The Warren is opening in Napa

Jul 09, 2023

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A cocktail featuring carrot blossom-infused gin, lemon maple syrup, tarragon, turmeric and orange marmalade at the Warren.

Scallop ceviche will be a signature dish at the Warren.

A high-end cocktail bar offering 48 innovative concoctions alongside fancy food pairings — like a prosciutto-tater tot waffle served with caviar — is coming to downtown Napa this year.

Called the Warren (1400 First St., Suite B) it's the latest addition to downtown Napa's recent cocktail boom, which has included a tiki bar, gin bar, rooftop whiskey lounge and the Gatsby-themed Arbaretum from the Napa Valley Distillery. Chispa, a tequila bar from the owners of the buzzy wine bar Cadet, is also set to open next month. But the Warren is the first to take a fine dining approach to cocktails.

The owners, who previously worked for celebrity chefs including José Andrés, hope it’ll feel playful, yet lavish and elegant — like the kind of place you may wind up after dinner at a Michelin-starred restaurant, or before a jazz show at the Blue Note.

It also aims to fill a late-night dining void in Napa. "You can't get anything to eat after nine o’clock here," said co-owner Michael Iglesias. The last seating for food will be 11 p.m. on weekdays and midnight on weekends.

The Warren's fancy black truffle grilled cheese.

Whimsical cocktails will fuse unconventional ingredients and flavors. In the Moonlit Reverie, for example, black tea, ube-spiked berry purée and a coconut ice sphere mingle with Johnnie Walker Blue for a deluxe play on an Old Fashioned. The Mr. White's Gin Tonic, meanwhile, is like a garden in a glass: carrot blossom-infused gin, lemon maple syrup, tarragon, turmeric and orange marmalade.

Expect a cross-cultural food menu of shumai, scallop ceviche, soup shooters, grilled meats and a Wagyu burger. A fancy grilled cheese will pack three kinds of cheese, pepper jam and shaved black truffles between two slices of Model Bakery brioche; a Sonoma duck breast will come with guajillo molé and fried plantains. "It's what we like to eat while having cocktails," Iglesias said.

This will be the 31st restaurant opening for Iglesias, who trained under chef Cindy Pawlcyn of Mustards Grill in the early 1990s. He helped manage and open a string of notable Bay Area restaurants, including Fog City Diner and Betelnut, before becoming the wine and service director at chef Michael Chiarello's Bottega in Yountville.

Left to right: The Warren co-owner Michael Iglesias, co-owner Joe Cleveland and culinary director Edwin Robles pose for a portrait at the Andaz Hotel in Napa.

He met Warren co-owner Joseph Cleveland when he moved to Washington, D.C., to work at Andrés’ Oyamel Cocina Mexicana. Cleveland was the bar manager at the time, and for the past 13 years, the two have been making cocktails together for a number of high-profile restaurants, including Chiarello's Coqueta and Andrés’ Mi Casa. The Warren's culinary director Edwin Robles also used to work for Andrés and Chiarello.

Iglesias said he hopes to "right some of the wrongs" of the restaurant industry when it comes to the treatment of his staff, something he takes "very seriously" following his involvement in a pair of lawsuits in 2016. Iglesias was accused of sexual harassment in a lawsuit against Chiarello and of wage theft in a claim filed against Calavera, an Oakland restaurant he co-owned at the time. He denied the allegations to The Chronicle.

"It absolutely makes me want to have an environment where we treat team members the way they always wanted to be treated and give them more than anyone expects us to," Iglesias said.

At the Warren, he plans to pay into a staff emergency fund each month and start a scholarship program for education. There will be a hotline employees can call if they’re having problems with other staff or management. All employees will be offered health insurance.

Sonoma duck breast will be served with guajillo molé and fried plantains.

The Warren will fill a spot inside Napa's Andaz Hotel that's been vacant since 2017. "Literally in like a minute of walking in, I got chills," said Iglesias of seeing the space for the first time."I was originally looking for a fun, taco concept. But it was like, oh man — this is the rabbit bar."

The ‘rabbit bar’ is a concept Iglesias and Cleveland dreamed up six years ago. The idea is to "jump down the rabbit hole" of experimentation. The bar's name refers to a rabbit warren, or series of burrows; the interior, featuring vibrant pinks, greens, blues and purples, will reflect this "Alice in Wonderland"-inspired concept.

Like Alice taking a sip from the "Drink Me" bottle before heading down her rabbit hole, the Warren's guests will be greeted at the door by a bar cart and a choice between six cocktails. This is Iglesias’ way of making an immediate impression; he feels that the wait time for drinks is one of the biggest problems with cocktail bars today.

"Have a drink while you’re reading about the drinks," he said. "Guests right away understand that we care about service."

The Warren. Opening later summer/early fall 2023. 1400 First St., Suite B, Napa.

Reach Jess Lander: [email protected]; Twitter: @jesslander