TRC: Totally Resilient Community, a.k.a. The River Club, Napa
Amidst a late-capitalist wine industry poopstorm of can'ts, won'ts, don'ts, and doom, the small-but-mighty four-person team behind The River Club is leading with hope and paddling toward joy.
This piece is the essay I meant to originally write when I got caught up lamenting my love/hate relationship with Napa. For that musing prologue and some slow-burn lead-up to the below, read this.
As I went down in the river to pray
Studying about that good old way
And who shall wear the starry crown
Good Lord, show me the way
Oh sisters let’s go down
Let’s go down, come on down
Come on brothers let’s go down
Down in the river to pray
Alison Krauss, “Down to the River to Pray,” 2000
I went to the river. I went to try and find hope amidst an industry that most outlets report has devolved into a total shitstorm.
BEST NEWS Y’ALL:
I found it. I’m so excited to introduce you to The River Club.
I met Laura and Kyle Gabriel and Allison van Zyl last Wednesday afternoon at 3:00 on the dried persimmon-colored couch in their tasting room that overlooks the Napa River. The water outside, reflecting the overcast, blue-grey sky, was the same hue as the soft throw pillow I hugged in my lap. I hoped no one spilled red wine or ground tiny crumbs of Gruyère into their chunky, denim-and-cream rug. I remembered the day we scrapped the area rug that once ran beneath our own shop’s communal table. After enough stemware tumbles, it had become unsalvageable. I had been bitter.
I remembered how I had toured this exact, uninsulated, warehouse-like space five years ago, contemplating it as a potential outpost for Bay Grape. 101 S. Coombs Street in South Napa is a little… how to say it? Random? Far-flung? Off the beaten path. Hidden gem. Unit 8 is one of maybe 40 or so jigsaw-puzzle-piece-shaped spaces, ranging from 465 to over 5,000 square feet, scattered throughout a mixed-use, decidedly industrial-heavy development complex. It faces due east and directly out onto the Napa River. It has “upstart maker’s co-op” written all over it.
Then as now the epigram floated up to me: “If you build it they will come.”
It’s a maxim of hope, of belief in energy, of the promise that humans want and need and will inevitably, always, revert to community.
I am thrilled that Laura and Alli and their partners Kyle and Bertus have built their shared tasting room here. And I am thrilled to report that, seven and a half months into operations, they are in a very good place. What follows is a brief overview of their respective brands, excerpts from my interview, and resilient, community-oriented takeaways that I—and they—hope will inspire others.
Who: Kyle and Laura Gabriel of Paper Planes Wine Company + Alli and Bertus van Zyl of Belong Wine Co.
Paper Planes’ offerings tend towards fresh wines (rosé, Pinot Noir at 12.75% ABV) and gently unique varieties (Nero d’Avola, Valdiguie) from areas like Sonoma and Suisun.
Belong is tightly aligned with the Mourvèdre variety and offbeat others like Gamay and Charbono, typically grown in the Sierra Foothills, made in a range of styles with low alcohol levels.
In their still-full-time “day jobs,” Kyle is a producer for Baobab Studios; Laura is a marketing consultant for beverage, hospitality and entertainment brands; Alli is a marketing consultant for Whetstone and Tonella; Bertus is the Head Winemaker for Farm Collective.
What: The River Club, a collaborative tasting room and community gathering place
Where: 101 South Coombs St., Unit 8, Napa, CA 94559
When: Thursday - Monday, 11am-4 or 5pm
Why: … keep reading …
Soooooo, this week we got news on tariffs, wine regions in peril, alcohol-induced panic attacks… so much GOOD STUFF! How are you feeling about THINGS right now?
ALLI: I think you’re actually catching us at a really good time. We’ve been so pleasantly surprised by the support we’ve seen in the new year. Sunday and Monday were packed. Each day we’re pleasantly surprised by being busy. We’re scared to be optimistic, giving everything happening everywhere but… right now, it’s going well.
LAURA: I agree, we’re feeling good right now. My mom takes her dog to this dog groomer in Vallejo, and she was chatting with her, and the lady said to my mom, “I heard there’s this really cool new, family-gathering tasting place in Napa. I think it’s called The River Club! Have you been?” People are finding out about us naturally, and more and more, we’re seeing new faces thanks to some of our original press.
Is that a lot of how people are talking about you? As a family-gathering place? Or how are you putting out the word? How are YOU telling people about you, or how are you trying to differentiate yourself or even just get the attention of consumers?
LAURA: I’d say that, by the numbers, we’re seeing mostly people without kids, but we are also getting those groups, and that’s really cool to see. I don’t think that’s something people usually associate with a tasting room, and I think it works to our benefit.
ALLI: I think we try to convey that we’re about surprise and delight. More affordable. Less pressure. More laid-back. More welcoming compared to Napa in general. We definitely promote that we’re family- and dog-friendly, and that gives the feeling that we’re more of a casual space. And right now I think people like casual. And they like discovering something new. [Us] having different varieties than a lot of others in Napa do, people are excited to try those—especially locals. The local support to me has been the biggest surprise. The community showing up all the time, regularly, frequently.
LAURA: Some of those locals are industry people, but I’ve been surprised there’s also a lot of non-wine-industry guests. Like new families who have moved here, or a lot of healthcare and tech guests, a lot of just couples, or women who just are getting together and want to have a nice time off. Especially on weekdays. I think us being open on Mondays, people find us because everywhere else is closed.
ALLI: It is a lot of “you tell a friend, and then they tell a friend,” and the word steadily spreads. And that’s also why we started a joint club; their guests and members learn about us and can then become our guests and members, so it’s just this building energy.
Let’s talk about that: the joint component of The River Club. You’re two different brands sharing one space. The River Club is like a little cooperative tasting room. Each of you are a husband-and-wife brand. Each of you have small children, and you have your own brands and marriages/families to juggle. AND now you have this added layer, in this set-up, of friendships and work expectations and division of labor to navigate. Having run my own businesses with my husband for so many years, I know a little about the inherent challenges in that… [blink twice if you need help!]. So. Um. How is it going??
KYLE: I would say that goes back to something we always highlight about our story, where the way that we came together was NOT “Oh you know what? We really want to do this collaborative tasting room with someone else….” But when the opportunity came up, when [Alli and Bertus] mentioned it to us, we were like, “Hmm, that’s interesting. If there were anyone in this industry that we would ever work with, it would be these two.” We weren’t the closest friends, which honestly helped.
ALLI: I almost think it’s better that way.
KYLE: Personality-wise, brand-wise, and now having spent a year working together, we can see clearly that the way we work, everyone is so complementary to one another.
LAURA: We have complementary skill sets. Everyone has a different skill, and I actually think it makes working as spouses even easier, because now we have someone else there—not just my husband—to bounce ideas off of, or to give a reality check or a different perspective, and to keep it professional… where, if it was just me and Kyle? I could see us… getting into it with one another a little more.
Can you break that down a little more formulaically? Like, if I wanted to replicate your success, what components should I look for in the team members? Or what are the pieces you should put in place, or protections to ensure success?
KYLE: Go about it in a professional way. We have a very simple written agreement stipulating that everything is going to be shared 50/50: Lease. Utilities. Service hours. It’s all laid out and signed. We had an attorney friend, John Trinidad, set up a basic agreement, just so that right up front we know that all costs are shared, all revenue is separated because we’re separate wineries anyway.
From a skills standpoint, if you want to join up with somebody, think about the things you do really well or like to do (that others might not like to do) and the things you hate and are terrible at. Find someone who complements you. Between the four of us as individuals, we all do different things.
ALLI: Frankly? I don’t think we even looked into that beforehand. It just naturally happened that way. And I think we’re really lucky, and I’d recommend others be intentional about that. Our main goal was: Do we like one another? Do we spend a lot of time together? Do we trust one another? And even though we weren’t close friends, I think we knew in our core that we did, because it’s such a small community here, and we had so many shared friends. But also, we’re so like-minded in what we do and our priorities as brands, and yet [the brands are] also unique to one another that they work well side by side but aren’t in direct competition.
We see it all the time where someone comes in here, they already know the Paper Planes brand, and then they learn about and get to enjoy ours and become our members, too. Or vice-versa. I think we also respect one another enough to be happy to promote each other and share their story very excitedly. Even if [Kyle and Laura] aren’t around, we’re sharing their story proudly and excitedly. I don’t know if that would come naturally to everybody, but we absolutely prioritize it.
KYLE: I think it’s the hospitality background in all of us. That’s just what you do. Sometimes, I feel like I try and sell the Belong wines even harder than I do ours, because I’m like “Well, shoot, they’re not here, so I need to really show up for them!”
How do you divide up the work hours? Like, you said it’s 50/50, but what if one of y’all’s kids gets sick, and the other is traveling for market work, and you need coverage at the tasting room?
ALLI: On weekdays, Kyle and I and now Laura sometimes will use this as our office; we’re already here so we can get our regular work done while we’re open for guests, and if one of us needs to take a call or a meeting we can kind of tap out and cover for each other. And then on the weekends we’ll do something like one couple will open Saturday and the other closes, and then Sundays we typically alternate, one person being here, so we all get a family day every other Sunday. And of course trips come up, and weddings and funerals and kids’ activities, and we just flex. And then we have days where it’s just like, “OK, we have to close. We can’t cover this, and so that’s the reality.”
LAURA: I think one thing we realized when we took our two-week closure in January, when we didn’t have school or childcare, and we all needed a breather, was, we were like, “Oh no, are we going to miss out on all this business?” but then the first day we were back open, we had like 10 reservations, so now we know that if people really want to come, they’re just going to plan and come on a different day. We just accept that.
ALLI: And we have to protect our peace and our boundaries. It’s important to sometimes take a breath!
KYLE: And aim to not disappoint anyone. We don’t want anyone to be surprised that we’re closed, so we try to communicate as best we can in advance… but that’s just the balance we’re always looking out for.
That’s really impressive and “aware” of y’all to operate with such grace and kindness to yourselves and one another. Are other winemakers or labels noticing this, both in terms of style and space? Have you heard of anyone else looking to do something similar?
KYLE: So many. We’ve had a lot of people looking to join us. They call and ask us, “Are you looking for a third?” We laugh. Well… no, not right now, but... You’re talking about for the tasting room, right?
ALLI: But we’ve said a million times, “How would we have ever done this without one another?” Both for the moral support and the problem-solving, but also how nice is it to split the $3,000/month rent? Or utilities? Or emergency bills? Like when the door blew off the hinges and it was a surprise $500 fix, but that was cut in half. Or tapping both of our networks for help—I’ll ask around if you know a guy who can help with XYZ, and you ask your friends if they know a guy, and that network of connections to help is automatically doubled. Even the network of people learning about us or visiting us is doubled, because now their audience is automatically becoming our audience. Having other people involved is so invaluable. I think it would be a way bigger strain with our actual partners in life if all that pressure was just on us. Instead, it’s this shared place to be in it all together.
What do you offer to guests when they show up? What’s the “experience” they’re booking (or walking into)?
When we opened, we decided to do The River Club flight, which was a shared flight, and then the Belong flight and the Paper Planes flight. But we realized, everybody just wants The River Club flight. So now we’re gonna do a Classic Flight—our best sellers—and then more of like a chilled or a Summer flight, and we’re also working on a kids’ basket or fun little add-on with snacks and activities that’s complimentary for members but then other people can purchase for their littles.
Do you allow drop-ins or are you only by reservation?
LAURA: We say we’re open “by reservation or by chance,” and of course we prefer reservations because we really only have, like, three tables. But of course we’ll take any walk-ins. We always make it work. I’ll never turn anyone away!
I think that’s what really separates us. We’re all (the four of us) really hospitality first, and we genuinely enjoy hosting people and getting to know people. If someone walks in, it would just be wrong to say ‘Sorry, we’re full.’ What kind of message does that send to someone who you want to fall in love with your brand?
What are your biggest challenges, or what haven’t you quite been able to solve for yet? Are there any pieces still missing that, if solved for, would mark The River Club as a veritable success in your minds?
ALLI: We also have day jobs; TRC isn’t paying us in any capacity. So personally, if I had more time and energy to give to it, and not feeling constantly pulled away… I feel like we are already making magic happen, but if we had more to dedicate to it, we could keep leveling up. We could keep making new offerings, we could draw people in with things that are unique and fun and light-hearted. Like we were just talking about a popsicle offering! I think that’s what’s resonated with people, too. All of our little touches are really unique compared to other places they’ve been. More things like that that stand out are what’s going to be memorable to a guest to then recommend it later.
LAURA: The River Club wine club we offer is the best because it’s a local pickup only; we don’t have to deal with shipping and fulfillment. So that’s a dream. But there’s only so much we can grow that locally, which makes it a challenge. But I think if we get to a place where we have a really strong and loyal local club, there could be a version where this is a true community space, where people are in the club, and they come in for events, and everything is driven by the club, so it’s like a living room or a third space for club members, and maybe that could be self-sustaining. I don’t know, I’m not like a financial planner, so maybe I need to run those numbers…
KYLE (laughing): You’re a financial planner; it’s just financial planning based off hope.
ALLI: Me too! My entire life is built off hope!
LAURA: We could just always use more time and resources. Understanding, too, the limitations of what we can and can’t do in this time and space. That goes for every business. There are regulations, and your creativity is confined by those.
There’s so many cool ideas out there that aren’t happening because it’s too expensive or because a code says that’s not allowed. Guests tell us they want it, and we’re like, “Us, too,” but they don’t understand that we’re literally limited. Other people might ignore the laws, and they might be willing or financially able to take those risks, but maybe we can’t.
KYLE: But we’re talking about it with the powers that be. We’re having conversations about it. We’re asking them, “What do you need to make this work?” We want to understand so we can problem-solve and come up with solutions that will serve all of us. That will ensure safety and sustainability for all of us. The City of Napa has been incredibly helpful. If you come in friendly, hospitable, you know, saying “I’m trying to do the right thing and we want to do it the right way,” they really do want to work with us. But again, if we had more time, we could have more conversations, maybe we could speak with the Planners, who could speak with the landlord, and everyone could take the time to understand and collaborate.
What haven’t we talked about yet that’s really working well or inspiring you that you could pass along to others?
ALLI: Having this physical space is constantly re-motivating. It makes us literally want to keep going. Just selling online or posting on social or working the market and interacting only with the salespeople means you don’t have that direct connection to the people actually enjoying your wine. Having people actually come in and sit down, getting to have that back-and-forth, that immediate positive response… it re-inspires me, “OK, we’re doing something that matters to people. This is actually really exciting and special.” When you go years without that direct feedback, you wonder if it’s worth it to keep going. And I think this makes me want to keep going. Even when it is really hard.
LAURA: It’s been really special. My advice to people is: Lead with hope and joy and positivity. Because that sort of energy is what people want to be around. And I think it is transparent. You know, when you go to a restaurant, and you can taste and feel the energy in the food—that the chef is doing this with joy, that he’s happy you’re there. And I believe you can also taste that in our wines, and you can feel it in this space. And I think that’s what our industry needs. I think the more people can do what feels right to them, what really speaks to them, to do it with joy and positivity and then bring that authentically to the world. That’s what people want.
GO VISIT THE RIVER CLUB*: https://www.exploretock.com/riverclubnapa
*Alli and Bertus and Laura and Kyle would like you to know that today (day of publishing, 4/3/24), they are closed because of aforementioned one-off conflicts! So… go tomorrow! :)
love this interview format!