Slanted Door from celebrated chef Charles Phan opens in Napa

The long-awaited Slanted Door opened in Napa on Tuesday, drawing a gathering of curious locals to see what chef Charles Phan would be serving in Wine Country.

The Napa location is one of two restaurants Phan is opening this fall; the second is in Beaune, in the heart of Burgundy, France.

“It’s natural to choose a place where people just love to eat and drink,” Phan said of his decision to open a a version of his renowned Vietnamese restaurant in Napa, as well as France.

“I’ve had a house up here in Napa since 1998 so I know the town,” he said. “It seemed like a good idea. It’s not very often you get to work with a bunch of farmers who have good taste.”

After initially opening a Slanted Door serving innovative Vietnamese cuisine in San Francisco’s Mission District in 1995, Phan moved to the Ferry Marketplace, and then opened a second restaurant in San Ramon in Contra Costa County. The San Francisco restaurant was closed during the COVID-19 pandemic and has not yet reopened.

Phan said it was also important to him to choose a “tourist destination — when the locals leave town, the tourists show up.“ Nonetheless, he added, he’s mindful that he got his start serving locals.

“It’s more fun to serve people you know,” he said. “Some tourists they look at our food like, ‘What do I do with this thing?’”

Phan said he had been looking for a suitable site in Napa for “a long time” before he decided on a vacant restaurant on Soscol Avenue. He announced his plans to open a Napa Slanted Door in 2021 and spent the next two years renovating the former home to two restaurants and a cooking club.

The 20-year-old building needed extensive renovations. “There was dry rot, other problems. And we had to build a new kitchen too cook our kind of food.

“These things always take longer — and are more complicated. Everyone wants everything perfect from the craftsman to the designer.”

The newly opened building retains the original rectangular shape built around a courtyard. On two sides are interior dining areas. A third is a glass wall that opens onto the kitchen.

“I think one of the things about this restaurant is it’s very transparent; you see all the action,” he said.

Across the courtyard from the kitchen is a bar where guests can order from the full restaurant menu.

One little known fact is that Phan built the horseshoe-shaped bar himself. This, too, goes back to his early days as a restaurateur when Phan, “an aspiring architect,” collected wood from fallen trees after the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake to build a door and bar for his restaurant.

“I like to build things,” he said. “For me, having a good bar is important. It’s a great place if you are by yourself. I made a bar that’s almost like a running track, goes all around seats 30 people. I wanted something warm.”

The bar in Napa is made from Monterey cypress, and outdoor tables are made from salvaged water tank redwood. “We built the redwood tables, too,” he said.

As for the menu, he said it includes a mix of classics and some new items.

Another early visitor was Paul Franson, who writes the NapaLife weekly newsletter and keeps close tabs on the valley’s food and wine scene.

“We enjoyed chef Phan’s renowned modern Vietnamese food including favorites like the shaking beef and chicken claypot as well as rice noodle dishes and two unexpected ones, rack of lamb and pork chops,” Franson said. “There were a fair number of vegetarian appetizers and main courses.”

As for wine, Franson said, “The wine list included many aromatic Rieslings and Grüner-Veltliners, perfect with the food, most of which isn’t ideally paired with Napa’s signature Cabernets or even Chardonnays.”

The sheltered courtyard, closed on opening night because of rain, “will be ideal for dining in pleasant weather,” he added.

Phan said he plans to be around as much as he can (when he is not opening restaurants in France) “but I’ll probably hide in the kitchen. One thing about Slanted Door, we have a devoted team like a family that is really dedicated to our craft. It’s really my team that t makes sure everything is going well. Most of the time they tell to stay out of the kitchen.”

Slanted Door is open daily for dinner, Phan said, “then we’ll roll out lunch and happy hour.”

“It’s finally here, and we are super excited. I couldn’t be more proud of the staff that we have. A customer thought I’d moved my staff from San Francisco but everyone on the team is brand new,” he said. “And they have been amazing.”

He added, “This is the first time we have a standalone building. It’s like our house. You see through the trees — the view, it’s so calming. It’s so magical to be outside. The courtyard it’s going to be really amazing.

“We are doing our darndest to make it perfect.”