The Model Bakery
The English muffin is the whole argument. Oprah has put it on her Favorite Things list in 2016, 2017, 2021 and 2025, and the original counter is 1357 Main Street in St Helena.
Why go
Karen Mitchell walked into a Napa Valley bank about forty years ago with her paperwork in order and was told to bring her husband in to approve the loan.2 She is 81 now, runs four Bay Area counters, ships nationally, and keeps Oprah Winfrey's card on file. We send muffins to her every month depending on where she is,
Mitchell said in that profile. Whenever she has house guests, she'll order maybe 200 muffins or so, just to have on hand.
2 The bakery has been in the valley for almost ninety years and this Main Street room is where it started; it reopened here on 7 September 2023 after a remodel.1
Order this / avoid
- Order: the English muffin, eaten there. It is the thing four separate Oprah's Favorite Things editions have been about.1
- Order: ahead on the St Helena curbside menu if you are driving up-valley on a Saturday.1
- Avoid: buying a dozen to carry around all day. The bakery ships them for exactly this reason.
What locals & experts say
- Oprah Winfrey, on the Favorite Things list (2016, 2017, 2021, 2025):
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. The crunchy -yet-fluffy muffins have made my list before, but now they ship with homemade strawberry jam.
That is a gift-list entry, quoted from the bakery's own page.1
I found no bylined critic writing about the baking, so the Oprah quote is the only outside voice I can put in front of you.
Good to know
- Which door: this entry is the St Helena flagship, 1357 Main Street. The bakery also runs Oxbow Public Market in Napa, the Mini Model in Yountville, and a Walnut Creek room opened in 2025.1
- Shipping: the muffins go nationwide, and the bakery warns that high volume delays shipping dates.1
- Hygiene: not established. No inspection instrument for this county is on file here.
Verdict
should-visit — One product carries this bakery and it has carried it for decades: the English muffin, griddled rather than toasted out of a bag, which Oprah has put on her gift list in 2016, 2017, 2021 and 2025 and calls the thing she travels with. Karen Mitchell built the business after a bank told her to come back with her husband, and she now runs four counters and ships nationally, which is the arc worth knowing before you order. The evidence is thin in one specific way and the rung reflects it: nothing independent and bylined has been read on the baking, and the Oprah line is a gift-guide entry. The St Helena counter at 1357 Main Street is the original and is the one to walk into.