Dean & Deluca, Napa Valley

If you like cooking or you just like gourmet food, stopping at Dean & Deluca while in Napa Valley is a MUST! I'm so glad our friend Michelle reminded us about stopping there for lunch! Honestly speaking, I went freak'n nuts in there! I've seen their catalogs, I've been to their small coffee shop in NYC, but there's nothing like going to their BIG store! Wow! We were hungry and all I wanted to do was shop! My husband kept telling me that I'd have time afterwards, but it was helpless, I was tossing things into my basket like there was no tomorrow.

$59 dollars later (not too bad I think) I was happy. I bought a bunch of things and our lunch, so yup, the fact that I spent 59 buckaroos was no biggie!

Their sandwiches are big and made to order, as are their salads! We got the fresh mozzarella, tomato and pesto on focaccia and added some prosciutto to make it all the better! It was FAB-BU-LOUS! I wish I could have that for lunch today! In fact, I wish I was in Napa today, to go get it personally! Instead of getting a salad made to order, we got one that was made earlier that day that had goat cheese on it and pecans! Simply delicious! We got some other yummy snacks, beverages, cookies, and baking necessities and were out the door! See how HAPPY I am in the picture below!

The thing with Dean & Deluca, though, is that there's no place to really have your food, there's a little wall that you can sit on, outside next to the store, but you'd be in the blazing sun. So we ate at the winery across the street, although you're really not suppose to. The winery has it's own store/deli (that looked good as well) and of course they don't want you to bring food from elsewhere. We ere stopped as we were walking in and told that we couldn't eat our food there (we had 2 big white bags with "Dean & Deluca written on them). My husband told them we were going in to get some wine, so the guy let us through. . . they are really on top of that, so beware!

We went inside to get a glass of wine to go with our yummy food, but the store @ the winery was a mad house. I ended up buying about $17 bucks worth of merchandise (no wine though), and off we went to their picnic area to eat our "illegally brought in food" :) I'm a sissy for things like that, so I was a bit paranoid, but we were not bothered again. So, we had our lovely salad, sandwich, and the wine country soda on one of their picnic tables under the shade of a huge tree. There was a light breeze that afternoon, which made our lunch experience all the better.

Anyone want to go to Dean & Deluca in Napa Valley with me to go get that sandwich????