the best of napa valley life featuring BEn mAhonEY Director of Operations for Napa Valley Film Festival • BEST NAPA VALLEy VIEW The view from the balcony at the Jarvis Conservatory Theater during the Napa Valley Film Festival. . .or . . .the view from the deck at Round Pond Winery in the fall, looking up from the bottom of the valley surrounded by the fire-colored leaves makes me feel like I am in the belly of the beast. • BEST WORkOuT Running my dog “Cheese” through the Carneros vineyards. • BEST HOME-COOkED MEAL Where do I start? It has to be my Benny’s braised short ribs/braised tofu (for my wife Melody) paired with Melody’s mashed potatoes and lemon shallot green beans. • BEST NEWLy TASTED WINE Pink Girl Rosé on the 4th of July. . . or Third Bottle White from Gustavo Thrace. • BEST PLACE TO uNWIND Calistoga’s Indian Springs Spa hot spring pool on a rainy day. • BEST MuSIC VENuE do an exceptional job of bringing amazing acts like Beck, Pixies and • BEST PLACE TO TAkE OuT-OF-TOWN The Uptown Theater. Such a great place for Napa, and Sheila and Mindi Built To Spill to a small community! Look for some great film/music GuESTS connections during the Napa film festival too. . . Cool stuff in the works. • BEST ART GALLERy/STuDIO tasting room. Head back to Napa for a late lunch at Bistro Sabor, a beergoing to taste some wine at Saintsbury in Carneros, then Whetstone’sI love taking guests to breakfast at Fremont Diner or Boonfly Cafe,then Indian Springs Art Gallery, Martin Showroom and Gordon Heuther. The at Norman Rose (or a nap) and then dinner at ZuZu or Carpe Diem. . . . Slack Collective is certainly putting out some great stuff as well. That’s one great day! • BEST BAkERy • BEST THING ABOuT THE NAPA VALLEy Model Bakery, and the cream puffs at Ca’ Momi in Oxbow Public Market. I am a bit biased, but I have to mention the Napa Valley Film Festival • BEST FILM being a lover of fine food and beverage, this is truly an incredibly excitingas one of the top “Napa Best of.” Having a filmmaking background and Let’s talk. and fun event. At last year’s inaugural film festival, it was great to see • BEST BOOk conversations overheard about the 100+ independent films screened andfestival credentials hanging around the necks of folks passing me on thestreet, amazing filmmakers mingling at local establishments, interesting A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole or The Fountainhead a 1:00 am whiskey tasting at the NVFF Bourbon & Branch Late Night by Ayn Rand. Lounge in Yountville. To learn more about the film festival, see page page 61. 80 w w w. n A PA V A L L E Y L I F E m A g A z I n E . c o m
NVLife_SeptOct_2012
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