By Susie Timm, Chief Operating Foodie

A few months ago, Jay turned around in his chair (our office is pretty miniscule) and said, “Hey Susie, have you ever heard of Oakville Grocery? It’s opening up this winter at the Scottsdale Quarter.”

My response was a combination of a scream and squeal of joy capped off with a big leap out of my chair.
Jay was unaware of my longstanding affinity for Oakville Grocery in the Napa Valley.

On my honeymoon, my husband Eric and I did a wine-touring day via limousine. We had a few requests for our driver: don’t take us anywhere they make white zinfandel, sell wine in boxes, and make sure we have a very authentic experience.

After a few hours of wine-ing it up, we were famished. Our driver pulled a harrowing maneuver, crossing the highway and we bailed out into the parking lot of Oakville Grocery.

This tiny store has evolved much over the years, but we were delighted to find a gourmet market that featured so many local Napa foodstuffs and had a fantastic prepared foods counter.

We gathered supplies for our picnic and headed out to Fleury Estate to enjoy our lunch. That lunch left an indelible impression in my mind and it was mostly due to the quaint little grocery that provided our lunch.

On my 30th birthday tour of Napa, I made sure we stopped at Oakville again so I could introduce my friends to it. On this trip, I purchased a magnet with their signature bunny logo on it. The magnet resides on the side of our wine refrigerator as a constant memory of those fabulous wine country tours.

Needless to say, my scream of joy was warranted when I found out Oakville was going to foray into my own town!

I made it my personal mission to visit Oakville soon after it’s opening and to interview the Chef Walt Sterling and Sommelier, David Johnson.

My foodie dream came true last week as we ventured north on Scottsdale Road to check out this gourmet wonderland.

Sterling and Johnson have a wide array of experience working in local gourmet restaurants and the Oakville folks to launch this new desert southwest version of the original, tapped their knowledge.

The market is about 4 times the size of the one in Oakville, but it features a sit down bistro, free Wi-Fi, an extensive wine selection, and over 150 varietals of cheese.

We toured the grocery just a few days after their soft opening, so the shelves and cold cases were a bit empty, but Sterling assured us, “Next week we are getting more crazy imports from Spain, France, and Portugal, all over the world!”

Eventually, the market will boast an expansive selection of oils, mustards and other hard-to-find products in Arizona like Serrano ham. Oakville also has house made pickles and hand pulled mozzarella.

Another unique element to Oakville Grocery in Scottsdale is how they combine imported items from all over the world, Napa Valley staples and local Arizona treasures.

Currently they carry MJ Bread (who bakes specialty breads for Oakville), Julia Baker confections (our FAVE!) and Fossil Creek Goat’s Milk Fudge. Coming soon: Fairytale Brownies!

The bistro features made to order sandwiches, pizzas, and salads. We loved that we could literally shop for our lunch and eat it all in one place.

They also have an expanding and changing prepared foods case.

“Right now, the prep food case is focusing on a lot of vegetables. For example we have whole artichokes that have been braised off and then taken out marinated in lemon zest, garlic and herbs. Many people are intimidated by artichokes but they can come here, pick those up, throw them on the grill to warm them—lots of fun things like that,” explained Sterling.

Johnson calls Oakville Grocery an “indoor picnic” and said, “you can put it (your meal) together and we are the park rangers who facilitate, we will make sure you are eating well, we want to feed the bears.”

Sterling and Johnson were elated about the sheer diversity of product and Sterling commented, “we’ve got stuff in here for people with a high-end foodie palate and there’s also things here for people who want mac and cheese, chicken and rice soup, garlic mashed potatoes. We have a good spectrum that is intentional.”

Johnson noted, “We will always keep classic and artisanal side by side because we don’t want to alienate anyone.”

Oakville is also focused on top-notch catering and can cater any event, large or small all over the valley. They hope to elevate catering to a new level in Phoenix Metro.

“We can execute highly customized catering anywhere,” said Johnson.

Both Johnson and Sterling love the customer interaction portion of their new gig and seem to also enjoy the freedom to do things differently than in a restaurant environment.

“Here, I can grab a product off the shelf and improvise—we can be creative and fly-by-night with our recipes,” said Sterling.

Paying homage to the Oakville Grocery logo, Johnson called Sterling’s improvisational style, “Iron Bunny Chef.”

The bunny logo is an iconic feature of Oakville Grocery.

Johnson added, “Everybody knows the bunny. It’s hypnotizing in a way, we are big on branding. I even wear bunny slippers with a plaid robe,” he joked.

Sterling is also creating a resource guide for hard to find local and international fish, meats and other products.

“If our clients want turbo from France in 36 hours, we can get that done,” said Sterling.

Wine is another aspect of Oakville Grocery that sets it apart from other grocers. They feature mostly Napa Valley wines, but do offer a selection that is imported.

The wine prices vary but are priced at a retail markup versus a restaurant markup that can sometimes be 3x the price.

“Everybody is not a top tier, prestige wine drinker in Scottsdale, people might want a $17 bottle. We are in the era of affordable luxuries which is really what Oakville is all about,” said Johnson.

He continued, “a lot of people have never bought a premium bottle of Napa wine because it’s out of their discretionary income level—come in here and get a great pizza, great sandwich at a decent price and get the same bottle of wine at 1/3 the cost.”

As for the Napa charm that helps make Oakville Grocery a fixture in wine country?

Johnson said, “It’s important to deliver local and the codifying sense of Napa that holds so much nostalgia for so many people. But, you don’t have to go to Napa to experience a little taste of it.”

Johnson and his “highly talented, provincial wine stewards” will host monthly wine seminars. Johnson is leery of dry and boring wine education.

“We do wine seminars with enlightening shtick. Typically the wine does 90% of the job, cornball one-liners does the other 10%,” he added.

As we walked through the store, I could not help but be very excited about this new addition to the gourmet scene in Scottsdale. I was also impressed with how accessible and inviting the grocery really was.

Sterling summed up our interview and said,  “we’re cooking for our clientele, and providing a great service for people, so they can have fun relax and enjoy this without being intimidating—want to appeal to general public.”

It may not be in the middle of wine country, but the newest incarnation of Oakville Grocery in North Scottsdale will indeed bring back my fond memories of Napa Valley

Oakville Grocery is located at 15015 N. Scottsdale Rd in the Scottsdale Quarter shopping center. Their espresso bar opens at 7 am daily and the grocery is open at 10 am.

Their formal grand opening festivities kick off January 16 & 17, 2010.

www.oakvillegroceryarizona.com