The word “Ubuntu” has its origin in the Bantu language of Southern Africa and closely translates to “humanity towards others.”

Ubuntu, the new Napa restaurant and yoga studio, aims to bring people together and form relationships.

Opening this weekend  in the historic Kyser-Williams “block” building at 1140 Main Street, Ubuntu combines contemporary design and restored history in its use of recycled or “repurposed” wood floors and tables.

“Throughout our construction, we’ve worked as a team, building our community,” said Sandy Lawrence, Ubuntu’s owner and the woman who came up with the idea. “It has lifted us to bring something like this here. The best thing about the experience has been the people.”

A model of mixed-use design, the restaurant is on the lower level, and the yoga studio is on the restaurant’s mezzanine level.

 Fresh, local produce is a focus of the restaurant, according to Ubuntu Chef Jeremy Fox,  former chef de cuisine at Manresa in Los Gatos. “This is my first time to build a restaurant from scratch,” said Fox, who also worked in farm-to-table cuisine at Charles Nob Hill and Rubicon. “It’s been a great opportunity and beyond my wildest dreams.”

Fox said that he’s received a lot of encouragement from other local restaurant chefs and owners. “Greg Cole of Cole’s Chop House has been very helpful. He’s even letting us use the figs from the fig tree in his parking lot.”

Lawrence, who relocated to Napa from Florida, has planted biodynamic gardens at her Mt. George home, which will also provide produce for the restaurant.

“Part of what we will be using is produce from our biodynamic farm, created by master gardener Jeff Dawson,” Fox said. “At the Manresa, the addition of biodynamic produce changed the way everyone cooked. We’ll be changing the menu a lot, depending on the season.”

Biodynamic farming, according to Steve Diver’s book “Biodynamic Farming” and Compost Preparation, includes organic agriculture’s emphasis on manures and composts and exclusion of the use of artificial chemicals on soil and plants. Methods unique to the biodynamic approach include the use of fermented herbal and mineral preparations as compost additives and field sprays and the use of a astronomical calendar to determine times of planting and harvesting.

Dawson, former curator of the gardens at Copia, has been practicing biodynamic methods for 13 years. “Biodynamic farming starts with organic farming and during the process, pays attention to the cycles and forces of nature, the moon and planets,” Dawson said. “There’s certainly a level of health on our plants, the produce tends to look nice, but it can be subtle. We find that produce is sometimes spectacular. It’s generally high quality.

“Biodynamics is difficult to learn and understand. It takes years of study and to get it right and there’s a lot to know. I study with a group of biodynamic wine grape growers. We say it’s wonderful to participate in something that will interest you the rest of your life.”

Fox consulted with Dawson regarding the slightly less than one acre farm in eastern Napa. “But we want him to grow what he wants,” Fox said. “There’s a lot of produce here.”

A recent visit to the gardens showed impressive tomatoes, eggplant, melons, onions and much more. Ubuntu will have green bins in the kitchen for vegetable waste and Fox has organized the other restaurants on the block to participate with their own green bins. This waste will be composted and used in the garden.

“What’s great is that there’s a real collaboration potential of seed to table,” said Dawson. “It’s about the effort being made, the compassion and commitment that’s special.”

Yoga upstairs

Lawrence, who produced events around the world before selling her business in 2005, also studied yoga for 14 years. She got the idea for a combination restaurant/yoga studio while walking with friends down Main Street after a yoga workshop.

“We passed this vacant building with a ‘For Lease’ sign and started saying, ‘Wouldn’t it be wonderful to have a yoga space and a place for people to gather?’”

Veronica Vidal is partner with Lawrence in the yoga studio. Vidal is certified through Sri Dharma Mittra of New York. “My mother was a yoga instructor and I studied it all my life,” said Vidal. “I’ve been teaching for 25 years. At Ubuntu, we want to do something radical and different and make the program accessible to people of different backgrounds. Not everyone has access to an hour and a half class, so we’ll also include shorter sessions. We’ll have workshops with both local teachers and well known ones.”

Janie Falk, director of Napa Valley Yoga Studio, will be incorporating her classes into the new studio, which will have 25 teachers and more than 40 classes per week offering many different disciplines of training for yoga enthusiasts of all levels.

“I am really delighted with this opportunity,” said Falk, who said the new setup will allow her to focus on her first love,  teaching yoga.

The yoga studio is light filled with a thickly cushioned floor. Specially frosted large glass doors insure privacy and protect students from sounds and scents from the restaurant below.

“It’s great when the doors are closed,” said Willis. “People in the restaurant can only see movement and silhouettes. It’s just amazing and is like moving artwork.”

The design

Architects on the project were Michael Bauschke and David Berman. Restaurant consultant Michael Dellar helped with the plan, as did Napa designer T Beller.

“The team recognized the structural integrity of this building,” said Beller. “One of the first occupants of the building was the Napa Bazaar. The building once had a false front of metal, stucco and mission tiles until it was restored in 1999.”

In designing the space, Beller used as many restored objects as possible.

“The community table is 20 feet long and made from recycled wood,” said Beller. “The floors are recycled wood from old shipping containers in Asia. The smaller tables are also restored wood. The outdoor patio chairs are from the 1940s. We worked with a company called Heritage Salvage in Petaluma. The owner is Bug Deakin, who’s famous for reclaiming wood. We found Bug initially though the first annual West Coast Green Building Conference held last September in San Francisco.”

Dramatic drum pendant lighting fixtures play against the rough native rock walls. Giant collages made from personal photos of Lawrence’s and Vidal’s provide splashes of color.

“It’s been fun to watch the space’s transformation,” said Beller. “The history of Napa was tarnished with examples of urban renewal gone awry. We still have this Napa building to speak for itself. The challenge in designing was whether we made it into a historical space. In the end, we brought the building into 2007 as comfortable and vital. It’s a balance.”

Much like yoga.