What The Model Bakery is known for
The Model Bakery has baked in St. Helena's Main Street location since 1908, now run by longtime proprietor Karen Mitchell and her daughter Sarah, using organic stone-ground flours for its artisan breads and pastries. Its English muffins have drawn national attention, including a Forbes feature on the country's most iconic bakeries, and the bakery has expanded to Napa's Oxbow Public Market, Yountville and Walnut Creek.
The Model Bakery has operated from the same Main Street building in St. Helena since 1908, making it one of Napa Valley's oldest continuously running businesses. Karen Mitchell has owned it for nearly thirty years, with her daughter Sarah now serving as managing partner, a two-generation stretch that has carried the bakery from a single-town shop into a small regional chain.
Its bread relies on organic, stone-ground flours, a choice that runs through the full range of artisan loaves and pastries the bakery produces, but the item that has drawn outside attention in recent years is its English muffins, singled out by food press as some of the best in the category. San Francisco Eater ranked the bakery third among 29 extraordinary restaurants in Napa Valley, and Forbes featured it in a Mother's Day gift guide of the country's most iconic bakeries.
Beyond the original St. Helena shop, the bakery now operates at Napa's Oxbow Public Market, opened in January 2008, as well as in Yountville and Walnut Creek, with the Napa location running a late-afternoon bake service for local restaurants.
Best for — Century-old Napa Valley bakery famed for its English muffins
Where next
- Le Perche Bakery & Bar — Hudson
- Fairmount Bagel — Montreal
- Levain Bakery — New York
Hand-curated for ORBIS · no paid placement