Model Bakery
The English muffin that the operator sells close to 7,000 of on a busy day. This is the Oxbow market counter, not the St Helena flagship.
Why go
Model Bakery has been going for nearly ninety years, from the Main Street shop in St Helena out to this stall in Oxbow Public Market and on to Yountville.1 The muffin is the whole argument, and the volume tells you why: the operator says it can sell almost 7,000 English muffins on a busy day.1 Oprah has put them on her Favorite Things list four times by the bakery's own count, 2016, 2017, 2021 and 2025.1 Breads, pastries and coffee are the rest of the list.1
Order this / avoid
- Order: the English muffin. Everything else here is the supporting cast.1
- Avoid: expecting the St Helena flagship. This is the Oxbow stall, with its own curbside menu.1
What locals & experts say
- Oprah Winfrey, Favorite Things, quoted on the bakery's own page:
I dare you to find a better English muffin than these! I've sent them to just about everyone I know, I even travel with them.
Read on Model Bakery's press wall, not at the magazine.1
Good to know
- Which door: this is the Oxbow Public Market counter at 644 First Street. The St Helena flagship on Main Street has its own entry.1
- Ordering: the bakery runs a separate curbside menu for Oxbow, distinct from the St Helena one.1
- Hours: the site links a contact-and-hours page for each door; read the Napa one before a long drive.
- Hygiene: not established. I have no inspection record for this county.
Verdict
should-visit — One product carries this bakery and it is a griddled English muffin, sold by the operator at close to 7,000 on a busy day, which is the kind of number that only happens when a thing is genuinely good. Oprah has put it on her list four times by the bakery's own count and says she travels with them. This is the Oxbow Public Market counter rather than the St Helena flagship, so you buy at a market stall and eat it walking, which is the right way to eat one anyway. The placements and the quote were read on the bakery's own wall and not at the magazine, and nobody with a byline has written about this counter, so it stops one rung short.