Current Press

Foodshed Pasta and Pizza restaurant is a community-minded eatery that promotes the people, products, and resources of our unique locality in Napa Valley. It's where culinary skill and intuition meets sustainability and inclusivity.  The spirit and vibe of the Foodshed is lighthearted, "we provide serious food without a serious attitude," says Sean Pramuk, Director and Co-Owner.  It's not uncommon to see staff joking around and thoughtfully engaging with customers.  

It’s more than just the delicious breakfasts and lunches that have been bringing people to Foodshed Pizza and Pasta, the Napa, California, restaurant that opened in an office park near the airport in July 2013: through a unique internship program, Foodshed gives low-income youth and at-risk and underserved populations hands-on experience in a commercial kitchen and restaurant that they can then translate into long-term jobs.

Chef and Founding Principal Giovanni Guerrera spent two years as sous chef at the Rome Sustainable Food Project. Returning home last year, Guerrera approached one-time business partner Sean Pramuk, with whom he’d run Napa’s successful Uva Trattoria; together with Michael Miguel (front of house) and Chef James Ehrlich (a former RSFP intern), they established Foodshed, whose name is a nod to their desire to serve locally produced food with an awareness of “conscious consumption.” But Guerrera also wanted to create a teaching kitchen and internship program similar to those at RSFP, so the four reached out to On the Move, a Napa County nonprofit that serves at-risk youth, to suggest a public/private partnership, with all restaurant profits going to the program.

A bag of chips and a soda is not what most people would consider a balanced meal. Many children grow up thinking healthy food isn’t a necessity so one local establishment is trying to break the chain for disadvantaged youth by turning the table on greens.

Foodshed Pizza and Pasta opened in July of this year with the hope of making a difference in its community. Co-owners Giovanni Guerrera, Sean Pramuk, Michael Miguel and James Ehrlich have dreams of a profitable restaurant that also works as a tool to teach kids how to cook.

Jesus Guzman had brought a fish to work, and in the quiet time after the noon rush, he was getting a lesson from chef James Ehrlich on how to deep-fry it.

“I’ve always been interested in cooking,” explained Guzman. “I’d cooked a lot for myself at home.”

A stint working in a fast-food restaurant, however, had somewhat diminished his enthusiasm for cooking, but then through VOICES he learned about an opportunity to work — and be paid — as an intern in a new Napa restaurant, Foodshed.

A foodshed is a geographic location that produces food for a particular population — including the land where it’s grown, the markets and kitchens it passes through and the tables it ends up on. Like the flow of water defined by a watershed, a foodshed outlines the flow of food from production to consumption.

It was also the inspiration for Foodshed Pizza & Pasta, which has opened near the Napa airport serving Roman-style pizza by the slice, hot sandwiches, fresh pasta and salads.

Besides its menu emphasizing freshly made dishes from scratch, Foodshed Pizza & Pasta differs from most other restaurants in its work to establish an internship program that offers job training to underserved community members.