Vignette carries an assortment of consignment furniture. Photo by Ryan Lely.
With particularly dense traffic, proximity to residents and lack of tourist trade, the sun has risen and set on several businesses on the Highway 12 strip over the past 10 years. The people who own some of those places have differing opinions on the reality of operating on busy West Napa Street.
Marilyn Duggan Caselli of Duggan’s Mission Chapel, a mortuary, thinks that if business owners play their cards right, the much-traveled stretch of road is a great place to start a thriving business. She says the area is, and will always be, an epicenter for locals that tourists often sidestep.
She points to adequate parking and lack of competition as keys to success for thriving on the corridor.
“I think it has very good exposure for some businesses because it’s on a highway. There is plenty of traffic, and that is usually a good thing.”
Duggan’s is one of the only businesses on the street that has weathered life on the main road in spite of its countless alterations. Three generations and 51 years since Duggan’s opened, the area looks very different.
She says the biggest hiccup over the years has been having part of the business property consumed by eminent domain, in order to complete the right turn lane that joins Fifth Street West.
Naghmeh Alikhani, owner of the furniture consignment store Vignette, swears that the car traffic on the street has helped her shop along tenfold. She affirms that life on West Napa Street is a huge improvement over that on gridlocked Sonoma Highway in Boyes Hot Springs, a location she calls “jinxed” due to its paucity of turning lanes.
“Here, the traffic backs up literally to where [my shop] is, whereas there, cars would just keep going. There was no way for them to just stop.”
Proximity to Sonoma Market, Wells Fargo and Safeway also helps bring in valley residents.
“This is the place for locals,” she says. “Customers are more relaxed, they have time to look around and maybe see something they like.”
This has also attracted business for the interior design and consulting services arm of her company.
Farther up the street, Sonoma-raised Dean Castelli jumped when he saw the property formerly occupied by the Ranch House become vacant. Castelli opened the restaurant Mondo nearly five months ago. Though he had reservations about opening his doors on West Napa, he says he takes in a decent crowd.
“Obviously [this] is not the greatest location, not as good as the Plaza, which is just a shopping area,” Castelli said. “But, it has been working out just fine. So far there have been no problems.”
Castelli says this is because he offers something most people cannot get elsewhere in Sonoma: a local dive selling beer rather than wine. Mondo has 19 beers on tap and 25 in the bottle, 90 percent of which are brewed in California. The restaurant bar also offers a happy hour, where some items go for only $1.50.
Vignette, 765 W. Napa St., 707.933.9345
Mondo, 975 W. Napa St., 707.938.8013
Duggan’s Mission Chapel, 525 W. Napa St., 7070.996.3655
