Finesse The Store

I’ve been looking forward to visiting Finesse since its opening and it was just as wonderful as I thought it would be!
I love the products and the TKG restaurants’ symbols are adorable. What’s not to love around a beach ball, pig, and clothespin?
I wanted to take everything home, but I settled on a wooden Ad Hoc Salt Box ($ 27) and glass Bouchon Bakery «Freshly Baked» Cookie Jar ($ 39). These are going to be gorgeous additions to my kitchen!
They don’t ship from the store or have boxes to carry them, so it’s just bubble wrap, but it worked well in my carry-​on luggage.

This shop is pretty, tidy, and organized with such precision that it’s an OCD person’s dream. Fearful that I’d disturb the balance in The Force, I was afraid to touch anything!
This gorgeous little shop carries all things Thomas Keller! If you are a foodie, aspiring chef or just a fan of high falootin’ cuisine, you need to pay this place a visit. It’s the perfect place to buy a Bouchon or Ad Hoc cookbook, baking sheets, silver clothespins from the French Laundry, olive oil, gluten free waffle mix, herb scissors, stemware, pepper mills and more. If you need a quick (expensive) hostess gift or amazing present for any food lover, I can assure you that anything you purchase here will be a home run.
If you visit during the holiday season, you’ll want to marvel at the store’s inventive Christmas tree that’s crafted out of French Laundry cookbooks!

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Love everything about this store, «It’s all about FINESSE.» As chef Thomas Keller always says and signs his cookbooks.
The store is extremely organized. Every little thing is precise, orderly, and facing exactly the same direction. It has the blue signature color door as The French Laundry down the street and Per Se in NYC. It’s meticulously beautiful and it makes me want to touch everything and disorganize it :-)
From chef Thomas Keller cookbooks to hot sauce at Ad Hoc, from powder of Bouchon Bakery to the apron, from salt and pepper shakers to Equator coffee, you will find it here.
I came here to get the French Laundry cookbook to sign be chef Thomas Keller last Friday DEC 13^th, 2014 from 3:30 — 5:30 PM. I drove 2 hours in the rain from that «storm of the decade» #Stormagadon, to be there at noon. Yup, 3.5 hours before the signing because I want to be the first 1 in line. Haha!
Laura, the wonderful salesperson at the Finesse The Store told me that I was too early, no kidding. So I went to lunch and brought some pastries to go for my parents and nieces, as well as a cup of coffee at Bouchon Bakery.
I came back to the store by 1:45 PM, no one there but me in line. I got to chat with a few folks just finished their lunch at the French Laundry, it was fun we got to share our experience.
Then I decided to sit on the floor, while sipping my coffee and look through the cookbook. Then the door opened. It was chef Keller asked if I was alright. I was so embarrassed to be seen on the floor (ghetto me). Chef helped me to get up and asked what I was doing there. I said I came for the book signing. It was 2:05 PM by then. The book signing is at 3:30 PM.
Chef asked where my books and then signed it right away. he didn’t want me to wait till 3:30 PM. He signed my friends book too. I got to chat with chef for a bit about my experiences at The French Laundry when I came with a first date in July 2014 and it went down hill after that. Chef was genuinely listened to me. And the 2 books I asked chefs to sign for my friends, they both came to TFL with me in June and July 2014, I told chef.
Then I reminded chef that I saw him at Vegas Uncork’d in May 2014. I’m sure he was overwhelmed with me stalking him and his restaurants ;-) I’m truly a fan, what can I say.
He was so kind, genuine, gracious and warm, and this is the many times I have met chef Keller. Each time it gets better then the last. He took another picture with me, signed all my books. I’m so touched and humbled by the experience! It was truly 1 of the best day of my life.
And I can’t wait to come back to The French Laundry for 1 last time in DEC 2014 before they close down for 6 months renovation their kitchen.
P. S. I also find out that you can buy the cookbooks here where chef Keller had already signed all the books. So check out the Finesse The Store in downtown Yountville, behind the Bouchon restaurant, whenever you visit Napa.
Laura, thank you for talking to me during that time I was so early. I really appreciate it. Happy holidays to you and yours.

I have to admit… it’s sort of fun to compare this retail space for Thomas Keller with the retail space for Michael Chiarello which is, perhaps a minute away for a brisk walker.
Napa Style is very much a reflection of Chiarello’s brand… warm, approachable, accessible and eclectic.
Finesse, on the other hand, is an absolute reflection of Keller’s brand.
Indeed, shopping at Finesse isn’t dissimilar to eating at any of Keller’s restaurants because it’s so intensely focused… the shelves are white, clean and, upon on cursory examination, spartan.
But…upon a bit of reflection, it really isn’t.
Items in Finesse are precisely and beautifully presented, sans distractions.
Anything which might distract from the beauty of an item is superfluous and swept away and, at least for me, the effect isn’t stark… it’s the reflection of an intense focused drive to do a SINGLE thing well.
Which, in and of itself… is intrinsically awesome.

Any lover of all things TKRG; Ad Hoc, Bouchon, Per Se and French Laundry should hit this place. Many seasonal items and previously employee only goods can be purchased here. All the cookbooks, aprons, knives, baking sets, stemware, etc can be collected at this store. Ad Hoc picnic box? Thomas Keller MAC knife set? Bouchon baking set? drop on in and pick it up. Picked up the One Day at TFL/​Per Se book after seeing some familiar faces in the pages. Great little store for the TKRG collector.