Yountville's Newest Tables Are Set for the People Who Live Here

Jason Boldt had three options for the Lakeside Grill at Vintner's Golf Club this summer. The menu had grown to dozens of choices that were hard to prepare and expensive to serve, and with costs rising, the restaurant was losing money. He could put in a touch-screen kiosk and drop table service. He could close a place that local families and golfers had been coming back to for decades. Or he could change it. "Either we had to make a change or we had to close," Boldt told the Yountville Sun in September.

He chose to change it, and the restaurant he ended up with fits a pattern across Yountville in 2026. This is a town known for tasting menus booked weeks out. This year, its most talked-about changes have gone to places you can visit on a Tuesday without planning ahead. A struggling grill now serves breakfast. A dining room dropped its formal format and added a Sunday prix fixe. A bar that sat closed for six years now has approval for up to 24 special events through June 2027. A wine club in the works has set prices as part of its pitch. Each one is designed for people who come back often, not for one big night out.

The Grill That Cut Its Menu and Added Breakfast

Boldt's solution was Chef Jimmy Martinez. He came recommended by Jude Wilmoth of Cook St. Helena, and in less than two weeks he upgraded the kitchen equipment, rewrote the menu and expanded the hours. Martinez went to culinary school and then cooked for Wolfgang Puck, including at Spago in Beverly Hills. He later worked at Pine Creek Cookhouse near Aspen, Mastro's Steakhouse in Costa Mesa and BOA Steakhouse before moving with his family to St. Helena.

The restaurant is now called Birdie Yountville at the Lakeside Grill. It opens at 8 a.m. daily for breakfast, serves brunch on weekends and has a daily happy hour. Boldt and Martinez hope to add dinner service later and bring back private events such as wine dinners, weddings, birthdays and class reunions. "We want to be the outlet for people to gather as a community or family at our beautiful place next to the lake," Boldt said. The Sun described the overhaul as a way to make the restaurant sustainable while keeping it affordable.

The fix was not to reach for a wider audience. Birdie has a shorter menu, earlier hours and a plan to win back the gatherings that used to fill the room. Boldt is betting that people who already know the servers will keep coming if the restaurant gives them more reasons to come during the week.

A Formal Dining Room That Kept Its Sourdough Starter

North Block Restaurant at 6757 Washington St. made a similar shift from the other end of the price range. It used to be called The Restaurant at North Block. In September it moved away from formal dining toward seasonal dishes, wood-fired pizzas, house-made pastas and a wine list built mostly on California producers. The kitchen is run by Chef Antonio Natal, a Napa Valley native whose cooking draws on his Latin and Italian heritage.

One detail connects the new menu to the building's past. The pizzas are made with the same sourdough starter used by Redd Wood, the restaurant that used to occupy the space. For anyone who ate at Redd Wood, the fennel sausage and potato pizza with Parmesan cream, rosemary and chili crisp is the closest thing to a return visit.

The Sunday Supper Series is the clearest sign of who the new menu is for. It costs $49 a person for three courses: an appetizer, a pizza or pasta entrée, and dessert. The choices change monthly, so a regular who comes once a month sees a new menu every time. A limited "Happiest Hour" menu runs daily from 3 to 6 p.m. Longtime Napa bartender Coy Estes built the cocktail list, which includes nonalcoholic options alongside drinks like the Metropolitano, made with Meyer lemon vodka, limoncello and passion fruit-black pepper syrup.

The North End Gets Its Bar Back

A few doors up Washington Street, Pancha's at 6764 Washington St. reopened after six years under new owners Ren and Marilyn Harris and Paul Frank. The Press Democrat dates first service to Dec. 19, 2025, and the Yountville Sun covered the official ribbon-cutting on Jan. 15, 2026. Ren and Marilyn are the primary partners, and Scott Lewis manages the bar. In February, the Press Democrat reported that pop-ups from local chefs and Tacos Garcia were expected once the backyard was up and running.

In June, the owners brought a request for outdoor seating on the rear patio and garden to the Town Council. The council approved a limit of 125 people for special events and up to 24 events through June 30, 2027, with an 80-decibel limit. It turned down an internally illuminated sign. The result is a neighborhood bar with a capped number of gatherings and no lit sign facing the street.

The street outside has changed too. A $1.27 million rehabilitation of Washington Street was finished this spring. The Press Democrat reported that it raised the pavement-condition score on the northern stretch from 65 to 82 and added bike lanes, a four-way stop at Webber Avenue, pedestrian-safety improvements and a connection to the Vine Trail. Pancha's and North Block now sit on a smoother, more bikeable stretch of the north end, and a resident can reach that end on foot or by bike without ever using Highway 29.

What the Week Looks Like Now

Put the 2026 changes next to the town's existing routines and the week has more fixed points than it did a year ago. The schedule below covers October through early December. Pancha's hours differ between published reports, so they are left out here.

Thomas Keller's Addendum, the seasonal outdoor restaurant behind Ad Hoc at 6476 Washington St., finished its summer run over Labor Day weekend. That means the fall schedule depends more heavily on the year-round places in the table.

The Club That Has Not Opened Yet

The last piece is still under construction. Vintners Social Club by K. LAZ is planned for the former JCB Tasting Salon at Washington and Mulberry streets. It will combine a private members' club with a public neighborhood wine bar, modeled on wine bars and private clubs in Europe. The July announcement describes a place where members and guests come back regularly to try new wines. Members will get access to The Members List, a set of wines sold at member pricing.

Kerrin Laz described the pricing idea plainly: "in the region where these wines are grown, they should be enjoyed at their most reasonable prices." She is not new to town. Laz founded K. Laz Wine Collection in Yountville in 2015. She also founded Inspire Napa Valley, a nonprofit that has raised more than $11 million for Alzheimer's and dementia research and local care programs. As of early October, the club's website still says "Coming Fall 2026."

The Calendar Through New Year's

The rest of the fall calendar runs through the same stretch of Washington Street:

1. Oct. 24: The first Hallowine Walk, with participating tasting rooms and local businesses.
2. Oct. 31: The Town's Halloween Block Party on the north end of Washington Street, listed at 6764 Washington St., with food, drinks, live music and an early-evening block of children's activities. Published start times differ, so check the Town calendar before heading out.
3. Nov. 22, 6 to 8 p.m.: The Town & Tree Lighting at the Yountville Community Center, which opens Holidays in Yountville. The season runs through Jan. 1, 2027, with more than 100 seasonal events.
4. Nov. 28 through Dec. 9: The "12 Days of Yountville Cheer," beginning on Small Business Saturday, with limited-time offers from local businesses.

Yountville's entertainment zone covers Washington Street from Champagne Drive to Jackson Street. It allows approved take-away alcohol only during designated events, not year-round. The tree lighting will be the first holiday season for a reopened Pancha's, a casual North Block, a Birdie that serves breakfast and, if it opens on time, the Vintners Social Club. All four sit along a street that was repaved this year.

Ginger Martin and her team follow Yountville closely: who is reopening, which corners are changing hands, and how the town's everyday routines are shifting. If you'd like to talk about what these changes mean for your own property on or near Washington Street, Ginger Martin would be glad to hear from you. Get In Touch.