By Kathleen Reynolds
“Going out” used to mean one place for food, another for entertainment and still another for cocktails. Two Napa businesses have a fresh approach to food, shows and beverages— and both are family-friendly.
FOLKLORE
1226 Third St., Napa | 707.812.5506 | folklore-napa.com
In a large window on Third Street, Folklore proclaimed it was coming—for three years. Napans wondered what it was. In September of 2023, we found out. It’s got something for everyone.
“I’d describe our business as everything that’s important to us,” says Faith Henschel-Ventrello, who with her husband, Folklore’s co-owner, Steven, came to Napa 25 years ago. “We figured if we were going to do a business, it’d better be something that we love. We love music. Steve is a wine importer as well, and is incredibly knowledgeable about wine. We love cocktails, we love food. I had a radio station. So, we put everything we loved together in one place.”
Folklore sells new and used vinyl albums (and even seven inch 45’s for DJs and jukebox owners), has food, wine, cocktails and programs the radio station from their 2,800 square-foot Napa location at 1226 Third Street. Folklore also sells records at the Folklore Music Annex at Antiques on Second at 1370 Second Street. The business is thriving.
Folklore also buys or offers credit for gently used albums. Why are albums popular again and what’s the reason for Vinyl’s comeback?
“I think people are tired of having all the algorithms programming music and being so impersonal,” says Faith. “(Playing records) feels like more of a personal connection with the music, at least that’s why I do it. Some people might think it’s cool, some think because the sound quality is better, some might do it because Joe next door is doing it. But people are finding it, for various reasons. To me, it’s not only my favorite listening experience, but also the only way that artists can still make money. They don’t make money off streaming, but if they sell a record, they make money on that sale.”
“Selling new albums versus old is about 50/50 at Folklore. I’ll add more new records when I can because there’re a lot of new records out there, but for now, I’m mixing it up. More and more people are moving to new records because they want to listen to what they hear on the radio.”
Their website states: “Faith was the Music Director at KCMU (now KEXP in Seattle) while earning her B.A. from the University of Washington and spent the following twelve years as a music industry executive at Elektra, Capitol, and Virgin Records. In 1998, Faith and Steve founded Parador Cellars… Faith worked in the music-based dotcom sector while helping to grow Parador. In 2002, she and Steve started a second company, Vintage Wine Marketing. In 2018, Faith revived KCMU as a low-power FM radio station.”
KCMU (FM 103.3) is broadcast in Napa and can be heard from the airport to downtown, and as far north as Trancas Street. It’s also available to stream so people can listen from anywhere.
“I don’t know how many listeners I have,” says Faith. “Except for the people who come into the shop and say they listen and love it. It’s all music. I would like to get other programming, but I must work on some functional things before I do that; like moving the antenna to a tower. Right now, it’s still at our home tethered to an oak tree.”
When putting together the concept, Faith says it just seemed like a fun idea to have all these things in one place.
“Then we got a liquor license. That’s how we ended up bringing more and more food into it. When we had the liquor license, we had to think about it how we were going to have things look and how they were going to be.”
Currently, their menu is focused on tinned fish they import directly from Spain and Portugal.
“Other than that, we try to find things that we can do that are local and simple, but delicious. We have flatbreads that are great, smoked trout dip which is nice, soup, salad, and we do a local pretzel. Courtney from Love Park Pretzels makes great pretzels so we use hers. We’re going to expand the menu a bit more because we have A16 coming in as our neighbors, so we want to flesh out our starter and dessert menus because we know that they’ll have a lot of people waiting to go in.”
She explains why it took three years to open.
“It was a year and a half just to get the financing. Because of Covid, things were moving slowly. Our contractors did great; they took only nine months. The space had no plumbing, no electricity, no HVAC; it was a shell. When we opened, the economy went weird, so that was a surprise. Every expectation we had, we had to say, ‘never mind.’ Everybody kept telling us, ‘This is going to happen now;’ ‘This is what it’s going to look like,’ and none of it happened. We just had to take every expectation and throw it out the window.”
“For the Lighted Art Festival (which runs through February 16), I expect to be busy since we’re on the path between the Courthouse and the Presbyterian Church. Other than that, every event, everything we do, we hope business will be good. We try to plan accordingly and plan smartly. We are a scrappy team of seven staff members.”
Steve Ventrello’s career has been in wine sales and marketing. He has managed production and winemaking of Parador since 1998. Steve remains the President of Vintage Wine Marketing, where he continues to source wine from Europe and California.
Writer Jess Lander in the September 21, 2023 issue of the San Francisco Chronicle said, “Napa Valley’s most exciting wine list is hiding in a record shop.”
“Our wine at Folklore is my husband’s program,” says Faith. “It’s eclectic and very well priced. The least expensive wine on the list is a bottled wine that’s delicious and $20 (Vinho Verde from Portugal). It’s about trying to have wine at every price point that’s appealing and allows people to experiment and share; to not be afraid of trying wines from other areas. We have wines from Napa that don’t get exposure, too. It’s an incredible list. We get people, especially people who are winemakers or who work in the wine world, who come in and want to try different wines from around the world in different styles.”
They are trying to expand their cocktail menu by introducing people to cocktails from around the world, too.
“Our GM, Kayla Mays, is bringing people in from other countries to present cocktails,” says Faith. “I think she’s doing an incredible job developing a bigger cocktail audience. People from other cultures with other tastes and flavor profiles come in and show us what’s going on in their area of the world. Kayla’s already brought in people from the 50 best bars in Mexico City and Singapore. She’s going to keep this moving forward and I think it’s interesting and fun.”
“We, of course, want to do that with wine as well, but we do that in this business all the time. But it hasn’t happened with cocktails because Napa is not a cocktail destination. Kayla visited India and now makes a cocktail called Varanasi. Because she travels, she takes all the flavors and distills them into cocktails that define her experience. She meets bartenders and bar owners when she travels and invites them to come here to do events and tastings. Kayla’s going above and beyond to expand the global culture of what’s happening with cocktails in Napa, to try to put us on the map.”
They have entertainment space that’s open to the community.
“If you have a concept and want to come in and do something, we’re all for it,” says Faith. “We had a woman come in and do this cool rap thing for the release of a record. That was super fun. The drag show that we support is comprised of locals who bring up and support others in the community. Damian Burford wants to develop a local podcast, so he’s going to be talking here with Sierra, who’s in a band called Last Pleasure and Divorces. We’re open to most things but we don’t want to be booking music every night. We want to have people who come with ideas outside of the norm.”
As well as business is doing, Faith wants people to know one thing.
“I want to remind people to shop at your local small businesses, we’re not going to survive otherwise. Remember to support the things that you like if you want them to survive. They won’t survive just because you want them to.”
She adds, “We have awesome locals. As far as I’m concerned, Folklore has the best local customers in the world.”
BARNHOUSE NAPA BREWS
004 Clinton St., Napa | (707) 690-6272 | barnhousenapa.com
Inspired by the pubs in Europe, Adam Housley and Eric Barnes opened Barnhouse Napa Brews, a combination of their names, that serves morning and evening beverages with accompanying snacks.
“(Five years ago) I thought there needed to be a local place where people could go and feel comfortable with their kids, whether it be coffee in the morning or beer in the evening,” says Adam, a native of Napa who has played in baseball’s minor leagues and was on television as a foreign correspondent. “In the States, a pub is where you go to have fish and chips and celebrate St. Patrick’s Day. You don’t realize it’s a cultural institution in England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales. When I was over there for business or fun, I noticed in the morning you’d go there to get your coffee or tea, grab your newspaper or whatever and then you’d come back in the afternoon or evening after work, even if you had a work meeting and go back to the same pub. You have an ale, a glass of wine, a drink or even a coffee and it was a community hangout. We didn’t have that in Napa.”
Adam is a busy entrepreneur. He runs Housley Winery, Housley Napa Wine Bar, Barnhouse, has given a TED talk, coaches his children in sports and is writing a book. Eric has been a photographer for National Geographic Expeditions.
Adam and Eric worked together overseas, Adam as an on-air correspondent and Eric as his photographer. When they talked about coffee at a mutual friend’s wedding, they realized they both wanted to get into the coffee business. Eric was living in San Clemente at the time but moved to Napa where they set about looking for a location.
“We spent several months looking for a spot, then one opened about four doors down from the Housley Napa tasting room. We said it’s the perfect spot and the rest is history,” says Adam.
“As for the future, we’re expanding the distribution of our coffee. It’s roasted locally. We’re partnered with Hero Coffee Company, where part of the proceeds go to charity. The coffee is just fantastic. I say it’s not pretentious coffee; it’s coffee for locals. You’re not getting a less-quality coffee. Also, it’s incredibly clean coffee. People don’t realize that there’s a lot of coffee out there that’s just not good for you; it’s got chemicals in it, it’s got mildew, molds, all kinds of things. We’re right there at the source. It’s good coffee, clean, it’s not stupid expensive coffee. We’re not trying to be snobby. You don’t have to be snobby to make good coffee. We call it “Coffee priced for locals.” When you come in, you see our wine list is all local, our beer list is local, coffee is local, our food is made locally. Same with Housley Napa; all our suppliers are local and not crazy expensive at the same time, which is great.”
“Opening Barnhouse three years ago exceeded expectations. I wanted it to be a community hub, that’s why our motto is ‘Coffee priced for locals; beer priced for locals.’ We have ‘for locals’ in there because there are a lot of expenses in Napa, even our rent here is not cheap. Our landlady is awesome, and we love her, but it’s not cheap to do business in Napa and it’s not easy for a business to stay open.”
“What’s exceeded our expectations is the outpouring of people who have come in to keep us open and grow our popularity. My number one thing is that it’s become a staple for a lot of people; they get into their routine to stop in for coffee or tea, they see their friends here, they see the guys behind the bar, who serve coffee in the morning and again when they’re pouring their beer. They become friends. We have a couple of young guys who work both at Barnhouse and Housley Napa who play on our soccer team. Now we have customers who go and watch them play. It’s fun to see it become a community center. That’s what we wanted it to be, a community center for people to come in and not feel taken advantage of.”
Barnhouse Napa Brew is kid-friendly and dog-friendly. The resident canine is Leaf, a border Collie.
“It’s all about being friendly, being good people for both Housley Napa and Barnhouse. We don’t care who you are; if you’re old, young, left, right, gay, straight, black, white, green, it doesn’t matter and that’s the way it should be. Everyone here is welcome. The only time you’re not welcome is if you’re mean, not kind. It’s really cool to see people sit down and converse over their drinks. You can come in here, have your coffee, tea—which we also have at night—wine, beer. You don’t feel like you just spent $15 for a coffee and got taken for a ride. It feels like you got a solid cup, you’ve seen people you know and made new friends. It’s about being local, about feeling comfortable coming in. It’s an addicting place.”
“The world’s a small place with big issues, but we want you to feel relaxed here, come in, enjoy yourself. You’re not going to have your full dinner here, but you’re not supposed to. You’re going to get comfort food that won’t break the bank and have fun doing it. We have karaoke on Fridays, we have musicians and games; there’s always something going on here.”
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