Napa Daze

We blew into Napa late in the afternoon on Saturday, and hit Naya’s (of Ritual) 30th birthday party full force. Hosted by Grayson at his lovely riverside house, the party was slammin with the first taste of the incredible foods of Napa that we would enjoy for the next two days. Stuff like this:

and this:

When we were good and tired, we headed back to the house in Napa proper that Ritual rents and where Naya and Jen live , and we crashed. The next day, Sunday, we were up bright and early and excited for the official grand opening event at Ritual’s Napa location, which is in the new Oxbow public market.
Clara took over one of the cafe tables and built a lovely little Bikes to Rwanda display, where plenty of people stopped to ask questions about and donate money to Bikes to Rwanda throughout the day.

And Ritual featured a variety of Rwandan coffees for folks to sample (along with their hella go Colombian microlots).

There were soooo many fun lovely coffee friends in attendance, too…

The JavaJ crew, above…

Barefoot baristas show Ritual (and each other) some love…

Chris and M’lissa made the drive up from Ritual in San Francisco…

Baca worked his magic behind the Marzocco…

Here is Clara giving a little talk about Bikes to Rwanda…

And then it was time to par-tay. We all piled up and headed back to the Ritual house for some festivities…

Above, Steve and Josh, Ritual Napa baristas… (and Huey, the adorable pit bull)

Baca and Ryan Brown take a load off…

Tony gets his gun on…

Clara at the BBQ with Ryan…

Barefoot Coffee’s Marie and Christian learn a new dance…

And that was that. Thanks so much to everyone at Ritual for an incredible two days, all the hospitality, and most importantly, all the fantastic support for Bikes to Rwanda. You rock, RitRo!

Now — Monday morning — Clara and I are about the hit the road for Sebastopol to see Taylor Maid Farms, and Santa Rosa to visit with Steve at Ecco. More bloggin’ to come!