A historic train station in Napa Valley has been transformed into a gleaming food and beverage store with an additional gin distillery.
A train station in Calistoga, Napa Valley, dating back to 1868, has been impressively renovated and given new life by luxury wine group Boisset Collection, with fine drinks and food taking center stage.
Renamed the Calistoga Depot, the station is a veritable Disneyland for foodies, with a number of historic railroad cars on the platform that have been converted into individual restaurants, including the Mexican restaurant and tequila bar Casa Obsidiana and the JCB Parlor Car, which offers champagne, oysters and caviar, and the First Millionaire’s Saloon, which mixes world-class cocktails.
Visitors can purchase a Golden Ticket to explore all facets of the complex, which also features Boisset’s Depot Provisions at the terminal entrance. The retail store’s shelves are packed with gourmet and artisan goods, including a wide selection of Calistoga and Napa Valley wines.
Vegetarians can shop for 100% plant-based comfort food with a focus on local, organic and sustainable ingredients at Nova Terra Kitchen & Creamery. Examples of delicacies include house-made plant-based cheese and barrel-aged vinegar.
And not content with just serving drinks, the Depot also produces its own American spirits, in a distillery in the station’s Great Hall. Two giant copper stills are the centerpiece of the Calistoga Depot Distillery 1868, and these are used to produce the establishment’s Fame & Misfortune Straight Rye Whiskey and Prosperous & Penniless Barrel-Aged Gin.
The official opening of the depot took place on April 25, 2024 and the news is slowly spreading: visitor numbers are increasing rapidly.
Long story
Calistoga’s original train station was built by New Yorker Sam Brannan, who came to California in 1848 with a plan to capitalize on the influx of miners who flooded into the state during the Gold Rush. He became California’s first millionaire by selling pickaxes, shovels and gold pans to miners before they went out into the fields to try their luck. He bought the items for just 20 cents apiece and resold them for $15 apiece.
In 1860, on a trip to France, Brannan also purchased 20,000 vine cuttings for a nursery he established in Calistoga, whose grapes were used to make wine and brandy. At one point he employed 25 vintners, and his distillery remained in operation until 1875.
Brannan founded the Napa Valley Railroad Company in 1864 and the railroad reached the town of Calistoga on July 31, 1868.
Passenger service to Calistoga ceased in July 1929, and freight service slunk along until 1969. From that point on, the station lay relatively unused and forgotten until it was purchased in 2021 by Jean-Claude Boisset of the luxury wine conglomerate Boisset Collection, which owns 40 wineries and brands in France and California.
Jean-Charles Boisset, known to his friends as JCB, said: “I have loved Napa Valley since I first visited it when I was 11 years old, coming from France with my father. That’s one of the reasons why we have such a strong presence here. I want to connect the Old and New Worlds. Preserving historic buildings and redesigning them for the modern world is what excites me.”
With the goal of “breathing new life into” the Calistoga Depot, JCB set out to build something “totally unique” that would allow visitors to “fully immerse themselves in the incredible offerings of food, wine, beer and spirits.”
The new facility artfully combines Sam Brannan’s pioneering achievements in rail travel and distilling for a new generation to enjoy.
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