Winemakers To Open Restaurant in St. Helena

Juliet Glass
Posted: March 18, 2005

Two Napa Valley winemakers, Leslie Rudd of Rudd Winery and Pat Roney of Girard Winery, have teamed up with Reuben Katz, senior director, The Culinary Institute of America at Greystone, to open a new restaurant called Press in St. Helena. The new, casual venue opens in April at 587 St. Helena Highway, and was formerly called The Spot.

The owners tore down the original digs, replacing it with a barn-shaped structure modestly decked out with white-painted walls, walnut floors, and fireplaces, seating 82 indoors and 20 outside.

Exec chef Keith Luce (chef/owner of San Francisco's now closed Merenda) presides over a wood-fired grill and rotisserie, literally cooking to a turn whole roasted chickens, legs of lamb, grilled whole fish, and roasted suckling pig.