Napa deli is next stop for Michelin-star chef

Christopher Kostow, operator of The Constitution Oak in St. Helena and government chef at The Restaurant at Meadowood, has included a deli to his menu of restaurants.

Loveski (pronounced Enjoy-skee), situated at 610 1st St. in the Oxbow Public Marketplace in downtown Napa, opened March 21. Kostow co-owns the new restaurant and The Constitution Oak with his spouse, Martina, a communications expert.

The restaurant’s moniker is a “Jew-ish” deli, as Christopher Kostow discussed.

“There’s a major bagel and shmear and smoked fish element in the mornings, and then a robust deli sandwich element later on in the day,” reported Kostow, a Chicago indigenous. “We’re expanding some of the greens ourselves, carrying out a good deal of our very own fermentation and food stuff preservation, and baking our have bagels. It’s a quite Northern California-pushed choose on a Jewish deli.”

The Loveski identify is derived from Koslovski, Christopher Kostow’s household title pre-Ellis Island, he said.

The pair started preparing their deli about a yr and a 50 % ago — in the midst of the pandemic that also pressured them to pivot The Constitution Oak to takeout and outside eating. The Constitution Oak has given that completely reopened.

But it will be sometime later this yr when the 3-Michelin-star cafe at Meadowood will reopen. It was burned in the September 2020 Glass Fire. Kostow, who has been with the cafe for 14 a long time and won an award from the a James Beard Foundation for Most effective Chef: Pacific, options to remain as govt chef, he claimed.

Kostow stated he’s a “believer in dining places and enjoys opening and running them.”

That is irrespective of the problems.

“I really feel like irrespective of the industrywide troubles from a labor viewpoint (and from) a expense of products viewpoint, I consider if you happen to be good and you do it correct and you build a fantastic tradition and you have a great item, you might be heading to be successful,” Kostow stated. “And I will not assume the pandemic adjusted any of those people fundamentals.”

The pandemic did, however, deal a hard blow to the couple early on.

In August 2019, they opened Ensue, a fine-eating institution in Shenzhen, China.

“Shenzhen is a quite expat(riate)-driven metropolis but for the reason that of the pandemic there is no exterior audience, so you’re limited to your nearby viewers. That changes the demographic a good deal,” he stated. “That’s truly the severe of the worries of functioning through a pandemic. That is about as demanding as it gets.”

The cafe is carrying out “as very well as can be envisioned,” he stated, including the pair hopes to travel to Shenzhen this yr.

Christopher Kostow declined to focus on the economical specifics of the couple’s a number of dining establishments for the duration of the pandemic, but reported, “We did the greatest we could below the situation.”

Martina Kostow manages advertising and marketing strategy and manufacturer partnerships, and is involved in the restaurants’ functions.

“I never feel there was at any time an alternative for either of us to depart the cafe enterprise, as challenging as it is been,” she said, adding as a motive the couple’s devotion to their staff.

“Loveski is agent of the problems, but also coming out of (the pandemic) with some thing to glance ahead to,” she stated.

Cheryl Sarfaty addresses tourism, hospitality, health and fitness treatment and education and learning. She previously labored for a Gannett daily newspaper in New Jersey and NJBIZ, the state’s small business journal. Cheryl has freelanced for organization journals in Sacramento, Silicon Valley, San Francisco and Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania. She has a bachelor’s diploma in journalism from California State University, Northridge. Arrive at her at [email protected] or 707-521-4259.