Food, Wine, Coffee, and Retail Blend at Yountville’s Newest Luxury Destination

After four long years of development, the company formerly known as Restoration Hardware, RH, has opened the first of its galleries to include a standalone full-service restaurant and wine tasting room in Yountville.

Six of the company’s 80 galleries have an integrated hospitality component, but RH Yountville is the only one with a standalone restaurant. Typically, the RH galleries dedicate about 25 percent of the space to hospitality, with the remaining 75 percent occupied by design, retail and furnishings. In Napa, however, the company took a different approach, creating a more seamless experience between the different components.

Courtesy of RH

That multi-faced experience spans food, wine, coffee, and retail, adding to Yountville’s growing list of luxury properties.

The Restaurant

Open daily, 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., the restaurant serves brunch until about 3:30 p.m. and then transitions into dinner service. The menu, curated by Brendan Sodikoff, restaurateur and founding president of RH Hospitality, features simple, California-inspired, comfort dishes like truffle grilled cheese, avocado toast topped with roasted tomatoes and a farm egg, and burrata served on toasted garlic bread. The highlight of dessert is a trio of absurdly-gooey chocolate chip cookies, sprinkled with giant sea salt flakes. And, because it’s in Napa Valley after all, this location has a vastly greater wine list than the rest of RH’s eateries.

Signature RH elements are found throughout the restaurant: working stone fountains, opulent Rococo chandeliers, and a bevy of cozy, neutral-toned RH furnishings, which of course, can all be purchased. But the 100-year-old, live olive trees are the main event, seamlessly blending the outdoors with the in — as do the picture windows, glass doors, and a glass roof that acts as a giant sky light. In the evenings, the ambiance completely transforms; the entire property glows, thanks to the massive chandeliers.

Courtesy of RH

The Galleries

Behind the restaurant and through a courtyard are two RH design galleries, where people are free to peruse home furnishings and antiques in the open-air rooms. The secluded, five-building RH Yountville campus then extends next door to the company’s first wine tasting room, the Wine Vault at the Historic Ma(i)sonry Building.

The Tasting room

That gorgeous, two-story, 1904 stone building housed the Ma(i)sonry wine collective for the past decade and was reportedly the inspiration for opening an RH in Yountville. RH chairman and CEO Gary Friedman, a friend of Ma(i)sonry founder Michael Polenske’s, purchased the property in 2014 to carry out his creative vision following his own experience there.

They’ve redesigned the space, but with minimal changes, as the building is on the National Register of Historic Places. Inside, a supersized chandelier hangs from the 24-foot cedar ceiling. Like the restaurant, the Wine Vault emphasizes the outdoors, with several al fresco “living rooms” available for seated tastings. The space is ideal for rainy days or chilly evenings, as it’s the only tasting room in Yountville that stays open until 10 p.m.

Courtesy of RH

Patrons can choose from three curated tasting flights (ranging from $50-100) made up of five wines from boutique producers. The Collector Tasting ($100) highlights iconic red wines from some of Napa Valley’s most renowned, rock star winemakers, like Philippe Melka and Heidi Barrett. These wines are usually allocated, nearly-impossible to acquire, and as the tasting’s name suggests, collectors items meant for an extended stay in one’s cellar.

The Wine and Coffee Bar

The final component of RH Yountville is the Wine & Barista Bar outside the tasting room, which serves wine by the glass and bottle. Team leaders spent extensive hours in training, learning how to perfectly operate the espresso machine, create latte art, and more, and RH uses a custom roast from Metropolis Roasting Company in Chicago.

• Where to Eat and Drink in Napa Valley [ESF]