Copia closes without warning

Temporary closure sign greets talent and ticket-holders alike

By L. PIERCE CARSON and SASHA PAULSEN
Register Staff Writers

Without warning, Copia — Napa’s cash-strapped wine, food and arts center — shuttered its doors Friday afternoon.

The sudden closure left patrons for the weekly Friday night film series out in the cold, mulling over a message, taped to the doors, that read: “Copia is temporarily closed.”

The sign referred visitors to the venue’s Web site. But as of Saturday afternoon, the Copia Web site offered no information on the closure. The site’s calendar page continued to list the canceled movie, as well as several other events throughout November.

Copia officials did not return calls seeking comment by Saturday afternoon.

In addition to Friday night’s film screening, a Saturday afternoon cooking demonstration and book signing by New York chef and restaurateur Andrew Carmellini and a Saturday night concert featuring singer Joni Morris were canceled.

Carmellini’s New York publicist told the Register that “Andrew got a call from Copia saying they’re shutting down for a few days due to an emergency and canceling his event.”

Morris, a country singer scheduled to perform Saturday night, said she’d traveled to Napa from her home in Stockton Friday to be get ready for her concert. She’d done a radio spot on KVON/KVYN early in the morning with Richard Miami, who has scheduled Copia’s entertainment, including films and concerts, since it opened. “We gave away tickets” for her concert, Morris said.

Friday evening, she said was “just enjoying myself shopping between 5 and 6” when she got a call from Miami.

“He said he’d just come out of a meeting at Copia and they were closing the doors of Copia immediately until further notice.”

Morris, who has toured the U.S. performing her tribute to the late country singer Patsy Cline, said she has never had a performance canceled on such short notice.

“I felt so bad for my following — people who I know had bought tickets and were traveling to see the show,” she said. “I was shocked. I didn’t want them to think it was anything I’d done.”

Morris is also responsible for paying the members of the four-piece band she had hired, who were traveling to Napa for the concert. “I was able to reach them in time, to tell them not to come,” said Morris, who returned to Stockton on Saturday. She said Miami gave her the number of officials at Copia to call for more explanation, but no one had called her back.

“I’ve never heard of anything like this,” the singer said.

The center for wine, food and the arts opened in November of 2001. The late vintner Robert Mondavi envisioned a celebration of the Napa wine world, as well as the culinary, visual and musical arts, and put up millions to get the center launched. The center has struggled financially from the start, losing millions of dollars a year. Despite several efforts to tweak or revamp its offerings, Copia CEO Garry McGuire and members of the center’s board of directors acknowledge that Copia faces $78 million in debt.

Even as the center’s financial troubles threaten to overtake it, Napa’s Oxbow District has begun to blossom around it, with tasting rooms, restaurants and the Westin-Verasa resort within walking distance.

Copia’s 12 acres include riverfront real estate on both the north and sides of the property. Last week, McGuire said the Copia property is for sale. He and Copia board member Joe Fisher said they hope to find a buyer who will allow the center to stay on the site.

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