.8 million to rebuild along roughly a half mile from Garnett Court to the city limits, including a multi-use pathway required by a prior city ordinance. Washington Street, rated 33, would cost about $2.2 million for a quarter mile from Berry Street to North Oak Street and includes new water and recycled-water lines.

Washington Street carried a complication: a 2022 Safe Routes to School walk audit recommended Class II bike lanes along the corridor, but fitting them would eliminate at least nine parking spaces along a block and a half between Lake and Berry streets. Redesigning the street with “pocket parking” to preserve both could add $400,000 or more, Rayner said.

The Grant Street project carried its own baggage: deferral agreements dating to the 1970s that obligate several property owners — roughly four, by staff’s count — to help pay for pathway improvements along their frontages, a combined cost staff estimated at roughly $150,000 in 2022. The city attorney has advised that enforcing the aging documents would be time-consuming and uncertain.

Grant Street residents Emilio and Francis Tedeschi urged the council to choose their street and formally retire the agreements, saying former Mayor Chris Canning had told property owners years ago that the city would sunset them.

“We’ve been waiting 20 years for this project to get started,” Emilio Tedeschi said.

The city’s Active Transportation Advisory Committee also recommended Grant Street, with member Aaron Heth telling the council the multi-use pathway would be “quintessential to connecting the edge of town” with the fairgrounds, while Carlotta Sainato, program manager of the Napa County Bicycle Coalition, and several parents pressed for the Washington Street bike lanes. Other neighbors, including Jeffrey Stambor of Fourth Street, opposed any loss of parking.

Council members landed on a two-track approach: build Grant Street now and take the added time to design a Washington Street project that accommodates both bike lanes and parking.

“Both Grant and Washington have to be done. There’s just no question about it,” Councilmember Kevin Eisenberg said. “Let’s get two projects done in two years and get them done right.”

Williams said losing parking would be unfair to Washington Street residents after the city approved apartment projects along the corridor, and he noted that while a mayor’s verbal promise cannot waive the Grant Street agreements, the council can.

“We will bring back an item to your council about waiving the deferral agreements,” Rayner said.

Modular Office Approved Over Vice Mayor’s Objection

The council voted 4-1, with Gift dissenting, to take the first step in a roughly $503,000 project to place a modular office building behind City Hall, authorizing a $358,317.74 purchase order with Mobile Modular for the roughly 1,000-square-foot structure that would house Planning and Building Department staff. The remainder covers utility and site work; because the single utility quote exceeded the city’s $75,000 bidding threshold, staff will return with competitive bids for that portion. The project would be funded first from an administrative impact fund holding $409,978, with the balance from $225,299 in one-time California Intergovernmental Risk Authority Flex funds, money the city's risk-sharing pool provides for any use except personnel costs.

Stepp said the move would consolidate planning and building staff in one location, free space for finance staff and a small meeting room inside City Hall and address space constraints councils have debated for years. The building would displace six or seven parking spaces; the city’s 1915 jail, now used for storage, stays put.

Gift said she preferred converting existing space at the fairgrounds’ Tubbs Building.

“I have a really hard time just putting a Band-Aid on an issue and spending money right now today for what will have to be solved 30 years down the road,” she said.

Eisenberg voted yes but pressed staff on the building’s appearance, noting it would sit “in a prominent space next to City Hall” and saying he hoped it “fits in better with that environment.”

Mayor Calls for a Second Look at the Formula Business Ordinance

In the meeting’s final minutes, Williams asked the council to take up the city’s formula business ordinance, adopted in 1996 to keep chain and formula retail out of Calistoga — a review with potentially significant implications for the character of the city’s commercial core.

“The ordinance is wanting. It’s not serving us altogether. I’m learning this from the lawyers and from some elements,” Williams said, asking colleagues to authorize staff to “revisit it and see if it can be improved or updated so that it does what we want it to do.”

Council members voiced immediate agreement, and the item is expected to return at a future meeting. Williams did not tie the request to any specific business.

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Elsewhere on the Agenda

The council approved a consent calendar that included a not-to-exceed $725,000 contract award to CATS4U Inc. for the 20-million-gallon pond relining project, the Senate Bill 1 road maintenance project list for fiscal year 2026-27 and a canopy contract for the police department range. Celaya’s report noted upcoming Lincoln Avenue water main work between Cedar and Washington streets in August, a 48-inch drain installation on Grant Street tied to a subdivision project, the Flynn Creek Circus returning to the fairgrounds July 17-19, the promotion of Cpl. Mike Maselli to sergeant and the promotions of Justin Davis, Dario Martinez and William Lenhart to full-time firefighter. During open public comment, resident Charlotte Williams urged the council to pair any “missing middle” housing push with middle-income jobs, saying a Silverado Terraces salesperson had told her most of the development’s first 12 units — priced at $600,000 to $800,000 — sold as second homes. “There’s no guarantee it’s going to be built for working families,” she said. A 14-year-old Fairfield student also urged the council to create a Calistoga youth commission.

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The views, opinions and data presented in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy, position or perspective of Calistoga Currents or its editorial team. Any content provided by our authors is their own and is not intended to malign any group, organization, company or individual.

CALISTOGA, Calif. — Since his move to Calistoga a year ago, George Weissenberger has been on a mission to discover the hidden beauty of Napa Valley — not the obvious grapevine vistas that everyone loves but the small treasures people fail to notice.

“I’ve never liked the old ‘stop and smell the roses’ expression because roses are already beautiful and smell nice,” he said. “People need to go past the roses – look at the leaves on the roses, look at the ivy behind the roses. It’s just as pretty if you look at it in the right way.”

In addition to overlooked items and elusive landscapes, he also looks for the unusual shot that will capture a given moment.

“Everyone else takes pictures of the sea,” he said. “I take pictures of the machinery in front of the sea. It may not be beautiful, but it’s the uniqueness of the situation. That’s what I want to remember: What was unique about that event or that place?”

Now he has collected his photos of these quirky items and offbeat moments into a website where others who appreciate beautiful things can peruse them and purchase prints if they see something they like. The song lyrics he writes — “little books of poetry that read like pages from someone’s diary” — are also available there. Some of them have been performed publicly.

Weissenberger’s love of taking photos goes back to his childhood, but he said that story had a sad ending. He grew up when slides were the common format, and over the years they have gradually disappeared and never made it to his adulthood. He doesn’t even have pictures of his mother from that period in his life.

Then as a teenager he went with a friend on a church scavenger hunt through San Francisco.

“The clues often referred to something you wouldn’t notice,” he said. “I remember one of the questions was, ‘What was the square footage of the 23rd floor of the Transamerica Pyramid building?’ The information was tucked away in a garden where people didn’t really go very much. Another was ‘What color was the tail of the flying fish?’ on the art painted on the side of a building near O’Farrell Street. That was another thing that got me interested in things people don’t ordinarily notice and how fascinating they are.”

On that same day he spotted a young woman wearing a metallic wig that reflected myriad colors. On a wire above her someone had tossed a pair of pink tennis shoes. While most people would have driven on, Weissenberger saw the vignette as a perfect photographic moment that he couldn’t resist.

After that he became occupied with work and family, so he did little photography except for taking pictures of his son, Harrison.

“Typical parent, I have a million pictures of my son growing up,” he said, laughing. “That was my photo interest then.”

Now 30 and a graphic designer living in Washington, D.C., Harrison credits his father with fostering his own creativity.

“I pride myself on my instincts and creativity, something I’ve come to realize my father has in abundance,” he said. “He always supported my creative journey, even before I decided art and design were what I wanted to pursue. He sent me to a summer camp that introduced me to digital art, he’d listen to and applaud my terrible 12-year-old viola recitals, and he gifted me my first professional camera, which I now use at work every day. I feel sheer joy to see his artistic talents really flourish in his retirement.”

When he moved to Calistoga, Weissenberger began looking at everything in a new way. He spent days out with his camera looking for good photographic angles and things that caught his eye but might not attract the attention of anyone else. One day he discovered a row of rusted mailboxes, and that led to seeking out many others.

“I have a style that is high-contrast with vibrant colors, and mailboxes lend themselves to that very well,” he said. “I look for light and shadows. I can shoot the same image six times a day in different lights, and it’s completely different.”

He doesn’t completely ignore “typical” Napa Valley pictures, but he takes them in ways he hasn’t seen them captured before. One, a red barn with vineyards and a tree, was shot at the Barrett vineyards. Weissenberger said the picture represents Napa’s agricultural past and everything that is beautiful about the area in one simple shot.

“When I go out just before harvest time, when all of the grapes are on the vines, I try not to get the shot of the row of vines with some grapes in there,” he said. “I took one shot in late fall when the leaves were red but the berries were still very blue. It’s an extreme closeup. I heightened the blue contrast so the berries stand out in a field of red.”

While he has used Canon, Minolta and Nikon SLR cameras in the past, he said most of what he does now is with his iPhone, which he said has an excellent camera. Then he manipulates the images with PaintShop Pro to make them clean and vibrant while always staying true to what was actually there. He adds contrast to draw the viewer’s eye to what is attractive about that particular shot, but he does not use artificial intelligence.

Weissenberger grew up in Walnut Creek and graduated from San Francisco State with a degree in broadcasting. For eight years he worked as a disc jockey for various radio stations, which he said was fun but didn’t pay much. “Serious” jobs in banking and working as a government contractor led him to work with the Federal Aviation Administration and U.S. Customs and Border Protection and took him to other parts of the country. He was in Virginia when he retired, and he knew he wanted to spend the rest of his life in Napa Valley.

“He sees things differently,” said Lisa Carey, an old friend who was glad to see him come back. “An artistic twist of a branch, an old medallion on a building downtown, an old, tattered barn and my favorite, the mailbox rows on the roadside. He sees a story with those boxes and a symbol of an era that’s trying to hang on. George has been able to capture the beauty here that goes beyond the vineyards.”

The house where he lives overlooks the Larkmead Vineyards.

“I put a couple of Adirondak chairs on my porch and have my coffee every morning looking at that view,” he said. “I feel very lucky.”

—

Glenda Winders is a novelist, freelance writer and copyeditor for Napa Valley Features.

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CALISTOGA, Calif. — Crime in Calistoga fell in 2025 by nearly every measure the state tracks, a local counterpoint to a year in which assaults rose across much of Napa County.

Calistoga police recorded 12 violent crimes and 37 property crimes last year, according to the California Department of Justice’s Crimes & Clearances data, which Calistoga Currents reviewed back to 2016. The property total was the lowest in that decade. The violent total, 12, was down from its 2023 peak of 16. And for at least the 10th year running, the state series records no homicide in the city.

The local decline tracks a statewide one. California’s violent crime rate fell 10.2% in 2025 and its property crime rate fell 14.3%, with every major category declining. The state cautions that not every agency submitted a full year of data, though Calistoga is not among those flagged for gaps.

A Decade Without a Homicide

Calistoga police recorded 12 violent crimes in 2025 — 10 aggravated assaults, one robbery, one rape and no homicides — down from 15 in 2024 and a decade high of 16 in 2023. None of the 10 assaults involved a firearm; in seven the weapon was hands, fists or feet.

The city’s aggravated-assault count has eased each year since 2023, from 12 to 11 to 10 — running against a county where assaults climbed.

Property Crime at a Decade Low

Property crime tells the stronger story. The 37 property crimes recorded in 2025 — 30 thefts, four burglaries and three vehicle thefts — are the lowest annual total in the 10 years reviewed, down from 53 in 2024 and roughly a third of the 2021 peak of 101. Theft from vehicles, which reached 21 incidents in 2021, fell to two. Burglaries, which ran 20 to 25 a year a decade ago, have totaled nine over the past three years combined. And shoplifting — which sister publications Lake County Features and Sonoma County Features have tracked rising in their counties — did not climb here: six incidents in 2025, unchanged from 2024 and down from a local peak of 12 in 2021. The one stubborn holdout is bicycles: Seven were stolen in 2025, about the same as most years in the series.

How It Compares, and What Got Solved

Measured against population, Calistoga’s 2025 violent crime rate works out to roughly 230 per 100,000 residents — about half the statewide rate of 431 — and its property crime rate to roughly 715 per 100,000, about 40% of the state’s 1,786. The rates use the state Department of Finance estimate of about 5,200 residents.

One figure stands out. The state credits Calistoga police with 12 violent crime clearances in 2025, matching the number of violent crimes reported — the department’s strongest clearance figure in the series. Clearances can include cases carried over from prior years, so the match is not literally a perfect solve rate, but it is unusual. Property crime clearance ran about one in nine, in line with the state.

Chief Matthew McCaffrey, who took over the department in March 2025, confirmed the counts square with the department’s own records and credited the clearance figures to his staff.

“Our staff look at every case as an opportunity to make a victim whole again and take an offender off the street and hold them accountable,” he said. “Crimes just don’t solve themselves; it takes a police employee who takes pride in their work, has a vested interest in the community they serve and the resolve to do everything they can legally do to solve a crime.”

The County Ran the Other Way

The county picture is more mixed. A Napa Valley Features analysis, “Rising Assaults, Revised Numbers in Napa County’s 2025 Crime Report,” found that while most property crime fell across the county, mirroring the state, assaults moved the other way — rising about 19% in the unincorporated county, from 127 to 151, and about 39% in American Canyon, from 94 to 131, with robberies up in both. Countywide homicides held near a recent high, 11 in 2025 against 10 in 2024 and three in 2023. Calistoga ran counter to that current.

Where the Lines Cross

The divergence is specific. Property crime eased on both sides of the city limits. Calistoga’s fell to a decade low; in the unincorporated county, larceny and theft dropped from 164 reports to 142 and stolen vehicles from six to four, though burglaries ticked up from 31 to 35. American Canyon saw larceny and auto theft decline as well.

Assaults are where the lines cross. Calistoga’s eased each year since 2023. In the two jurisdictions the Sheriff’s Office patrols, they rose — and in American Canyon, where deputies have policed under contract since 1992, arrests jumped from 516 to 704. Indexed against 2023, the Napa Valley Features analysis found a clean divergence in the county: assaults rising while property offenses fall. Calistoga’s numbers fell on both.

What the Numbers Don’t Say

In a town of about 5,200 people, percentages can mislead. Three incidents can swing a category 20% or 30% in either direction, so the multiyear direction deserves more weight than any single year’s move.

McCaffrey made a related point.

“Statistics only paint part of the picture, and the same statistic can tell two different stories,” he said. “If arrests are up, does that mean there is more crime, or are less experienced officers becoming more experienced officers who are becoming better investigators?”

He offered the sharpest example himself.

“I hope we go another decade without a homicide, but if we have one and our homicide rate jumps 100%, does that mean violent crime is running rampant? Of course not.”

There is a deeper limit worth stating plainly. The state series counts crimes reported to police, not crimes that occurred. A lower count can mean fewer crimes, fewer people or fewer reports — and the data cannot separate a real decline from a quieter one.

Bottom Line

By the state’s count, 2025 gave Calistoga its lowest property-crime total in the decade reviewed, a violent-crime total down sharply from its 2023 peak and a 10th straight year without a homicide. Against a county where assaults rose, the city ran the other way. The direction is unmistakable.

What We’re Following

This analysis counts what the state counts, but the data leave important questions unanswered. Does the decline in reported crime reflect fewer crimes, fewer reports or both? Amid heightened concern about federal immigration enforcement, are members of Calistoga’s immigrant community less likely to contact police? Do the state’s flat shoplifting numbers match what downtown merchants are experiencing? And which city outreach efforts have been effective in building trust — and which have not? We have put these questions to city officials and local business owners and will report what we learn.

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Tim Carl is a Calistoga-based photojournalist.

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Note: Crime figures come from the California Department of Justice’s Crimes & Clearances dataset and Crime in California 2025, population from the state Department of Finance. The city’s own 2025 figures are posted on the Calistoga Police Department transparency page. McCaffrey confirmed the department’s counts and answered questions in writing.

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The views, opinions and data presented in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy, position or perspective of Calistoga Currents or its editorial team. Any content provided by our authors is their own and is not intended to malign any group, organization, company or individual.

Our illustrations are produced through a multi-step process of generative tools, digital sketching and photo editing, often starting from our own images or sketches.

CALISTOGA, Calif. — Rosewood Calistoga has a new managing director. Veteran luxury hospitality executive Daniel Simon has updated his verified LinkedIn profile to reflect the role, a milestone for the Rosewood Calistoga resort, one of the largest development projects currently under construction in Calistoga.

Simon most recently served as managing director of Rosewood Phnom Penh in Cambodia, a role he held since 2021. The appointment places him in charge of preparing the resort for its eventual opening, including assembling its leadership team and overseeing pre-opening operations. Rosewood has not publicly announced the appointment.

Simon is the first managing director — the property’s top executive — publicly identified for Rosewood Calistoga. His appointment follows Rosewood’s announcement in January of James Tattersall as cluster director of sales and marketing for Rosewood Calistoga and Rosewood Sand Hill in Menlo Park, a role the company said includes serving on the Calistoga pre-opening executive committee. Together the appointments indicate that pre-opening leadership hiring for the resort has been underway since at least the start of the year.

Rosewood publicly announced the project in August 2025 with a January 2027 opening and has not announced any change to that timeline.

According to Rosewood’s published project description, the resort is being developed on approximately 118 acres of forested ridgeline near downtown Calistoga and is planned to include 96 guestrooms, including 31 suites, along with 20 private villas and 13 estate homesites. Design is led by studio Atelier Marsh, carrying forward the original vision of the late architect Ed Tuttle.

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A Long Road to This Point

The project has a long history. Originally proposed as Enchanted Resorts under developer Jacqui Safra and later renamed Calistoga Hills Resort, the site changed hands in late 2014 when CTF Development International — an arm of Hong Kong-based Chow Tai Fook — became sole investor, The Weekly Calistogan reported at the time. The development’s environmental review included a state Timber Harvest Plan and Regional Water Quality Control Board scrutiny before construction began.

Rosewood Hotels & Resorts is part of Rosewood Hotel Group, which is privately owned by Chow Tai Fook Enterprises, a diversified investment company with interests in hospitality, real estate, retail and infrastructure.

Construction Visible From Above

Aerial photographs taken July 13 show extensive grading, terraced building pads, access roads and newly planted vineyard blocks on the property’s western slope. A perimeter fence was also being installed around the property, visible from Kortum Canyon Road.

Rosewood’s public materials describe a wine program and culinary offerings drawing on the resort’s own gardens and the region’s farms and wineries, but they do not mention the vineyard plantings now visible on the site. The company did not respond to questions about the vineyards, including who manages them and whether their fruit is destined for an estate label.

State alcohol license records show preparations for the resort’s restaurant operations have been underway for years. Foothills F&B LLC — whose listed managers are CTF Development executives — applied for an on-sale general eating place license at 515 Foothill Blvd. in September 2022, according to the California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control. The application remains pending on an under-construction hold entered in November 2023.

A Career Built in Asia

Simon brings roughly three decades of international hospitality experience to the role, about 22 of those years in Asia, according to his published biography. Born in Sweden, he began his hospitality career with Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts after serving as a logistics officer in the Swedish Army, with postings that included director of food and beverage at Four Seasons Resorts Bali in Indonesia and general manager of Four Seasons Hotel Tokyo. He later worked as hotel director for Celebrity Cruises before returning to land-based hotels as general manager of W Koh Samui and Anantara Siam Bangkok Hotel, both in Thailand.

The Calistoga resort has been described by Rosewood as a property designed around the region’s landscape, wellness traditions and agricultural heritage. In addition to hotel accommodations, plans include farm-to-table dining, the company’s Asaya spa concept and more than 20,000 square feet of indoor and outdoor event space.

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Questions Ahead of Opening

Calistoga Currents requested interviews and information from Rosewood through multiple channels, including its corporate communications office and company executives, regarding the construction schedule, hiring plans, the resort’s food and wine programs, and the anticipated opening timeline. The company had not provided comment before publication.

Rosewood continues to publicly target a January 2027 opening. The appointment of a managing director typically marks the beginning of the operational planning phase for a hotel, including recruiting senior staff, developing local partnerships and preparing the property for launch.

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Tim Carl is a Calistoga-based photojournalist.

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The views, opinions and data presented in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy, position or perspective of Calistoga Currents or its editorial team. Any content provided by our authors is their own and is not intended to malign any group, organization, company or individual

CALISTOGA, Calif. — Beneath a painted fare board listing 19th-century train fares from Vallejo — Sacramento, 60; Calistoga, 42 — locals lined up last week for croissants where railroad passengers once waited for tickets.

Sarmentine, an organic French bakery, opened July 8 inside the Calistoga Depot, the 1868 station built by Sam Brannan that stands as the second-oldest train depot in California. It is the fourth location for the Sonoma County-based bakery, joining shops in Santa Rosa, Sebastopol and Petaluma — and the first sign of life at the Depot since owner Michael Madden closed most of the property March 8, calling the shutdown a temporary pause to restructure.

“Most of the customers that have been coming here, they’re like, now I don’t have to drive to Santa Rosa,” said Desiree Blanc, the shop’s manager. “We’re here for Calistoga.”

A Pastry Chef Comes Home to the Counter

Blanc, who grew up in Sebastopol, was nine days into the job when interviewed — and just three days into the store’s opening. A professionally trained pastry chef, she said she worked at Cyrus, the Michelin-starred restaurant in Geyserville; spent two years as a pastry chef at John Ash & Co.; and helped launch the bakery program at the Altamont in Occidental about five years ago before moving to management.

“I really love managing. I really love building a team,” Blanc said. “And I kind of wanted to take a little break from kitchens.”

Everything is house-made, Blanc said, with production centered at the company’s kitchen in Sebastopol’s Barlow — a temperature-controlled operation with four mixers and a dedicated lamination room — and driven to Calistoga fresh each morning. Division chefs, most of them from France, oversee each program: viennoiserie, pastry and bread.

“Whoever’s working on bread, that’s their focus, that’s their favorite thing, that’s their passion, and you can really tell,” Blanc said.

The flour is organic, from Central Milling, and the dairy comes from Straus Family Creamery, whose logo appears on the café menu board.

“We’re stressing the local, and if it’s not local, it’s probably going to be from France,” Blanc said.

The bakery’s name comes from its signature loaf — the sarmentine, a sesame-crusted baguette made with spelt flour and forked at both ends to resemble sarments, the vine shoots pruned from grapevines each winter. In a town surrounded by vineyards, the loaf sells for $5.40.

What It Costs and What to Try

Butter croissants are $5.50, almond croissants $7 and a slice of quiche $8.50. Baguettes are $4.90, olive bread is $10.25 and weekend-only fig bread is $9.75. Set menus range from a $12.50 French breakfast — half-baguette with jam and butter or a croissant, plus coffee and fresh orange juice — to a $22.50 “Complet” with sandwich, side, drink and large pastry.

Blanc’s recommendation is the pain suisse, $6.50, a laminated pastry filled with custard and chocolate.

“I don’t think the general public understands how much time and effort goes into something as simple as a croissant,” she said. “It has been hours and hours and hours of research and labor.”

Coffee comes from Land and Water Coffee, the Sonoma County roaster, and Sarmentine pours its own custom espresso blend.

French in Proportion

The sandwiches, at $13.50, come in three styles, including the Bordelais and the Parisian — prosciutto with arugula, brie with fig spread, ham with Swiss. They are French in more than name: trim, restrained and built on baguette or croissant rather than stacked American-style. During a recent morning, one couple surveyed the case and left in search of something more substantial.

Blanc suggested the menu is still finding its Calistoga shape.

“We’re kind of waiting to see what this place asks for us,” she said.

Founded on a Craving

Sarmentine was founded by Alexandra Zandvliet, who moved from France to California in 2012, according to Blanc, and opened the first bakery in Santa Rosa in 2021. A Sebastopol location in the Barlow followed in 2023, and Petaluma opened in 2024.

The Calistoga team includes several locals, Blanc said, among them one employee who worked in the same space under its previous operator and greets customers by name.

Longtime Calistoga residents Edie and Dick Engelhard were already regulars at the bakery’s Sonoma County shops.

“Their quiches are wonderful,” Edie Engelhard said. “It just replaces what went missing, and there’s nothing wrong with having another breakfast place or lunch spot.”

Asked why Calistoga needed the bakery, Dick Engelhard’s answer was simpler: “So I don’t have to drive to Santa Rosa.”

Susan Napoliello, who with her husband first encountered Sarmentine while meeting family for coffee in Santa Rosa, said the bakery’s pain aux raisins “just melts in your mouth.”

“I was so excited to see that it now has a place here in Calistoga,” Napoliello said. “I usually have to zoom down to St. Helena to go to Model Bakery, but now I’m definitely going to try the bread here.”

Elizabeth Tangney saw room in town for more than one bakery.

“I love Bella Bakery, but I think there’s room for two bakeries in Calistoga,” Tangney said, noting that Bella’s chocolate croissants often sell out.

A Question About Chains, Asked Out Loud

Sarmentine’s arrival also intersects with one of Calistoga’s most closely guarded rules — and at least one downtown business owner is asking about it directly.

“I want to know how a business that already has three locations can open up in Calistoga because I thought it was against our agreed-upon rules,” said Michael Fradelizio, owner of the Calistoga Creamery and former managing partner of the Silverado Brewing Co. in St. Helena.

Fradelizio said he knows the ordinance firsthand. When he opened his downtown ice cream shop in 2017, it exclusively served Three Twins, the multi-location, family-owned organic ice cream brand — but under the city’s rules the store couldn’t carry the Three Twins name, he said, so he called it the Calistoga Creamery.

“If we have a rule that says we can’t be a chain opening in Calistoga, is it a rule or not?” he said.

The rule in question is the city’s formula business ordinance, Calistoga Municipal Code 17.04.132, which defines a formula business as one maintaining any standardized feature shared with similar businesses elsewhere — including a common name, trademark or logo, standardized decor or uniforms, or a substantially identical business presentation.

No Permit Required, the City Says

In written responses to Calistoga Currents, Deputy City Manager Rachel Stepp said planning staff evaluated Sarmentine against the ordinance’s standards and concluded it could proceed as a permitted restaurant use. No use permit or other discretionary planning review was required, no conditions were imposed, and neither the Planning Commission nor the City Council reviewed the application, which was handled administratively through the city’s business-license and zoning-compliance process.

The determination rested on information provided by the applicant, according to Stepp: that the business is independently owned, that menus vary across locations based on seasonal ingredients and customer demand, and that each location has a distinct interior design tailored to its space rather than a standardized prototype.

Asked how a four-location bakery displaying its name on the property squares with an ordinance that lists a common name among its defining features, Stepp said the ordinance “considers more than the number of locations or the use of a business name and must be interpreted in accordance with state law and policy objectives.”

In response to repeated questions, the city did not identify which staff member made the determination or when it was made, saying only that planning staff reviewed the proposed use for zoning compliance.

Stepp confirmed the city is working with the city attorney to evaluate the ordinance and determine whether amendments should be considered for future City Council review.

The Mayor Weighs In

The ordinance’s shortcomings drew scrutiny from the council Tuesday night. In the final minutes of the July 14 council meeting, Mayor Donald Williams — without naming any business — told the council the ordinance enacted three decades ago to prohibit chain businesses “is wanting.”

“It’s not serving us altogether,” Williams said. “I’m learning this from the lawyers and from some elements.”

He asked the council to authorize staff to “revisit it and see if it can be improved or updated so that it does what we want it to do” so that it “serves the intent of the community.” Several council members voiced immediate agreement, and the item is expected to return on a future agenda. Williams did not specify whether a revision would tighten, loosen or clarify the rule.

Vice Mayor Lisa Gift told Calistoga Currents the council has been discussing adjustments that might allow small, family-owned businesses with multiple locations to operate in Calistoga — an idea she said has been under discussion for some time and would account for a business like Sarmentine. Details are still being worked through, she said.

Gift cited Sam’s General Store as another business the change may cover. The café, opened by Carl Dene in 2019 inside the Brannan Cottage Inn, has since added locations in St. Helena and Sonoma — making the Calistoga-born business, by the letter of the ordinance, a three-location formula business itself.

Fradelizio had originally sought to leverage the name Three Twins, founded in 2005 by Neal Gottlieb and named for the founder himself, his twin brother and his brother’s wife, remained founder-owned but grew into a national brand, with products in roughly 5,000 stores and more than $13 million in annual sales before closing in 2020.

Whether any future Calistoga amendment would apply to businesses previously denied or restricted under the ordinance remains an open question.

Fradelizio’s question, notably, came between bites. Pam Fradelizio, his daughter-in-law, offered her own review: “This is my favorite croissant I’ve ever had in Calistoga.”

A Rule Written Against Taco Bell

Calistoga’s resistance to chains is older than some of its businesses. In 1995, the city rejected a PepsiCo-owned food court that would have brought Taco Bell, Pizza Hut and Baskin-Robbins to town; the council adopted the formula business ordinance a year later. Ace Hardware and a Best Western-affiliated hotel, already operating, were grandfathered in.

The rule has bent before. Copperfield’s Books, with locations across Napa and Sonoma counties, won a use permit in 1999. In 2018, a Calistoga native seeking to open a real estate office affiliated with the NextHome franchise network was told she needed a formula business permit, and the planning commission initially denied her application. Kaiser Permanente and a RE/Max office were later granted exceptions, with planning commissioners reasoning that the ordinance was designed for restaurants and large corporations and that exceptions could therefore be granted for other uses.

The ordinance’s most visible test came when Four Seasons built its resort at the north end of town and the city told the hotel chain its name and logo could not appear on signage.

“Your need to do business here is far greater than our need to have you here,” then-Mayor Chris Canning told the North Bay Business Journal in 2017.

Whether the changes now under discussion mark the ordinance’s strengthening or its weakening is likely to be debated in a town that has treated the rule as part of its identity for three decades. That debate now has a venue: the council’s coming review.

A Depot Reawakening

The bakery’s opening comes with growing pains. During a recent visit, a broken pipe was leaking inside and outside the building — a repair underway in a structure that had sat mostly unused since March. When Madden announced the closure, the Depot’s 35 employees were laid off, and he cited operating costs, telling the Calistoga Tribune that utilities and garbage alone ran upward of $10,000 a month. The property’s distillery is scheduled to reopen July 18, according to Blanc, with outdoor seating, pizza and live music planned as the broader space comes back online. Earth & Sky Chocolates, operated in the Depot’s train cars by Madden’s wife, Robbie Schmidt, has remained open through the closure.

Sarmentine is open Wednesday through Sunday, 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m., at 1458 Lincoln Ave., with daily hours planned after its first two weeks.

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Tim Carl is a Calistoga-based photojournalist.

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The views, opinions and data presented in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy, position or perspective of Calistoga Currents or its editorial team. Any content provided by our authors is their own and is not intended to malign any group, organization, company or individual.

CALISTOGA, Calif. — Calistoga’s hotels and inns charged an average of $666.77 a night in May, up 10.4% from a year earlier and the largest year-over-year rate gain of any Napa County city, according to STR, formerly Smith Travel Research.

Revenue per available room, the industry measure that combines rate and occupancy, rose 11.8% for the month. Occupancy reached 71.1%, up 1.3% from a year earlier. Most of the gain came from higher rates, but Calistoga also filled slightly more rooms — a distinction that set it apart from the county as a whole, where occupancy fell.

The figures matter beyond the lodging industry because of how the city is funded.

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One Industry, Most of the Budget

Transient occupancy tax — the levy guests pay on stays of fewer than 30 days — is Calistoga’s largest source of general fund money by a wide margin. The 2026-27 budget the council adopted June 3 projects it at $12.34 million, more than half of all general fund revenue and more than the next four sources combined.

At the June 3 budget hearing, Mayor Donald Williams tied the city’s practice of holding reserves at 50% of the budget, about $11 million, to that reliance.

“We’re so dependent on basically that one industry,” he said.

Because the tax rises and falls with room rates and occupancy, so does a large share of the city’s revenue. Watch the meeting here.

Where the Money Goes

Where that money lands is set partly by law. Of the 13% tax a guest pays, 12 points flow to the general fund, which pays for police, fire, streets and parks. The remaining point comes from Measure D, which voters approved in 2018 and which restricts its revenue — about $1 million a year, held in a separate fund — to affordable and workforce housing. That levy helped finance Lincoln Avenue Apartments, a workforce-affordable building that our "Calistoga Was the County's Fastest-Growing Town. New Housing Did It" (May 29) tied to nearly all of Calistoga’s recent population growth.

A further 2% assessment on lodging splits again: Roughly three-quarters funds regional marketing through Visit Napa Valley, about a quarter stays local for Calistoga tourism projects run by a city-chaired district committee and a sliver covers city administration.

Inside the general fund, public safety accounts for the largest share. Police and fire together make up about 40% of spending, with public works, general support and a range of smaller departments making up the rest.

A Strong Month in a Price-Led County

Calistoga’s May stood out against its surroundings. Across Napa County, occupancy fell 4.4% year over year in May while the average daily rate rose 5.1%, leaving revenue per available room essentially flat — the price-led pattern Napa Valley Features has tracked all year. Calistoga ran counter to it for the month, gaining on rooms and rate at once.

Over the longer stretch the resemblance returns. Through the first five months of 2026, Calistoga’s occupancy was down 0.9% while its average daily rate rose 8.3% to $558.18 year to date — one of the largest rate gains of any jurisdiction in the county, and a price-led result once the single strong month is set aside. Napa County as a whole ran year-to-date occupancy of 60.3%, up just 0.4%, with rate up 3.6% and revenue per available room up 4%.

Placed against the competitive set STR tracks — Sonoma, Monterey, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara and San Francisco — Napa County carried the highest average daily rate and the highest revenue per available room while running the second-lowest occupancy. Sonoma County offered the mirror image: Its year-to-date gains came almost entirely from filling more rooms, occupancy up 6.4% while rate rose less than 1%. The two counties are recovering along opposite lines — Napa on price, Sonoma on volume.

A Spring Priced Against a Fuel Shock

The spring numbers carry an asterisk. The lodging data covers months in which travel ran into the 2026 Iran war and the fuel crisis that followed the closure of the Strait of Hormuz. The U.S. average gasoline price passed $4 a gallon in late March, according to AAA, and topped $6 in parts of California, while jet fuel rose sharply and pushed airfares up in the normally busy summer travel season. A preliminary ceasefire in mid-June eased prices before hostilities resumed in early July, leaving fuel costs volatile. How much that backdrop shaped visitation, and whether the coming months hold the spring pattern, will not be clear until the summer data lands.

Visitor Money, Visible in Town

Some of that visitor money returns to residents directly. The city produced Calistoga’s recent Fourth of July parade and an evening laser light show itself for the first time this year, after Celebrate Napa Valley, the nonprofit that had run the event, dissolved in 2025.

Recreation manager Erin Stroud said the events were paid for with a $44,371 grant from the Calistoga Tourism Improvement District — the local share of the 2% assessment — budgeted at $24,650 for the parade and $19,721 for the light show. Those figures cover direct costs and not an estimated $14,500 in city staff time, Stroud said, which falls to the general fund and would bring the total to roughly $59,000. She said the numbers are not final and that she will present actual costs to the City Council on Tuesday.

Bottom Line

Calistoga’s May was a genuine rebound, stronger than the county’s on both rate and rooms. But the tax it feeds carries most of the city’s budget, and the five-month trend — flat-to-lower occupancy, rising rate — is the same price-led shape the wider county has shown all year. Whether that shape holds, or the summer’s fuel-driven uncertainty bends it, is the number worth watching next.

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Tim Carl is a Calistoga-based photojournalist.

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The views, opinions and data presented in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy, position or perspective of Calistoga Currents or its editorial team. Any content provided by our authors is their own and is not intended to malign any group, organization, company or individual

Paul’s Picks

Paul Franson, the man behind NapaLife, picks the best things to do in Calistoga and beyond — now in Calistoga Currents most Fridays.

If you live here, you likely already know Paul’s work. For nearly 20 years he has published NapaLife, the weekly newsletter tracking news and events from Calistoga to American Canyon, and he talks through the week ahead on KVYN’s “Wine Country Live.” He also puts out an annual guide to the valley. Most Fridays, Paul will pull the standouts — music, movies, markets, winery events and community gatherings — out of the much longer list he keeps in NapaLife.

Have an event we missed? Submit it via calistogacurrents.com/events

One for the football fans: Clive Richardson — an Englishman, sixty years a supporter, now a self-described Yank in Calistoga — is back with his World Cup Round of 16 report and is already calling the quarterfinals. Clive also writes Clive's Corner in our print edition. Read his latest predictions in Letters.

Today’s photo gallery comes from Clark James Mishler, who turned his lens on Calistoga’s July Fourth parade. Enjoy.

Happy Friday, Calistoga. We’re into the thick of summer now, and the next two weeks are as full as I’ve seen all season. Concerts in the Park is back under the oaks at Pioneer Park, the Moonshine is running movies at sunset Friday and Saturday nights, and down-valley, Festival Napa Valley is in its peak two weeks at Charles Krug. Best of all, our own Brannan Center gets its first-ever UpStage production before the month is out. Here’s what I’d circle on the calendar. — Paul Franson.

This Week’s Spotlight: “Gaslight” comes home to the Brannan Center

For three weekends this month, UpStage Napa Valley is staging Patrick Hamilton’s “Gaslight” — the 1938 Victorian thriller that gave the word “gaslighting” to the language. What makes it a Calistoga story is the finish: After two weekends at Grace Episcopal Church in St. Helena, UpStage makes its debut at the Brannan Center on Friday, July 24, its first performance ever in our town. If you’ve watched that beautiful room come together and wondered when the theater would follow, this is the night. Details below in “Looking ahead” — but mark July 24–26 now because opening weekend in a new house tends to sell. Details →

Friday, July 10

Movies at the Moonshine: “The Way” — Mount View Hotel and Spa, 1457 Lincoln Ave., just after sunset. The Moonshine outdoor theater kicks off the weekend with Emilio Estevez’s Camino de Santiago drama; popcorn and refreshments for sale. $5. Details →

Elaine Jennings at Romeo Vineyards — 1224 Lincoln Ave., 4 to 6 p.m. An easy way to ease into the weekend with a glass in hand. Details →

Down-valley, Festival Napa Valley’s Opening Night launches the Festival’s 20th-anniversary season, with conductor Stephanie Childress leading “From Beethoven to Getty to Dylan” at Charles Krug Winery, 2800 Main St., St. Helena, 6:30 p.m. Like most Festival evenings, it’s choose-your-price ($35 suggested). Details → Earlier in the day, the Festival’s Music & Wellness Summit runs 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at CIA at Copia in Napa (the expo is free). Details →

Saturday, July 11

Calistoga Farmers Market — Sharpsteen Plaza, 1311 Washington St., 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Our year-round Saturday market between the Sharpsteen Museum and the Community Center, with California-grown produce, flowers, honey, prepared foods and, often, live music. Free to wander. Details →

Movies at the Moonshine: “Midnight in Paris” — Mount View Hotel and Spa, 1457 Lincoln Ave., at sunset. Woody Allen’s love letter to the City of Light under our own summer sky. $5. Details →

The Lab at Lincoln Avenue Brewery — 1473 Lincoln Ave. Live music through the day at the brewery’s weekend series; one of the more reliable good times in town. Details →

David Landon at Romeo Vineyards — 1224 Lincoln Ave., 4 to 6 p.m. Details → — and Alvon Johnson at the Calistoga Inn, 1250 Lincoln Ave., 6 to 9 p.m., if you’d rather trade the tasting room for the patio. Details →

Vineyard Game Day at Bennett Lane Winery — 3340 Highway 128, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. A relaxed afternoon of wine and lawn games — Giant Yahtzee, Kubb, ladder toss and more. $40. Details →

Down-valley, two of the Festival’s biggest evenings land tonight: Soprano Renée Fleming brings “Voice of Nature: The Anthropocene” to Charles Krug, 6:30 p.m. (choose your price). Details → And the Festival’s signature Taste of Napa pours noon to 3 p.m. at the Meritage Resort in Napa. $195. Details → In Napa, Maren Morris with Scout Willis plays the Uptown Theatre, 1350 Third St., 7:30 p.m. Details →

Sunday, July 12

Big Night at Lovina and the Moonshine Theater — Lovina, Calistoga. This is my kind of evening: dinner at Lovina, then Stanley Tucci’s “Big Night” on its 30th anniversary at the Moonshine — cocktail hour, a family-style Italian feast, dessert treat bags to carry to the theater and your movie ticket. Fair warning: With only 40 seats, this one sold out before we went to press. Keep an eye on Lovina for the next one.

Nick Foxer at Romeo Vineyards — 1224 Lincoln Ave., 4 to 6 p.m. Details → — and the Tritones at Hydro Bar, 1403 Lincoln Ave., 6 to 9 p.m., to close the weekend downtown. Details →

Down-valley, the Blue Note Napa Summer Sessions brings Grammy-winning trumpeter Chris Botti to the Meritage Resort, 875 Bordeaux Way, Napa, 7 p.m. Details → The Festival, meanwhile, marks its anniversary with jazz legend Wynton Marsalis at its Arts for All Gala, and Diamond Rio plays the Uptown, 8 p.m. Details →

Monday, July 13

Papa Lou’s 5th Anniversary & Grand Reopening — Papa Lou’s Wine & Spirits, 1430 Lincoln Ave., 4 to 6 p.m. Five years on Lincoln Avenue is worth a toast; stop in for the reopening. Details →

Down-valley, the Festival’s free daily Festival Live! chamber concerts continue at CIA at Copia in Napa, 11 a.m. Details →

Tuesday, July 14

A quiet night in town — the Calistoga City Council meets at 6 p.m. at the Community Center, 1307 Washington St., if you like your civics in person. Down-valley, the St. Helena City Council also meets tonight — and again Tuesday, July 28 — at 6 p.m. in the Vintage Hall Board Room, 465 Main St.

Down-valley, Festival Napa Valley presents “Maria Manetti Celebrates La Dolce Vita,” an evening honoring Luciano Pavarotti at Charles Krug, 6:30 p.m. (choose your price). Details →

Wednesday, July 15

Fleetwood Local Night — Fleetwood, 1880 Lincoln Ave., 5 to 9 p.m. The midweek locals’ gathering at the north end of the avenue. Details →

Down-valley in St. Helena, Broadway and Vine stages “Spaceborne: An Evening of Sights and Songs From Our Planet and Beyond” at Brindare, 641 Main St. Details →

Thursday, July 16

Concerts in the Park: Kid Galaga — Pioneer Park, 1308 Cedar St., 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Our beloved Thursday-evening series is back, and it opens with Kid Galaga tearing through ’80s and ’90s pop, rock and dance favorites. Work Vineyard and Bennett Lane Winery pour, with the evening benefiting the Napa Valley Museum. Free — bring a low chair and a picnic. Details →

Down-valley, the Festival throws “The Wizard of Oz” onto the big screen with a live orchestra playing the score at Charles Krug, 6:30 p.m. (choose your price). A treat for kids and grownups both. Details →

Friday, July 17

Movies at the Moonshine: “What Dreams May Come” — Mount View Hotel and Spa, 1457 Lincoln Ave., just after sunset. Robin Williams under the stars; popcorn and refreshments for sale. $5. Details →

Flynn Creek Circus: “The Cricket and the Wren” — Calistoga Fairgrounds, 1435 N. Oak St., through July 19. The one-ring circus pitches its big top in town with a family-friendly show (plus a late-night adults-only show for the grown-ups). Tickets from $27 — and if you book by Monday, July 13, the code CALM1026 takes 10% off everything. Details →

Late But Ready at Romeo Vineyards — 1224 Lincoln Ave., 4 to 6 p.m. Details →

Down-valley, Blue Note brings Willie Nelson & Family to the Meritage Resort in Napa — an outdoor evening with a legend and one that tends to sell out. Details → The Festival counters with “A Night at the Ballet: From Tchaikovsky to The Stones” at Charles Krug, 6:30 p.m. Details →

Saturday, July 18

Calistoga Depot reopens — with Sarmentine organic French bakery moving in and the Git With It Band playing on opening day. This one I’ve been waiting for; the Depot’s return is a genuine milestone for downtown. Details →

Calistoga Farmers Market — Sharpsteen Plaza, 1311 Washington St., 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Details →

The Lab at Lincoln Avenue Brewery — 1473 Lincoln Ave. Live music through the day again today at the brewery’s weekend series. Details →

Lindsay Everly at Romeo Vineyards — 1224 Lincoln Ave., 4 to 6 p.m. Details → And the Moonshine screens “Ghost” at sunset at the Mount View. $5. Details →

Down-valley, it’s another big Napa night: Festival Napa Valley stages “The Judgment of Paris” opera at Charles Krug Details →, Blue Note brings Howard Jones’ “Things Can Only Get Better” tour to the Meritage Details → and comedian Jimmy Failla plays the Uptown Theatre. Details →

Sunday, July 19

A programming note: The Moonshine has turned Sunday nights into private rentals — any business or group can now book the theater (20-seat minimum) for a film of their choice — so there’s no public screening tonight. Details →

The Tritones at Hydro Bar — 1403 Lincoln Ave., 6 to 9 p.m. Details → — and Flynn Creek Circus wraps its Calistoga run today at the fairgrounds. Details →

Down-valley, the Festival closes its 20th season with a Symphonic Finale celebrating America’s 250th at Charles Krug, 6:30 p.m. Details → In Napa, Micky Dolenz — 60 Years of the Monkees plays the Uptown, 8 p.m. Details →

Monday, July 20 & Tuesday, July 21

A rare pair of quiet nights in town — a good excuse to catch up on a winery visit, take advantage of a Napa Neighbor tasting or simply sit on a porch with a glass of something local. Things pick right back up midweek.

Wednesday, July 22

Another easy midweek evening — the tasting rooms and the patios along Lincoln Avenue are your best bet before Thursday’s concert.

Thursday, July 23

Concerts in the Park: Second Hand Funk — Pioneer Park, 1308 Cedar St., 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Week two of the series turns Pioneer Park into a dance floor with a powerhouse set of funk, soul and R&B. Free, with food and wine available. Details →

Down-valley in St. Helena, Broadway and Vine hosts a vineyard evening with Tony Award-winner Santino Fontana (of “Tootsie” and the voice of Prince Hans in “Frozen”) at Brindare. Details →

Friday, July 24

Movies at the Moonshine: “Vertigo” — Mount View Hotel and Spa, 1457 Lincoln Ave., just after sunset. Hitchcock under the summer sky, popcorn and refreshments for sale. $5. Details →

UpStage Napa Valley’s “Gaslight” — Calistoga debut — Brannan Center, 1407 Third St., 7:30 p.m. The night we’ve been building toward: UpStage’s first-ever production at the Brannan Center. Patrick Hamilton’s psychological thriller runs here July 24 to 26 (Friday and Saturday at 7:30 p.m., Sunday at 1:30 p.m.). Tickets $26.50 to $36.50, with a $5 discount for groups of 10 or more. Details →

Hot Havana Nights at Castello di Amorosa — 4045 St. Helena Highway N., 6:30 to 10:30 p.m. Cuban food, music and cigars under the castle’s stars, with a buffet of authentic dishes and dancing; Havana-inspired attire encouraged. A splurge at $315 but there’s nothing else like a summer night at the castello. Details →

Saturday, July 25

Movies at the Moonshine: “The Usual Suspects” — Mount View Hotel and Spa, 1457 Lincoln Ave., just after sunset. Bryan Singer’s twisty 1995 crime thriller. $5. Details →

Down-valley, Crush MS comes to Reid Family Vineyards in Napa, 4 to 7 p.m. — the Reid family’s annual fundraiser advancing multiple sclerosis research, this year featuring Stanford’s Dr. Jeffrey Dunn on his CAR-T cell therapy work. A worthy glass to raise. Details →

Looking ahead

Meanwhile, UpStage’s “Gaslight” finishes its Calistoga run at the Brannan Center, July 24 to 26. If Friday sells out, there are still Saturday evening and Sunday matinee seats. Details →

And looking to August: On Wednesday, Aug. 5, Catholic Charities of Northwest California brings its second Napa County “Charities on Tap” to the Calistoga Inn, 1250 Lincoln Ave., 5:30 to 7 p.m. It’s a free, come-as-you-are evening about the group’s Napa programs — Rainbow House, Napa Nightingale and Permanent Supportive Housing, plus the coming Trione Youth Shelter — with CEO Jennielynn Holmes and the Napa team on hand. RSVP →

Vines for Vision Dinner & Auction at V. Sattui Winery — 1111 White Lane, St. Helena, Thursday, Aug. 13, 6:30–10:30 p.m. The winery hosts its second annual gala benefiting Eye Surgeons International, pairing a dinner by Michelin-starred chef Stefano Masanti with wines from the V. Sattui cellar, plus a silent auction and a fund-a-need supporting equipment and year-round staff for sight-restoring care in Zambia. $400. Details →

See you around town — Paul

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Paul Franson is a Napa Valley-based writer.

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CALISTOGA, Calif. — When we launched Calistoga Currents in May, we called it a proof of concept — an early model of what a sustainable local paper for Calistoga could look like with the promise that if the town wanted it, we’d build it together. Six weeks in, it’s time for an update on how that’s going and to ask for a little more of your help.

First, the numbers. As of this week, more than 500 readers have signed up, 231 of them as paid subscribers and 17 as founding members. Our goals are 600 paid subscribers and 30 founding members. Hitting those numbers changes the paper itself: The print edition, which currently comes out roughly monthly, goes weekly. Founding members are already past the halfway mark, paid subscriptions are better than a third of the way there, and both are climbing faster than we expected. Thank you.

The masthead is growing, too. Jacob Tucker, a longtime Calistoga sportswriter, has joined to cover local sports. Clive Richardson brings us Clive’s Corner, ranging from sports to the everyday business of living in this town. Julie Mitchell and Eden Umble have come aboard as features writers. Clark James Mishler continues to produce photography most small papers could only dream about, and the writers you’ve already met in these pages — Sasha Paulsen, Paul Franson, Dan Berger, Kathleen Scavone — keep anchoring the coverage, with Glenda Winders and Dana Cronin on the copy desk. Newer voices, too, include Linda York and Vanessa Herrera Ortega, a recent Calistoga High graduate who will be contributing Spanish-language coverage. More announcements soon.

A newspaper should be a conversation, not a broadcast — and the conversation is already underway. Nearly every story we publish carries a poll, and you’ve been using them. When Global Stack pitched its fairgrounds data-center network, 78% of you strongly disagreed that a data center counts as a historical use of the site. After the Fourth of July parade, 60% told us you came for the parade alone, and 75% said the parade tradition itself is the biggest draw. On Five Senses, the sushi and ramen restaurant now opened on Lincoln Avenue, 92% said you’re very likely to try it. Those results ran 30 to 39 votes each and shape our follow-up reporting, so keep voting — and keep liking and sharing the stories, which is how word spreads.

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The deeper version of that conversation is the Community Pulse, our standing reader poll at calistogacurrents.com/pulse (también disponible en español). Thirty-two readers have taken it so far. Your top concerns: city government, the local economy and housing. Your must-haves: local government coverage and an events calendar — 30 of 32 each — followed closely by investigative reporting. On funding, 31 of 32 favor a mix of subscriptions, advertising and donations, and among readers open to paying, $5 to $10 a month is the most common answer. It runs about 2 minutes; if you haven’t taken it, please do.

The Pulse told us something else: 25 of 32 named opinion and letters a must-have. So we built it. Our Letters to the Editor page is live at calistogacurrents.com/letters, with a simple form — your name, your city, about 300 words about whatever’s on your mind. Published letters run online and in print.

Readers also endorsed that funding mix, and advertising is part of it — in print only. Our website stays ad-free: no pop-ups, no distractions, just the news. A handful of early businesses have already stepped up in the print edition, and we’re grateful. If you run a business in the upper Napa Valley, write editor@calistogacurrents.com and we’ll send the details.

Last, print delivery. Paid subscribers receive each print edition, and eventually it will arrive by mail. For now, distribution is old-fashioned — pickup or drop-off. Walk into Cal Mart, the Calistoga Roastery, the Chamber of Commerce, Papa Lou's, the Picayune or several other spots around town, mention you're a paid subscriber, and take a copy. We're also at the farmers market on most Saturdays and at many public events. Or send your address to subscribe@calistogacurrents.com and we'll drop one by your house. Yes, really — for now, delivery is a person in a car or on foot. Those 600 paid subscribers will fix that by allowing us to mail copies, and make it weekly besides.

None of this happens without our readers. We appreciate all of you — the free subscribers still kicking the tires, the paid subscribers who have taken a leap of faith on what we're attempting here, and of course our founding members, whose early backing turned a proof of concept into a paper: Antoinette Mailliard, Dave and Nancy Yewell, Denis Sutro and Anne Carver, Eric Hanson, Frederika and Bob Zipp, James and Beverly Barnes, Jenn Sloan, Lucretia Marcus, Lynn Carl, Lynne Sellars and Barbara Sowden, MaryAnn and Jon Salinger, Pat Merchant, Paul and June Knoblich, Paula Johnson and Laura Menefee, Tammi and Jay Adair, and two others who prefer to remain anonymous. Thank you all.

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How to Help

• Every reader — take the 2-minute poll: calistogacurrents.com/pulse

• Every story — vote in the polls, leave a comment, like and share

• Free subscribers — consider going paid; it’s what gets us to weekly

• Everyone with an opinion — write a letter: calistogacurrents.com/letters

• Paid subscribers — send your address to subscribe@calistogacurrents.com for print delivery

• Business owners — advertise in print: editor@calistogacurrents.com

Onward.

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Tim Carl is a Calistoga-based photojournalist.

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The views, opinions and data presented in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy, position or perspective of Calistoga Currents or its editorial team. Any content provided by our authors is their own and is not intended to malign any group, organization, company or individual.

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CALISTOGA, Calif. ­— Each June, the Calistoga Chamber of Commerce recognizes the contributions of a handful of individuals, businesses and organizations which stood out over the past year at its Community Awards event. This year’s gathering, held June 29 at Indian Springs Resort, underscored the years of unglamorous work and dedication behind two recent debuts: the Brannan Center, the performing arts and event venue which is the reincarnation of the Green Church, and the northernmost section of the Napa Valley Vine Trail, connecting Calistoga and St. Helena. Links between many of the honorees gave a concentric-circle quality to the day.

Award nominations are submitted by the public in six categories: Volunteer, Nonprofit, Citizen, Business, Young Leader of the Year and the Gary Barrett Lifetime Achievement Award. Winners are selected by a small private committee. The award itself this year is an etched bottle of Chateau Montelena Cabernet Sauvignon.

Event host and Chamber CEO Eric Reichert presented the Rose Beck Volunteer of the Year award, which held personal significance for him. When lifelong Calistoga resident and indefatigable volunteer Beck died on May 17, the selection committee chose to honor her years of cheerful service to the community — with the Sharpsteen Museum, Napa County Fair, Tractor Parade, Catholic Church, Calistoga High School Alumni Association and Brannan Center — with a posthumous award, as well as renaming the Volunteer of the Year award in her memory.

Reichert recalled his introduction to Beck in his first days at the chamber.

“She stopped by three days in a row when I was out, and the message said, ‘Rose Beck was here to see you,’” he said. “No phone. No email— and she liked it that way.”

The two soon connected in person, with Beck agreeing to do whatever was needed for an upcoming chamber event.

“I’d tell her where we needed help, and she’d be there,” he said. “She’d say, ‘Cool, cool.’ I’ll always remember that. She was always on the move around town … she was never, ever not on the move,” he said.

Beck was represented by five family members, including two sisters. Her nephew, Raymond Fechter, accepted the award on her behalf, expressing his family’s gratitude for the outpouring of condolences they’ve received and saying that this community meant everything to his aunt.

While Nonprofit of the Year usually goes to a single organization, it was decided to recognize both the Brannan Center and the Napa Valley Vine Trail.

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Brannan Center Executive Director Kyle Clausen accepted their award, saying, “This is great recognition at the end of our first nine months.” The 150-year-old former Presbyterian Church has been reborn as a performing arts venue and private event space after more than seven years of fundraising $12 million for its extensive renovation. Clausen said more than 8,000 people had come through their doors since October 2025 to attend live music, theater, comedy and dance programs.

“I don’t know of any other community that could make this happen,” he said, also thanking current and past board members present in the room.

Napa Valley Vine Trail Executive Director Shawn Casey-White shared her award with the three Vine Trail Ambassadors accompanying her and said the Calistoga to St. Helena section of the multiuse trail is “the part everyone’s talking about.” She said 140,000 people have frequented this part of the trail to date, with 740,000 people tallied on the valley-wide route. Thirty-three miles are completed to date out of a planned 47 miles of off-highway recreational trail stretching from Calistoga to Vallejo. Casey-White thanked volunteer ambassadors TC, Greg and Linda for “being out there every day, making people feel welcome.” The trail is expected to be completed by 2029.

Citizen of the Year was also a twofer, being awarded to Ed and Sara Kozel. As founding members of the Brannan Center’s nonprofit board, the Kozels helped steer the process that sprang from two goals: to save the 1872 Community Presbyterian Church, vacant for many years, and create what organizers called a much-needed community center. Gradually plans emerged to convert the historic building into a flexible modern space while retaining key architectural elements.

Clausen, introducing the Kozels, said that it was a long shot, renovating a 150-year-old church into a state-of-the-art performance space, but that if anyone was up to the task, it was these two. In addition to their time and expertise, they are the center’s primary donors; the 120-seat performance space in the former church sanctuary is now called Kozel Hall.

“The first time we rode bikes around town, we found the place we wanted to live the rest of our lives,” Sara Kozel said, recalling the impression Calistoga made on them. Thanking the considerable number of people who made Brannan Center a reality, she said, “It takes a village. It takes a team.”

The Gary Barrett Lifetime Achievement Award went to Paul Coates and was presented by Jim Barnes. Barnes outlined Coates’ history of accomplishments in town, building four home developments, serving 10 years on the planning commission, eight years on city council and 20 years on Calistoga’s American Legion Post. Barnes named Coates as the driving force behind Calistoga’s Veterans Memorial at Logvy Park. Both men are Vietnam veterans — Barnes was in the Air Force, Coates in the Navy — and are close friends.

A recent project on which they collaborated is the Brannan Center: Barnes was an early board member, and Coates was contractor on the renovation. Barnes said Coates’ personal code was “family, faith, community and country.” A visibly moved Coates said he wasn’t much of a public speaker — “my speech teacher in college gave me a C,” he said — and added that seeing so many people he knew, among them his wife Kate, was memorable.

Rosa Sanchez was named Young Leader of the Year. Her artistic talents are on display as the graphic designer of the bike parklet on Washington Street, just south of Lincoln Avenue. Sanchez was unable to attend; Jenna Mitchem, the chamber’s event coordinator, accepted on Sanchez’ behalf.

Jennifer Bennett, owner of Lovina, almost missed picking up her Business of the Year award due to a calendar mix-up and being busy prepping peach frose for the July Fourth weekend. Wearing a National Park Radio T-shirt and shorts, she raced over just in time to accept her trophy. Bennett was honored for her restaurant’s staunch support of local fundraisers, Lovina’s status as a destination dining spot and for her tip-free policy offering all employees a living wage, full health benefits and 401(k) matching program.

Bennett praised the support of the local community over the past nine years through wildfires.

“I thought it would be easy running a restaurant here compared to the city,” she said, “and then the Tubbs Fire happened six weeks after we opened. She cited power outages and COVID-19 shutdowns. What’s written on her locals’ lifetime free corkage card says it all: “The few, the proud, the ones who come in January.”

Bennett added she was responsible for Sanchez’s absence from the day’s festivities, saying, “I just hired her, and it’s her first day of work.”

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Eden Umble is a writer based in Calistoga. This is her first feature for Calistoga Currents.

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The views, opinions and data presented in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy, position or perspective of Calistoga Currents or its editorial team. Any content provided by our authors is their own and is not intended to malign any group, organization, company or individual.

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CALISTOGA, Calif. — Folding chairs lined Lincoln Avenue long before the first entry, some set out days in advance, and by midmorning the sidewalks had filled with families staking out patches of shade beneath the trees along the street.

Under a clear sky and a banner strung across Lincoln that read “Annual Hometown 4th of July Parade, 11:00 a.m.” and “Laser Light Show, 9:00 p.m., Pioneer Park,” the procession opened with a mounted color guard carrying the American, California and sheriff’s office flags. Fire engines and the parade’s other entries followed, drawing longtime residents, returning families and first-time visitors to the route. For the first time, the City of Calistoga produced the parade itself.

Calistoga Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Eric Reichert said the parade brought in about 4,200 people downtown last year and that a cooler morning could push this year’s turnout higher.

“It’s really great for the town,” Reichert said. “The restaurants fill up, the businesses fill up, people shop, people come from out of town for the parade.”

Behind the color guard came the groups that fill the town’s civic life. Members of the Calistoga Rotary Club rode in a white convertible marked “Since 1924,” and a float carrying a “250 Years of Freedom” banner rolled past under hand-held flags. Decorated tractors, vintage pickups and classic cars — among them a red Alfa Romeo and a green Ford badged “Ralphie” — moved between marching entries, while participants pedaled bicycles strung with red, white and blue streamers. Napa County Search and Rescue drove its vehicle along the route, along with folklórico dancers and charros on horseback. Along the barriers, spectators stood two and three deep in places, close enough to call across Lincoln to friends on the far side.

A Tradition the City Took Over

For decades the event was organized by Celebrate Napa Valley, the nonprofit formerly known as the Napa County Fair Association, which coordinated it and paid the city for staff time and services. When that organization dissolved, the city’s Parks and Recreation department stepped in.

“This is the first year the city has managed it,” police Chief Matthew McCaffrey said. “We took it over from the nonprofit foundation that had it before.”

McCaffrey, who has been in Calistoga less than 18 months, said the day was a coordinated effort involving police and private security, fire, the city’s public works crews and traffic control.

“It’s months in the planning,” he said, “but we’ve also done these types of events many times before, so it runs smoothly.”

Mayor Donald Williams, who rode the route on a flag-decorated bicycle with his wife, Charlotte, said the city was glad to continue the tradition and to honor its former organizers.

“They’re honoring the previous organizers, Celebrate Napa Valley,” Williams said. “It’s a decades-long tradition here in Calistoga, and we’re glad to be a part of it.”

Williams said the city had folded the cost into the Parks and Recreation budget rather than setting aside additional money. Recreation manager Erin Stroud told the city council in January that producing the parade would cost about $46,200, with a separate evening light show adding an estimated $37,000.

This year’s parade carried the theme “Calistoga Celebrates America’s 250th Birthday,” marking the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.

The Parade’s Rowdier Past

Longtime participants remember a very different tradition. Jim Flamson, who has attended since boyhood, said an earlier midcentury celebration included two parades: a deliberately crude procession the night before July 4 that ran in the opposite direction, followed by the community’s family-friendly Independence Day parade.

“It was as gross as you could” make it, Flamson said.

He recalled that the tradition ended after a float on which men were butchering a deer threw meat into the crowd and struck the mayor’s wife.

Flamson appeared with his wife, Kathy Flamson, immediate past president of the Calistoga Rotary Club, who said the club had entered the parade to mark its 102nd year.

“We’re celebrating being the oldest service club in town — 102 this year,” she said.

Setting the Stage Before Dawn

Long before the first entry, a crew from National Construction Rentals was putting up the metal barricades that line the route. Roberto Barraza said his six-person team started at 5 a.m., reached downtown by 7 and finished in about an hour and 45 minutes.

The crew set roughly 330 sections, Barraza said, each weighing about 40 pounds. Once the parade ended, he said the team would begin pulling them back out. They expected to finish in the early afternoon.

“This morning it ran really smooth,” Barraza said. “Not many cars or people, and we can watch the parade from our trucks — we have great seats.”

The parade fielded 50 entries, a number Stroud said the city reached only by squeezing one in the day before. She said the hardest part came in the final days, fitting the lineup into a workable order.

“You don’t want to put horses in front of children or loud music in front of horses,” Stroud said. “It’s like putting together a puzzle, but you eventually finish the puzzle, and then you get a beautiful parade.”

Stroud said the city leaned on its own staff to make up for the volunteer base Celebrate Napa Valley once provided, pulling in lifeguards, swim instructors and recreation leaders — many of them teenagers — to direct traffic and manage entries. They worked the intersections through the morning, waving entries forward and helping guide cross traffic as the line advanced.

Rachel Stepp, deputy city manager, said the planning showed.

“There was only one float that came out of order,” Stepp said. “Other than that, everybody was in the correct order.”

Horses and What They Leave Behind

Some of the most watched entries came on horseback. Folklórico dancers in wide, brightly colored skirts turned in the street, and charros rode behind them, one young queen in a sash and crown carrying a Mexican-American flag. A trumpeter played alongside the marchers.

The mounted color guard that opened the parade came from the Napa County Sheriff’s Mounted Posse. Christine George, who described herself as new to the group but from a law enforcement family of 26 years, said the unit exists to keep horses visible in the community.

“There aren’t enough horses for people to see anymore,” George said. “It’s a lost art.”

George rode Jackson, a Kentucky Rocky Mountain gelding, alongside member Rick Reichow on Ginger, a quarter horse. The posse, George said, handles public relations appearances such as parades and ceremonies, separate from the department’s search-and-rescue riders.

The horses also create the parade’s signature cleanup problem. Ted Tamagni, who said he has worked the parade for about 40 years, spent the morning clearing the route.

“Make sure we get all the poop,” he said of the job description.

Asked what she would change for next year, Stepp pointed to the same issue.

“A pooper scooper after every single horse entry — that would be the one for improvement,” she said.

Fifty Years of Turning Out

For many spectators, the parade’s appeal is its constancy. Jeff Smith, proprietor of Hourglass winery, said he has been coming for at least 50 years and that its predictability is the point.

“Nothing surprises me about the Calistoga parade, which is exactly why I love to come,” Smith said. “It is the essence of Americana.”

Smith said his favorite entry is the Mexican horse dancers and that the one thing he misses is a group of jujitsu performers who marched years ago.

Avery Jensen, who grew up on Cedar Street and now works in video game licensing for Lionsgate in Santa Monica, returned to Calistoga for the holiday.

“I can’t deny the town spirit of Calistoga,” Jensen said. “It’s good to be home. Nothing beats seeing all the familiar faces.”

Wendy Lombardi, who has lived in the area since 1982, said Saturday marked her group’s fifth year at the parade.

“The hometown feel down here is a lot of fun, and the people are great,” Lombardi said. “The backdrop is beautiful — the mountains back there.”

From Near and Far

The crowd reached well beyond Calistoga. Oliver Bell, who grew up in East Germany and has lived in the United States for about 20 years, was setting up early for family visiting from nearby Knights Valley. He said the day carried particular meaning at a divided moment.

“Even though the country is very polarized, this is an occasion where we can all come together and celebrate the country that we appreciate,” Bell said.

Megan Turnbull, Bell’s wife, whose family once owned a Napa Valley winery and still farms in Knights Valley, drove up from Palo Alto.

“I love how it incorporates everyone who makes this community strong by representing all cultures,” Turnbull said. “California history includes Mexican history.”

Eric Reyes, who comes from Sonoma County each year, said the parade feels like an extended family.

“Everybody’s just so happy,” Reyes said. “Like everybody’s like one big family.”

Napa County Supervisor Anne Cottrell, who has ridden in the parade for several years, said the event draws people from across the Upvalley.

“This parade means community,” Cottrell said. “It’s a great collection of what this community looks like.”

Calistoga City Councilmember Irais Lopez-Ortega, a 26-year resident, said the gathering felt especially important this year.

“Small communities like Calistoga get together and fight for everybody’s rights,” Lopez-Ortega said. “Unify, get together, have fun.”

Along the Route, Mixed Fortunes for Business

By midday the sun had pushed many spectators into the shade of the trees near the ends of Lincoln, thinning the crowd along the open blocks in between. The parade brings different days for businesses on the avenue. Erica Ramey, who owns EV Floral Design at Washington Street and Lincoln Avenue, said she closes for the day.

“I close during the parade,” Ramey said, adding that many who came in during past parades were looking for a restroom rather than merchandise. “Nobody buys anything — they just come in and touch everything and move it around. Besides, closing gives me a chance to be with family.”

Others lean into the crowd. Jennifer Bennett, owner of the restaurant Lovina, set up a frozen-drink machine and gave away pigs in a blanket at the entrance.

“I love it because I can be out here on the street with everybody,” Bennett said. “It’s one of our small-town charms.”

A block away, another family-run shop reported a steady morning. Jennifer Villa Torres, who grew up in Calistoga and now lives in Santa Rosa, said her mother’s business, Mis Raíces “Coffee & Ice Cream Shop” at 1408 Lincoln Ave., stayed busy.

“It still feels like home, and it’s nice to see everybody,” she said.

Fire Season on Everyone’s Mind

Watching from the crowd was Max Kinworthy, a fire engineer with the Calistoga Fire Department for about seven years, with his wife, Kelly, and their daughter Blakely, who at 8 months was attending her first parade.

“It just really shows a lot of small-town pride,” Kinworthy said. “A lot of local businesses put their heart and souls into these parades and these floats.”

His concerns, he said, were the ones that come with the season.

“[My biggest concern is] just people having [illegal] fireworks that they shouldn’t have — some of the bigger stuff that’s capable of starting a vegetation fire,” Kinworthy said, adding that conditions are “starting to get hotter and drier, and wind is starting to pick up.”

Some spectators said they had moved onto side streets such as Cedar Street and Fair Way, which offered more shade and none of the barriers set up along Lincoln.

Access along Lincoln drew its own concern. Several residents said spectators reserve viewing spots days ahead of the city’s parades by lining the sidewalks with chairs and that the practice can narrow the public right-of-way for people using canes or walkers and complicate access for emergency responders.

After Dark at Pioneer Park

As dusk settled over Pioneer Park, families spread blankets and folding chairs across the grass while a DJ mixed rock and pop hits largely from the 1970s and ‘80s. Children chased bubbles through drifting fog as green and blue laser beams spread into the towering trees overhead. Although the pagoda served as the stage, many spectators eventually turned their chairs around to watch the beams move through the canopy, a brief round of confusion passing through the crowd before people realized the trees had become the main attraction.

The laser show has become an annual close to the day, a replacement for the fireworks once held at the fairgrounds. Alex Richardson, whose company, Elite Lighting Source, has produced the show for six years, said his aim was simple.

“The goal is to just bring the community together,” Richardson said, “and, honestly, just light that place up and make the kids happy.”

Richardson, a music producer, said he built this year’s program on the fly, opening with Andrés Segovia’s “Asturias” to draw the audience in before moving through American songs and closing with Europe’s “The Final Countdown.” Clark Harding, who has run sound for the show for three years, handled the audio.

Stroud, who had spent the day overseeing the parade, said the evening was a first for her.

“I have done other Fourth of July parades, but this is my first laser light show,” she said. “I’m just as excited as maybe many people in the crowd.”

The evening also drew food and drink vendors, including some appearing for the first time. Aldo Nunez, who owns and operates La Prima Pizza and the wood-fired pizza business Napa Valley Crust and has lived in the valley for about 38 years, said it was his first invitation to the event.

“It’s nice to see the community, and it’s nice to see people out here,” Nunez said.

Dakota Bohan, who grew up in Calistoga and owns the spring-water delivery business Whispering Pines of Napa Valley, said the crowd appeared larger than in past years. He said he still misses the fireworks once held at the fairgrounds but appreciated that the city kept an evening celebration.

“It’s not fireworks, but it’s better than nothing,” Bohan said.

Saul Ceron, a young Calistoga resident, spent much of the evening among the crowd as children danced in the bubbles and laser light.

“Everybody’s super friendly with each other,” he said. “You kind of know a little bit of everybody.”

The Winners

The city announced parade winners across several categories, scored to a possible 400 points. Concerned Citizens took Best of Show with 393, entered as No. 21. Soroptimist International of Calistoga was named Most Patriotic and the Calistoga Fairgrounds Foundation won Best Use of Theme.

Calistoga Art Center took first for Best Youth Entry, followed by the Equi-Ed Therapeutic Equestrian Program and Calistoga Little League. Pacific Livestock Inc. won Best Equestrian, ahead of Rancho Alegre- Carneros Mix and Pope Valley Ropers & Riders. JA Pasquetti Enterprises took Best Float, followed by Rancho de Calistoga Social Club and Celebrate Napa Valley.

Abella Home Inspection won Best Vehicle, ahead of Napa Valley A’s and the Rotary Club of Calistoga. In the walking or dancing category, Ballet Folklorico “El Valle” de St. Helena placed first, followed by Grupo Folkorico Amor Al Arte and Native Sons of Calistoga Parlor 86.

What Comes Next

Stroud said she was largely happy with how the day went and would wait for community feedback before changing anything next year. One idea she was weighing, she said, was moving the start earlier to ease the midday heat, though she had not decided and wanted to hear from residents first.

“Maybe start the parade at 10,” she said, “unless everyone hates that idea.”

Among those helping the parade run was Naia Lanikai, who grew up in Calistoga and rode in the parade as a child. This year she checked in floats and planned to walk with Mayor Donald Williams.

“I grew up here in Calistoga,” she said, “so I’m so used to all these memories of having fun and seeing everyone smile.”

—

Tim Carl is a Calistoga-based photojournalist.

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CALISTOGA, Calif. — The 18th-century fountain at the center of Clos Pegase ran again on Saturday, switched on three days before a crowd filled the lawn for a ribbon-cutting that closed out a yearlong restoration and opened a new chapter for one of the Napa Valley’s most recognizable wineries. Live jazz played, the mayor spoke and the building’s restored earth tones stood against a row of young cypress.

The celebration carried an undertone few in the crowd needed explained. Clos Pegase and the four other wineries now owned by Jay and Tammi Adair reached them the same way: out of a bankruptcy. And the downturn behind that bankruptcy has not eased.

A Restoration Against a Down Market

Clos Pegase was among the holdings sold off in the 2024 Chapter 11 bankruptcy of Santa Rosa-based Vintage Wine Estates, which carried roughly $400 million in debt and broke apart a portfolio of more than two dozen brands. The Adairs bought five of those wineries for a reported $85 million in a deal that closed in October 2024: Clos Pegase and Girard in Calistoga, and Viansa, B.R. Cohn and Kunde in Sonoma County. A sixth Adair winery is under construction in Suisun Valley.

The conditions that pushed Vintage Wine Estates under are still pressing on the rest of the industry. Silicon Valley Bank’s annual report on the sector found that US wine sales fell again in 2025, down about 2% by volume, and projected another decline in 2026, with the weakest wineries losing roughly 10% of sales as younger consumers drink less. In the first months of 2026, according to industry reporting, Jackson Family Wines halted production at a Carneros facility and E&J Gallo closed a winery in St. Helena, cutting about 100 jobs between Napa and Sonoma.

At a North Coast industry conference in Santa Rosa in May, appraiser Tony Correia and merger specialist Mario Zepponi described one of the most severe and prolonged downturns in decades, with vineyard values falling and more distressed sales ahead. A rebound, they suggested, might not begin until 2028. Stabilization, Correia said, is “not this year.”

That is the backdrop against which a closed winery on Dunaweal Lane reopened to a full lawn. Carl Dene, who owns the Brannan Cottage Inn and Sam’s General Store downtown, said he had feared the worst for the property.

“I was very concerned when I saw Vintage go out of business, and this place gutted and emptied out, with all the tanks out front, everything waiting to be auctioned off,” Dene said. “They’re two iconic properties, so close to town and so important. It’s nice to see investments [in the winery industry] still happening.”

From Salvage Yards to Six Wineries

Jay Adair is executive chairman of Copart, the online auto-salvage auction company he joined in 1989 at 19 and led as chief executive from 2010 to 2024. Forbes has estimated his net worth at about $2 billion. Tammi Adair grew up in the family salvage business that became Copart, and she draws a direct line from that work to running wineries.

“You might have run a salvage yard, but we also were part of people’s lives,” she recalled telling her husband, “and if you know how to do that, you can do a winery.”

The couple moved to Suisun Valley in 1993, bought land in 1997 and planted Cabernet Sauvignon in 1999, building a small estate program before the Vintage Wine Estates portfolio came up for sale. They say they are committing for the long term at a moment when many owners are retreating.

“We’re in it for the long haul,” Jay Adair said. “We’re keeping it family because we can.”

Honoring the Shrems and Michael Graves

Jan and Mitsuko Shrem, art dealers who moved from Paris to California, bought the Calistoga property in 1983 and set out to build what they called a temple to wine. In 1984, working with the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, they staged an architectural competition that drew 96 design teams. A jury narrowed the field to five finalists and chose the postmodern architect Michael Graves, whose building was completed in 1987. The winery takes its name from an Odilon Redon painting of Pegasus in Shrem’s collection. Graves, a leading figure of postmodern American architecture, died in 2015.

Michael Kollin, a principal at Graves’s firm, attended to represent it. Each team in the competition paired an architect with an artist, he said, and the designs were produced in about six weeks.

“These are the original colors,” Kollin said of the restored palette. “That’s all based on the soil coloring within the vineyards here, and with the blue just to represent a little bit of water that’s needed for the grapes.”

Working with the firm, the Adairs recovered the earth-toned scheme that had been painted over in gray. Fifty-two cypress trees, originally planted to mark the weeks of the year, were replaced. The fountain was moved to anchor a garden of cherry trees planted in memory of Mitsuko Shrem, a nod to her Japanese ancestry. Mitsuko Shrem died in 2010, and Jan Shrem sold the winery in 2012.

The winery still sources fruit from Mitsuko's Vineyard, 365 acres in Carneros named for Shrem's wife. By the winery's telling, Jan Shrem gave it to her on Valentine's Day in a Tiffany box filled with earth, with a note promising an acre for every one of the 365 days a year he loved her.

Wine as a Handmade Thing

Robin Akhurst, a Scotland native who has made wine at Clos Pegase since 2016 and now oversees winemaking across the Adair properties, said the renewed emphasis on art mirrors how he thinks about the cellar. His style is restrained, he said: terroir-driven, with little manipulation, letting the fruit speak for itself.

“There is a craft to winemaking that aligns with an artist’s approach, whether it’s sculpture or paint or whatever your medium is,” Akhurst said. “It’s almost like we need more human-generated creativity in our lives.”

The fall lineup includes a 100-case artist series built around varietals uncommon in the Napa Valley, among them Touriga Nacional, Alicante Bouschet and a Rhône-style white blend, alongside the estate’s core Cabernet Sauvignon and a Sauvignon Blanc from Mitsuko’s Vineyard.

Art, and a Bet on a Younger Crowd

Clos Pegase was among the first Napa Valley wineries to make art central to the visitor experience, and the Adairs are leaning into that history. Former administrative offices have become a gallery for a rotating program of roughly 250 installations that will feature emerging artists each season alongside works held since the Shrem era. Tammi Adair said the approach extends the founders’ legacy.

“I want to celebrate local artists, emerging artists,” she said. “That totally aligns with the Shrems, and that is honoring the artist and giving them a chance.”

Several artists tied to the estate attended. Watercolorist Barbara Nechis, who lives across Dunaweal Lane, was an artist-in-residence at Clos Pegase a decade ago and has returned. She said a watercolor instruction book she wrote in the 1970s sold tens of thousands of copies and brought her from New York to Calistoga to teach, where she married a Dunaweal Lane vintner whose wine label carried her paintings and never left.

“Coming over here I get more done than I get done at home, because I’m not distracted,” Nechis said. “My work is based in landscape, but I make it up. You could never find any of these places.”

Cuban-born painter Rolando Diaz brought 51 works from Dallas, including a Pegasus and a Bacchus made for the winery.

“There’s a connection,” Diaz said of art and wine. “When you’re creating a work of art, it relates - the perfectionism of getting it just right.”

Sculptures by local artist Guy Peterson anchor the entrance, and Calistoga muralist Carlo Marchiori, who runs the Ca’Toga gallery downtown, is slated to be the first artist featured in the winery’s planned series of artwork-labeled wines. Russell Van Dewark, the tasting room manager and a Vacaville native, said the goal is to make the estate a reason for a younger audience to come to a town he called comfortably sleepy.

“We’re trying to make it not only educational, but entertaining and fun, and bring some liveliness back to the area,” Van Dewark said.

Eric Reichert, president and chief executive of the Calistoga Chamber of Commerce and Visit Calistoga, said the format suits how people want to visit wineries now.

“It’s a choose-your-own-adventure kind of atmosphere,” Reichert said. “Young people want tactile experiences. They want to walk around with their wine, they want to see things, they want to touch things.”

Sarah Biondi, a Napa Valley hospitality-industry founder who attended, said affordability is part of the same question, with some wineries trimming prices and adding midweek deals to draw locals back. Tasting prices at Clos Pegase start around $32 a bottle, with seated experiences from $50 to $90, according to Van Dewark. The estate is open to the public by reservation, Wednesday through Sunday, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

A Family, and a Town, Watching

The Adairs’ two children and their spouses worked the opening. Garrett Adair, the couple’s son, said the restoration was deliberately conservative.

“With something that’s timeless, you bring it back to what it was before, rather than trying to change it,” he said. “Clos Pegase has life again, and it will have life for a long time.”

Mayor Don Williams, who told the crowd the town was founded in 1876 by Sam Brannan, welcomed the Adairs as Calistoga’s newest residents and said the moment carried weight beyond a single business.

“We have the prospect of a brand new era,” Williams said.

Reichert called the restored estate “an art installation come to life” and pointed to a Dunaweal Lane corridor that now pairs Clos Pegase with the Adairs’ Girard across the road and neighboring Sterling. Dene noted the wineries sit close enough to town to bike to.

Whether an art-and-experience model, financed by outside capital and built on historic preservation, can be repeated elsewhere is the open question the day left behind. The analysts who track the North Coast expect more wineries to change hands before the market steadies, and not soon. What Clos Pegase offers for now is a test case: a winery pulled out of bankruptcy and brought back not by chasing a new identity but by restoring an old one, on a bet that handmade work, in the cellar and on the walls, is what the next generation of visitors will pay to see.

--

Tim Carl is a Napa Valley-based photojournalist.

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CALISTOGA, Calif. — Spencer Conaty was 14 when he wrote down a single goal for himself: to open his own restaurant someday. More than two decades later, he is within days of making it real.

Five Senses, a modern Japanese restaurant with a 25-foot sushi bar and a fully open kitchen, is set to open at 1227 Lincoln Ave. Conaty, 34, owns the restaurant, runs the sushi bar and oversees all food operations. His longtime colleague Ben Cereghini is the executive chef. The two have worked together for about six years.

The restaurant arrives in a town far better known for cabernet than for nigiri, and Conaty is staking it on residents rather than visitors. Small plates such as edamame and tuna tacos start at $10, sushi rolls run mostly $12 to $25, and cooked dishes range from a $23 black garlic ramen to a $35 Flannery Farms New York steak.

“I want anyone and everyone to be able to come and eat here,” Conaty said.

He framed the pricing as a survival strategy.

“You can’t just rely on tourism to survive here,” he said.

From a Note at 14 to His Own Kitchen

Conaty grew up in Placerville and said he lost both his mother and father around age 14 in separate unrelated illnesses. He said a judge granted him emancipation at that age and that a court ruling required him to join a structured after-school program — which led him to a four-year ROP culinary program at his high school.

He inherited his father’s paid-off house and said he sold it at 17 for about $250,000, with roughly half going to bills and medical costs.

An uncle, Jeff Myers, helped steer him through those years. Conaty said Myers asked him to write a list of what he wanted from his life. The only entry was the restaurant.

“One day I want to open my own restaurant,” Conaty recalled writing.

He said Myers, who recently moved from Placerville to Tennessee, still keeps the note framed.

A Path Through Morimoto and Michelin Kitchens

Conaty said his first restaurant job was at Mikuni’s in Sacramento, a Japanese spot he had visited as a child. He had grown up watching the Food Network.

“I was obsessed with him,” Conaty said of Chef Masaharu Morimoto. “I told myself one day I will work for this guy.”

At 19 he was hired at Morimoto Napa, where he said he spent more than five years on the sushi bar and rose to a senior position, helping open locations and traveling for events. He described approaching each kitchen as a contest with himself.

“I’m going to look to the right of me, I’m going to look to the left of me, and I’m going to try to do everything better than the people around me — cleaner, more organized,” Conaty said.

He said he spent his two days off each week working other stations for free in order to learn them.

He credited Morimoto’s executive chef, Kane Kong, with shaping how he thinks about food. Conaty said Kong answered questions with questions, sending him home to research the reason behind a technique and report back the next day. One lesson stuck: Salt food the instant it leaves the fryer while the steam still binds the salt to the surface.

When Kong left for a job in food science, Conaty said, the chef told him to go get knocked around in a harder kitchen while he was still young. Kong made a call, and Conaty said he was hired over the phone without an interview at Atelier Crenn.

After earning a certificate from a yearlong accelerated program at Le Cordon Bleu’s Sacramento campus in 2009, Conaty moved through a series of high-end kitchens, including Atelier Crenn under Dominique Crenn, Saison and Roka Akor in San Francisco. At Atelier Crenn he worked 7 a.m. to 3 a.m. six days a week, commuting from Fairfield and sometimes sleeping in his car. He said he appeared in the second season of the Netflix series “Chef’s Table,” in the episode featuring Crenn.

He later cooked at Calistoga and Napa Valley wineries, including roughly five years as executive chef at Brian Arden Wines and stints at Sequoia Grove and Silver Oak. The winery work, he said, gave him refined, tasting-menu cooking on a daytime schedule — and, eventually, the room to plan his own place.

Conaty also passed Kong’s advice to his younger brother, Roman, whom he brought into the field. He said Roman has cooked at The French Laundry for about four years and appears in “Chef’s Table: Legends,” the 2025 series filmed in part with Thomas Keller at the Yountville restaurant. When Roman considered leaving, Conaty said, he told him to stay and keep learning.

“Get your butt kicked while you still can,” Conaty recalled telling him. “He will be a better chef than me.”

The Kitchen He Built

Conaty describes Five Senses as built to engage all five senses, with plated sushi and sashimi alongside a cooked menu he says sets it apart from a smaller sushi counter. The town’s other Japanese restaurant, Sushi Mambo, has operated on Lincoln Avenue since 1997. Conaty said his open kitchen and scratch-made dishes define his concept. The kitchen is visible from both the dining room and the 25-foot sushi bar, and on a recent visit an ambient playlist inspired by the band Tycho and assembled by Conaty and Cereghini, played over the room. In a note on the menu, beneath his signature, Conaty writes that Japanese cooking taught him food is about more than taste.

The showpiece is the chef’s 10-piece sashimi selection, $40, arranged on an okie — a Japanese platter the kitchen fills with crushed ice and plates like an art piece. A recent version included a rose folded from big-eye tuna, Scottish salmon laid over local Meyer lemon, golden-eye snapper from Hokkaido finished with a yuzu-rind chili paste, Kagoshima yellowtail and Kyoto red snapper, set among shiso, shaved lotus root, bamboo and small flowers picked around Calistoga.

Conaty said the tuna source rotates and was coming from Hawaii that week. The kitchen dry-ages it for three days in specialized paper to draw out blood and brighten the color, grates its wasabi fresh, pickles its own ginger and makes its own soy sauce for more depth than commercial brands.

Cereghini brings his own fine-dining record to the kitchen Conaty runs. Conaty said his executive chef has cooked at The French Laundry, Meadowood, Enigma in Barcelona and, for years, as sous chef at Press in St. Helena.

A signature from the kitchen is the black garlic ramen, which Conaty said is vegetarian unless diners add pork belly. The house-made noodles go into a broth built from black garlic that he said is fermented over roughly two to three months, pureed with dashi, then simmered for about six hours and strained. It is finished with smoked maitake mushrooms and a slow-cooked jidori egg, and he recommends pairing it with cabernet.

The menu also lists an Ora King salmon with yogurt ponzu and shiso, and the Flannery Farms steak with wasabi pea puree, furikake carrots and a kalbi demi-glace. Conaty said nearly everything is made in house, from sauces and purees to the demi-glace. Two of the rolls carry family names — “My Wife’s Roll” for Rita and “Junior’s Roll” for the couple’s young son. The art on the walls came from his father, an art dealer, and Conaty said the room re-creates the feel of the home he grew up in.

“The food will be extremely beautiful and maybe feel fancy, but the atmosphere and everything is very casual,” Conaty said.

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The Math Behind the Prices

Conaty said the menu’s low prices rest on relationships built over years. About 80% of his fish is Japanese, much of it flown in overnight, with the rest rotating among sources such as Hawaii, New Zealand, San Francisco and Korea. He buys through True World and a sales representative, Akini O’Flaherty, who he said has supplied him since he was 19 at Morimoto. Through that relationship, he said, he buys Ora King salmon at about $13 a pound, against roughly $23 from other area distributors — the gap that lets him plate the salmon at $30.

The wine program starts with a stroke of luck. Conaty said a chef friend called when a restaurant in Elk, on the Mendocino coast, closed and needed to clear about 1,400 bottles. He offered $5,000, expecting to be turned down, and the seller accepted.

He plans a happy hour from 3 to 5 p.m. with all wine 50% off by the glass or bottle, and said that once the bought-out stock runs down, he intends to pour only Calistoga wines.

Built With the Town’s Help

Conaty said he is opening without investors, using his own savings and taking on debt, and that the space — a former antique store — was converted in about six months. He returned again and again to the people he said made that possible.

His wife, Rita, is a third-generation Calistogan whose family ran Carl’s Auto Body Shop, a longtime fixture in the valley. The building owner and contractor, Dan Ferris, is a family friend who Conaty said has built or helped build Brian Arden, Indian Springs and other local landmarks. Conaty said Ferris offered the Lincoln Avenue space and did the construction. He said Taylor Plumbing, Norris Electric and other local trades also worked with him on the project.

“The community came together to make this place happen for me, my wife and my family,” Conaty said.

He said that without that help, he would have run out of money in the first month and that the support still catches him off guard.

“You ask yourself, why me? Why are they doing this?” he said.

Conaty said his entire staff lives in Calistoga, as do Cereghini and General Manager Candice Stermer, and that Rita will serve on weekends. At 34, opening his first restaurant outside the wine business that anchors much of the local economy, he framed the moment in personal terms.

“I’ve been working my whole life for this moment,” he said.

Opening, and the Months Ahead

Five Senses plans to open Wednesday through Sunday, 3 to 8:30 p.m., before expanding to seven days and eventually adding lunch. The dining room holds up to 48 but is set at 33 for now. A 26-seat patio will be added once the team finds its footing. For the first month, reservations and to-go orders will be taken by phone only.

Conaty said the restaurant will offer sushi platters to go — priced at roughly $120 to $150 for about 72 pieces, enough for about six people — aimed, in part, at residents heading to Concerts in the Park.

He named getting through a Calistoga winter as his biggest worry, and the reason he keeps returning to the same goal: building a place locals will use year-round.

“I hope to be here a long time,” he said.

--

Tim Carl is a Calistoga-based photojournalist.

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Every good reporter needs a reliable source. Sasha Paulsen has one with four legs, blue eyes and an uncanny instinct for finding interesting people — or at least interesting smells. In this inaugural column, Sasha traces an unexpected path from one remarkable newspaper dog to another, telling the story of how local journalism has changed, what has been lost and why community news still matters. It is, fittingly, a story that begins with a walk.

CALISTOGA, Calif. — In 2008 I got a call from a reporter at The New York Times.

“OK,” she began in quite a snitty way. “My editor wants to know why Copia will talk to you and not to us.”

The little Napa Valley Register, where I was features editor, had scooped them on the closing of Copia: The American Center for Food, Wine & the Arts. It had opened with fanfare in 2001 but had struggled to find a path to sustainability.

I explained: In Napa I lived around the corner from a member of the dwindling board of Copia, and several times a day my dog and I walked past his house. A sensible man, he was cautious of me, but he did like Pippi, a lovely Husky-Shiba Inu who resembled a corgi with legs. She was smarter than 96% of the people I had known. (I had met Stephen Hawking at Berkeley; otherwise, it would have been 99%.) She had velvet brown eyes that gazed into your soul.

I don’t know how we always seemed to be passing by Joe’s house when he was coming or going. He could never resist greeting Pippi, and there I always was at the end of the leash. Under the spell of Pippi’s big brown eyes, his aversion to questions such as “What’s happening at Copia?” melted away like butter in the sun.

A brief but profound silence followed my story. Then the reporter growled: “We want that dog.”

The moral of this story is: Every newspaper needs canine support in the art of the investigation.

—

Pippi passed on to the great dog park at the age of 17. In addition to her illustrious career in journalism (no, she didn’t move to the Times; she preferred investigating the restaurants of Napa Valley), she helped raise my two children, saw Sam off to medical school and Ariel to study Welsh in Wales and marry a dog-and-language-loving Scot. Her work was done.

Not long after, my job at the Register ended, eliminated by mandated cuts from corporate owners. This was 2023, and Napa was not immune to concern that newspapers were going the way of the dodo. Hundreds were closing across the country. The reasons were myriad: rising costs, corporate profits, competition from the internet, public opinion ranking journalists with members of Congress (low). The consensus seemed to be that the last journalist would soon be stuffed and exhibited in a museum, if, in fact, museums could manage to keep their lights on.

My own immediate concern — one of them, anyway — was that I had a story planned: a collaboration with freelance photojournalist Tim Carl about Roots of Peace, an international organization dedicated to removing landmines from war zones. In 2023, a whole new war zone had opened up: Ukraine. Roots of Peace, “turning mines to vines,” had strong support from local vintners, including Mike Grgich, a native of Croatia, which had been heavily mined during the wars of the 1990s. In two days Tim and I were scheduled to meet at Grgich Hills winery for an update with Mike’s daughter, Violet, and Heidi Kühn, founder of Roots of Peace. And now, I had no place to publish the story.

“I guess we will have to cancel,” I told Tim.

“No,” he said. “Don’t. I will think about this.”

So I showed up at Grgich Hills at 9 a.m., and a few minutes later, Tim bounded in with his cameras.

“I got an idea this morning,” he said. “What do you think?”

He showed me his iPhone. Between 2 and 9 a.m., he had created the Napa Valley Features Substack. Roots of Peace was one of its first stories.

—

I began writing and editing for other publications, as well, but everywhere else I found the same questions: What was the fate of news? How could it be sustained? What would happen to a republic if only billionaires owned the news?

One of the groups I began working with was Highway 29 Media, formed in late 2022 to take over the Calistoga Tribune and the Yountville Sun when the two founders wanted to retire. The plan was to expand publications to create a broader base of supporters. It would include a much-requested news source for American Canyon, a news desert within the valley, a paywall-free county-wide paper, and Conéctate, a bilingual newsletter.

This work was being sustained by three valiant journalists, each doing work that, in olden days, would have required an entire staff. My job was to serve as a sort of crone-in-chief and help them spin straw of meager resources into gold.

In Calistoga, Danielle Wilde was a young reporter who had moved to Napa to work in her first newspaper job at the Register, only to have her job cut, too, a few months later. She had gone to work for the Tribune, only to find herself, unexpectedly, not only reporter, but editor, ombudsman and person who answered the phone and emails, dealt with subscriptions and tried to answer questions such as, “Can you find an article about my son that ran in 2006 or maybe it was 2013, but I am sure it was in the Tribune unless it was in the Press Democrat or the Chronicle?”

In Yountville, Lisa Adams Walter had taken on a similar challenge as the one-person editorial staff of the Sun.

Mariela Gomez, supported by a grant from the Napa Valley Community Foundation, was trying to create a bilingual source of news.

That was it.

I had long since realized that the chief requirement for becoming a journalist is not untamed curiosity or a fine way with words but being unquestionably nuts.

—

Part of my job was to find support for them in the form of interns, reporters from the California Local News Fellowship and freelancers. I recall vividly the day, on our weekly Zoom meeting, when I announced that I’d found a new investigative reporter for the group. Amidst incredulity, excitement, even elation, Luz made her entrance.

A Siberian husky, she had landed herself in the animal shelter, owing to a tendency to open windows, remove screens and scale fences when she was in need of an adventure. She had blue eyes, not brown, but just as effective. She was, I knew, a natural journalist.

Her first act was to interrupt the meeting with a husky-speak announcement that it was time for everyone to stop staring at their laptops and do something useful, like go for a walk.

Luz and I became vicarious residents of the cities of Napa County, including Calistoga. As I read Danielle’s stories, each week brought home to me the value of the hometown news. When a big story breaks in Washington, D.C., you can find it everywhere, but who is going to tell you about the dramatic departure of the city manager, a preschool in danger of closing, the debates about the fate of the fairgrounds, the opening of a magnificent achievement like the Brannan Center? Not to mention, the all-important police log.

Reading stories long-distance, however, doesn’t satisfy a husky reporter. We had to explore the territory, from the wetlands of American Canyon to the Loop of Calistoga, walking, sniffing and sampling the local fare. Luz had established high standards for the latter; her favored restaurant for meetings in Napa was Angèle. She would carry home baguettes and bury them like cherished bones in the backyard.

—

By the end of 2025, we had the five publications. Print or online is the big question; print generates more ad revenue but costs far more to produce. Mariela had created Conéctate, a bilingual newsletter; two energetic interns from UC Berkeley had launched the American Canyon Current; and a veteran reporter, Kerana Todorov, stepped in to help them, having once covered the growing city for the American Canyon Eagle, a Register sister publication that shut down in 2018. Everyone was contributing to the countywide Napa County Times.

Everything was online except for the Calistoga Tribune. The reason was revenue. The founder, Pat Hampton, had started the Tribune, when Lee Enterprises, owner of the Register, bought the legacy paper, the Weekly Calistogan. They had subsequently shuttered it in 2022; it wasn’t making enough money. But Pat managed to get her new little Tribune adjudicated to publish legal notices, and this had become a sustaining source of income. The requirement is these legals appear in print.

Nonetheless, Highway 29 was struggling. The Tribune office had been closed, production manager Christy Webb’s pay slashed, and Danielle was working out of her studio apartment. Independent contractors like Lisa and me hadn’t been paid in months when in May, Highway 29 announced it was shutting down, one more casualty in a nationwide epidemic of failing newspapers: good intentions, mired in debt and unpaid bills, with no path forward. I found myself inundated with calls and emails: What could be done? At the top of the list: Could the Tribune be saved again?

Another veteran journalist, Paul Franson, and I mulled over the question. Paul, a contributor to Highway 29, is the publisher of NapaLife, a weekly newsletter about food, wine, arts and business in Napa Valley, which, remarkably, has thrived for 20 years.

“It might be easier to just start something new, make a fresh, debt-free start,” Paul suggested. It was what he had done when his column had been killed by the Register two decades ago. “If I were 20 years younger, I’d do it. But I know who could.”

That evening I sent a message to Tim.

“Paul said you could start a new publication in 24 hours.”

A few days later, Tim called to say he was in Napa; did Paul and I want to meet him for lunch at Angèle?

And so Tim showed us the first edition of Calistoga Currents, a print and online publication. Tim, being a crazy person, had written all the stories himself.

“It took 36 hours,” he said, apologetically. “But you and Paul are going to write for it, right?”

—

What’s the future of news? I still don’t know except I know it is important, and it starts with local news. One might feel powerless to effect change in Washington, D.C., but I don’t buy that yet; people still have power, and it starts with strong, informed communities. The old model keeps failing. The new one has to look ahead, not back, combine the best of the old-school storytelling with the boundless possibilities of what’s new. I don’t think the countywide aspirations of Highway 29 were wrong; it just lacked a plan to sustain them. The key, I believe, will lie in collaborations. Napa is, after all, one small county. But first steps first. Calistoga Currents.

Of course, Tim has hired Luz as investigative reporter. She has made initial forays up and down the streets of Calistoga, sniffing out stories. Thus far her favorite stop is Sam’s General Store, even if they do not have baguettes. If you happen to see a beguiling blue-eyed husky hauling a hapless human around the Loop, feel free to share news tips. Or baguettes.

—

Sasha Paulsen is journalist and novelist who lives in Napa.

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The views, opinions and data presented in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy, position or perspective of Calistoga Currents or its editorial team. Any content provided by our authors is their own and is not intended to malign any group, organization, company or individual.

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Summary: A company called Global Stack told the Calistoga Fairgrounds Advisory Committee on June 25 that it wants to build a network of small “edge computing” sites, aerial shuttles and parking structures across 50 to 60 California fairgrounds, with Calistoga as one possible location. The company’s only near-term ask was a nonbinding memorandum of understanding to begin site-specific talks. More than 100 residents packed a standing-room-only meeting — among them younger people who pressed hard on chemicals, water and the technology itself — and the committee chair said afterward that the city had made clear it was not interested.

CALISTOGA, Calif. — She held her young niece on one hip and, at her side, a hand-lettered sign: “AI will kill us all.” Around its border, in marker, Resa Jarvey had catalogued the fears that brought her out — ocean currents she said were collapsing, 2.9 million acres of California burned so far this year, and a technology whose own experts, she wrote, “still don’t fully control or even understand.”

Jarvey, a community advocate who had brought her young niece and nephew, was one of only a handful of younger residents in a room that skewed older — and among the most uneasy. The presentation that drew more than 100 people to a standing-room-only meeting of the Calistoga Fairgrounds Advisory Committee on June 25 was offered as a local opportunity, but the company making it described something much larger: a plan to link 50 to 60 of California’s fairgrounds into a single privately built network of small computing sites and aerial shuttles, marketed as emergency-response infrastructure, with Calistoga as one possible site.

Nick Kovacevich, who identified himself as a Global Stack representative and a sitting member of the Orange County Fair Board, said the company wants to partner with fairgrounds “up and down the state,” beginning with a nonbinding memorandum of understanding at each site. Kovacevich previously co-founded and led KushCo, a cannabis-packaging company that merged with Greenlane Holdings in 2021, where he became chief executive. He stressed repeatedly that the concept was exploratory and that nothing was being decided. By the meeting’s end, the committee chair said the community’s message was clear.

“This community is not prepared for such a venture in our town at this moment,” Chair Shane Pavitt said, summarizing the public comment. He noted that no vote had been scheduled — the item was for discussion only — and said the council now understood that Calistoga, “regardless of potential economic windfall, is not interested in a project like that.”

How the Vision Began

Kovacevich traced the concept to Dan Kang, a Newport Beach entrepreneur he described as the project’s visionary, and to a single question about disaster preparedness. In public records, a Newport Beach entrepreneur by that name is the founder and chairman of Berify, a company that uses blockchain technology — a tamper-resistant digital ledger — to verify that physical products are authentic and guard against counterfeits. A friend of Kang’s, Kovacevich said, had a plan for “the big one [a major disaster]” — a helicopter that would collect his family and carry them east of the fault line. Kang’s reaction, as Kovacevich told it, was to ask what everyone without a private helicopter would do. From that starting point the company arrived at an “aerial shuttle network,” modeled loosely on Blade, the private service that flies passengers between Manhattan and the Hamptons, but with a public-safety twist: the aircraft would operate commercially day to day, then default to state control during a declared emergency.

California, Kovacevich argued, is “woefully unprepared.” He said the state contracts with roughly 150 helicopters for emergencies and then has to hope, when disaster strikes, that the operators answer the phone and that their aircraft are available, maintained and fueled. A standing network tied to the fairgrounds, he said, would give the state evacuation capacity it can count on.

The aircraft at the center of that vision are not helicopters. Kovacevich said Global Stack intends to skip directly to eVTOLs — electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft, sometimes called passenger drones or flying cars — built by companies such as Joby and Archer. Because no eVTOL is yet approved by the Federal Aviation Administration, he placed commercial use five to 10 years out and said helicopters would bridge the interim. He described the eVTOLs as quiet, piloted rather than autonomous, and seating six to nine, and argued they could eventually reshape where people live, letting workers commute by air from areas where housing is cheaper.

The computing piece, Kovacevich said, grew out of the aerial plan: an emergency shuttle network needs resilient communications, especially when cell service fails. That led to what he called “edge computing” — containerized units he said would draw under 10 megawatts, far less than a conventional data center. He framed the load as “good for the grid”: the sites could power down during peak demand to free electricity for the community, but, backed by batteries, would keep running through a blackout or a cell-network outage — the resilience he pitched as their emergency value. Stacked together, the components become a single structure: a parking garage two or three stories high, with the aerial shuttle landing on top and the edge computing housed below, returning to each fairground at least as much parking as the building consumes. Each site, he said, would run $20 million to $50 million.

A Statewide Network, Not a Calistoga Project

The most consistent theme in Kovacevich’s presentation was scale. He said California is the only state that owns a connected network of fairgrounds — roughly one in every county — and that this geography makes them ideal for a distributed emergency and computing system. He framed the build as a “circular economy” meant to keep computing contracts for fire departments, police and hospitals inside California, built with union labor, rather than routing them to national firms he said are leaving the state. He cited the 2028 Olympics as an emergency-preparedness driver in Southern California, where the company is focusing first, and pointed to the California Department of Food and Agriculture, which oversees the state-owned fairgrounds, the state Office of Emergency Services and new state artificial-intelligence legislation as part of the rationale.

The entry point everywhere is the same: a nonbinding memorandum of understanding allowing the company to bring in its design team and study each site. Gary Ittig, who has lived off Cedar Street for about 30 years and said his background was as a lawyer, told the committee the agreement was less benign than it sounded.

“Local staff is proposing a memorandum of understanding that essentially says you agree with us building an aero port and … a data center or edge computer center,” Giddings said, adding that both uses run “pretty contrary to what most of these people have been fighting for.”

What’s Proposed, and the Numbers Behind It

Much of the questioning turned on a single distinction: whether “edge computing” is meaningfully different from a data center. A committee member challenged it as a smaller data center under another name. Kovacevich maintained the footprint was far smaller and grid-friendly, and said the sites would not generate the runoff associated with large data centers.

One resident, who said he had studied the issue, disputed that directly. He pressed Kovacevich on PFAS — the “forever chemicals” associated with data-center operations — and pointed to the river beside the fairgrounds and the families raising children nearby. Kovacevich did not engage the chemistry.

“Nobody’s agreeing to any deal that does anything today,” he said, thanking the man for his passion. “All we’re doing is talking about a vision.”

Mick Loveland, who lives nearby on Fairway, put it more bluntly, saying everything he had read about data centers was bad — heavy demands on power and water, noise and few lasting jobs — and asked Kovacevich to explain plainly how the edge concept differed.

The financial figures that had circulated before the meeting did not survive it. The company’s slide deck paired a $6.3 billion investment with $2.24 billion in projected annual revenue. Pressed on how an “8 to 10 megawatt” facility — which industry benchmarks would put at roughly $100 million to $150 million to build — could carry a $6.3 billion price tag, Kovacevich said that figure was never meant for a single site; it was an estimate for the entire statewide network, every site and all parking and computing combined, drawn from an older version of the deck, with per-site investment closer to $20 million to $50 million. The $2.24 billion revenue figure, he said, came from that same outdated deck and was not a per-site number, and the company had since shifted to a “site-specific” model it had not yet documented. The result is that the only hard numbers Global Stack has put in writing are ones it now disavows, with nothing documented in their place.

Sonny Thielbar, a project consultant for Energy Vault who said evaluating such projects is his profession, told the committee he had researched Global Stack and found no comparable project it had built. He urged the committee to vet a company’s track record before giving it a public platform, saying these projects are “immensely complex” and that the city should make sure a partner “actually built one.” He also noted that a Calistoga resident works for Joby, one of the eVTOL makers Kovacevich had cited. Global Stack itself has little findable web presence; a search turned up a simple company website and no record of a completed project, consistent with Kovacevich’s description of the venture as early-stage.

A Plan the Committee Hasn’t Finished

Residents who spoke fell into roughly three groups: a large middle that was skeptical but curious, a group opposed outright over water, electricity, chemical contamination and the property’s non-historic use, and a smaller group that felt the idea was worth continued conversation. Most of the middle returned to one point — that Calistoga has no adopted master plan against which to weigh any proposal. The committee itself was created in 2025 and made permanent in January, with developing that revitalization plan as its central charge; that work is still underway.

“We need to know where this property is going to go, we need to know what we want to do with it, and that starts with a proper planning process,” said resident Doug Allan, who urged the committee to build a community-approved plan before evaluating proposals.

There were loud cheers when a speaker asked why a proposal this early in its development had been brought before the community at all.

Residents disagreed about whether such input already exists. Some pointed to a community survey they said captured a preference for preserving open space and small-town character; others argued no adequate planning process had occurred. The survey in question was conducted by FM3 Research for the City of Calistoga between Sept. 20 and Oct. 12, 2025; the firm collected 641 phone and online responses and presented results to the city council in November. Just 1% of respondents wanted housing at the fairgrounds, while 86% prioritized keeping the site as an emergency evacuation center and 80% supported leasing portions to vendors to help fund operations.

Charlotte Williams said it was “grotesque” to talk about a master plan without significant representation from Calistoga’s Spanish-speaking community, noting the city is at least half Hispanic and that meetings held in English on weeknights exclude residents who work long hours and lack the time to attend.

When her turn came, Jarvey argued the fairgrounds should stay a community space rather than one “used for billionaires to make more profit.” She said the project would strain Calistoga’s limited water and threaten the reliable power that older residents nearby depend on for life-saving medical equipment, and that communities where similar ventures have arrived are “raising the red flag.”

She was not the only younger resident carrying that unease; the man who raised the chemical concerns spoke, too, of neighbors “who want to raise their families here.” For both, the worry ran less to this one company than to the direction of the technology itself and the world the next generation will grow up in.

A Deed That Limits Use

Underlying the debate is a restriction the city accepted when it bought the roughly 70.6-acre fairgrounds from Napa County for $2 million, a sale the county approved in January 2024. The purchase agreement limits the property to its historical uses — among them the county fair, the speedway, a golf course, the RV park, event space and emergency response — bars leases longer than 25 years and lets the county repurchase the property under certain conditions. Should Calistoga move to rezone or sell the land, the county can buy it back at the original $2 million price, adjusted for inflation.

Those terms cut against the proposal. A computing facility, an aerial shuttle network and a parking structure are not among the property’s historical uses, and the kind of long-term commitment Global Stack envisions — Kovacevich floated a 135-year horizon, tied to the Orange County fair’s age — would run up against the 25-year lease cap.

The deed’s constraints were contested when the sale was finalized. In a letter to the Calistoga Tribune, former Mayor Chris Canning called the county’s buyback provision a “fatal flaw,” arguing that the public-private partnerships the property will need to survive would be sharply limited by the clause. Councilmember Scott Cooper, addressing the related historical-use restriction as the council approved the agreement, took the opposite view, saying the contract would allow anything permissible under current zoning and that “scores and scores of ideas” already fit.

Where It Stands

No vote was scheduled and none was taken. Mayor Don Williams and Councilmember and Vice Mayor Lisa Gift attended as council liaisons but did not speak on the proposal. Vice Chair Karen Jensen was among the more positive voices, saying the presentation opened her mind to possibilities and raised useful questions about how the city would power future infrastructure. Fairgrounds Revitalization Director Sheli Wright called the concept futuristic and said she doubted it would happen in Calistoga first, but wanted to hear what other fairgrounds are doing.

For now, the only thing Global Stack put before the committee was a nonbinding memorandum of understanding — the same first step it is offering fairgrounds across the state — and even that, most who spoke agreed, was premature.

For Jarvey, the stakes ran beyond a single proposal. It is wrong, she said, “as we are moving into phases of the climate collapse that are completely undoable,” to “continue to push in this direction.” The valley, she said, needs “more sustainable solutions for the future.”

“I don’t want this for my family — I don’t want it for the valley,” she said.

—

Tim Carl is a Calistoga-based photojournalist. Linda York is a Calistoga-based writer.

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The views, opinions and data presented in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy, position or perspective of Calistoga Currents or its editorial team. Any content provided by our authors is their own and is not intended to malign any group, organization, company or individual.