I love the Brown’s Downtown Napa tasting room because it’s such an intimate experience. It’s a place where appointments are strongly recommended, with great wine—like the Chaos Theory red blend—and food pairings. The charcuterie tastings are also delicious!

This recently opened in Downtown Napa—their brisket is absolutely amazing. I was raised on barbecue, so Stateline Road Smokehouse reminds me of childhood. If you want that traditional barbecue, come here. My favorite order is the brisket. Of course, you can get the brisket by itself, you can get it as a sandwich, and you’ve got to have some baked beans on the side. Their curly fries are also great.

Obviously the wine is really good, but people say what makes Housley Napa different is the vibe—great tunes, lively staff and a fun time. If you want to sit down, like really sit down, and stay a while, you’ll love our place. I tried to create a living room environment with sit-down booths for this exact reason. We also have a wall of our favorite snacks for sale, including The Final Sauce, which is a Black-owned barbecue sauce brand founded by Brownie and Princess, who are sisters I just love.

This is a coffee house in the morning and a pub in the evening hours. We wanted to create a place that reminded us of the pubs that are a big part of British tradition. And when Adam and I travel, especially to England, we always go to a pub. We love the feeling of community there. Being in Napa for almost five years now, where community is huge, too, we wanted to create that pub environment here at home. It’s such a fun local place to enjoy your organic cup of joe and enjoy the community.

This is a bonus one—it’s not in Napa but in Berkeley in the nearby East Bay. If you want barbecue that’s going to slap you in the face, this is the place. You’ve got the candied yams, the collard greens, the pork ribs, the beef links, the brisket—everything is so good. At one point I did go through this vegetarian phase, and I love that they have vegetarian options.