When Vallejo rapper Dak Sauce took the stage Wednesday night at Blue Note Napa, it felt like a dream realized. It was his first time performing at the city’s best-known live music venue — and his first taste of what it meant to play a stage that has hosted some of the biggest names in jazz and R&B.

Then he learned the club was closing.

Dak Sauce, whose real name is Dakari, found out during rehearsals for locals night that Blue Note would shut its doors after New Year’s Eve 2025.

“It just feels real — like you got what you need to make it feel like a real artist. They gave us food, a room and hospitality was good. They even got a shower in the dressing room. I ain’t never seen that,” Dak Sauce said.

For Sanho, whose real name is Chris Sanchez and who hails from Napa, the news gave the night extra meaning. It was his show, and he invited the rapper Dak Sauce to join him as a guest performer. The two first met last year when Dak delivered groceries to Sanho as his Instacart driver.

“It’s intimate. If you get a crowd sitting down to get up, you know you doing something right,” Sanho said. “We made history tonight — performed at Blue Note before it closed. That’s something I’ll remember forever.”

A surprise announcement

Blue Note Napa announced Wednesday on social media that it will close after nearly a decade downtown. Its final show will take place Dec. 31, 2025, headlined by jazz musician Brian Culbertson.

After that, the venue plans to relocate to San Francisco, where a larger version of the club is already in discussion.

“As Blue Note looks toward the future, the club is moving out of Napa and actively seeking a new home in the San Francisco area,” the company said in a statement. “Discussions are underway and much progress has been made in determining a location. The goal is to create a venue that captures the same energy, intimacy and artistic excellence that made Blue Note Napa a success.”

The post assured fans that outdoor events will continue, including the Blue Note Summer Sessions at the Meritage Resort and the Blue Note Jazz Festival.

‘We maxed out our potential’

Blue Note’s managing director, Ken Tesler, said the decision to relocate was driven by growth, not financial distress. After nearly a decade operating in the historic Opera House, he said, the club had simply outgrown its current space.

“We maxed out our potential in the building,” Tesler said.

The new venue planned for San Francisco will roughly double Blue Note’s capacity — to about 250 to 300 seats, in line with the brand’s locations in New York, Los Angeles and Honolulu — allowing longer artist residencies and a wider mix of touring acts.

The Napa venue, which seats about 170 people, couldn’t support the scale of operations common to Blue Note’s other locations, Tesler said. The brand’s model — two shows a night, seven days a week — requires a larger market and room to make it sustainable.

Tesler emphasized that the move doesn’t mean leaving Napa behind. Blue Note plans to continue its outdoor Summer Sessions at the Meritage Resort and is exploring other local venues.

“Downtown Napa is a very viable market for live music, we have successfully proved this,” he said.

He added that the club’s booking manager also plans to continue staging shows at other local sites, including the Meritage, the Ruins in American Canyon and Napa Valley College’s football field. Blue Note’s first Napa Valley College music festival is scheduled to debut in May 2026. Tesler had been slated to present the proposal to the college board on Oct. 16, but the discussion was postponed to Nov. 20.

Tesler credited local fans for sustaining the venue through the pandemic and for helping spark downtown Napa’s growing live music scene.

“We could not have made it all work through out all the years we have been here if not for the Napa locals,” he said. “Most importantly, we are not leaving Napa. We will continue to bring great live music of all genres to Napa for years to come.”

A cultural hub — and what comes next

The club’s closure stunned local musicians and fans who viewed it as a vital part of Napa’s cultural fabric.

Rob Doughty, known as DJ Rotten Robbie, said the loss will be felt far beyond the stage. “When I woke up this morning, I was shocked… everyone was heartbroken. Their jazz and R&B bookings brought so much more diversity to Napa than we used to have,” he said.

For nearly a decade, Blue Note’s stage hosted artists from around the world and served as an outlet for independent performers to showcase their talent. It also became a gathering place for the LGBTQ+ community, with events such as drag shows and Pride celebrations.

Among the national acts to play the downtown venue were Chris Botti, Kenny G, Carlos Santana and Stanley Clarke — a lineup that gave the small club outsized prestige. Its affiliated Blue Note Jazz Festival drew even bigger names, including The Roots, Jazmine Sullivan and Earth, Wind & Fire, helping cement Napa’s place on the national music map.

While Blue Note wasn’t directly involved, its inclusive programming sometimes stirred debate in Napa. During a 2023 public hearing to formally permit the Blue Note Jazz Festival’s move from Charles Krug Winery in St. Helena to Silverado Resort and Spa, racial remarks from a resident drew sharp criticism. And a year prior, Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter Jonathan Butler, who was in Napa to attend a Blue Note festival, accused a restaurant of racial profiling.

The club’s influence extended even to musicians who launched their careers there. Ross Rubin, a singer-songwriter with the Napa-based band JealousZelig, said the venue helped shape Napa’s evolving music scene.

“Since Blue Note opened, Napa’s music scene has evolved incredibly — there are now so many excellent original acts. They always took care of the band — it was a very hospitable club for local artists,” he said.

His band played its 19th show there in July.

He described it as “the perfect jazz club space,” where artists could truly connect with audiences, but said he understands how difficult it is to manage a venue like that — especially one that also runs a restaurant.

Ownership of the Opera House building — purchased in 2021 by John and Michele Truchard, co-founders of JaM Cellars, for $4.2 million — adds uncertainty about what will come next.

Doughty, the Napa DJ, said he’s unsure what could replace Blue Note once it leaves the space. The upstairs Opera House, he noted, is too large to recreate the same atmosphere, and he doubts another business could make it work.

“If Blue Note can’t make a go of it there, then I don’t know who could,” he said.

Staff, supporters and a final bow

Behind the scenes, the news landed like a quiet aftershock. For the people who have kept the club running night after night — engineers, bartenders, servers and musicians — Blue Note’s closing feels both bittersweet and surreal.

On Wednesday night, as local performers took the stage, staff and regulars lingered in the wings and along the bar, sharing memories of a place that had shaped their lives and wondering what comes next, as they spoke with The Press Democrat.

Sound engineer and production manager Steven Huyser still remembers how he started at Blue Note. “My job is to make sure everybody’s on the same page — set up instruments, run cables and make it sound as good as I can. Just sound guy stuff,” he said.

He first applied to bus tables but was hired on the spot to run sound, a position he’s held ever since.

Tesler told employees most staff positions will end when the club closes, though some may transition to the new San Francisco venue. Huyser has been reassured he’ll move to the new location.

“I wouldn’t necessarily choose to live here without a Blue Note,” he said of Napa.

Newer employees feel the same mix of sadness and optimism. Jordan Mage, who joined the team six months ago, said, “It’s sad that Napa’s not gonna have this really cool venue anymore. I think the San Francisco one would be really cool… if I can afford it, I’d love to go.”

For longtime staff like Leilani Barbadillo, a Vacaville commuter who’s spent eight years serving and bartending at the club, the loss feels personal. She calls Blue Note “ohana” — Hawaiian for family.

“This place has been a safe space where everyone can just be happy and work well with each other,” she said. “It’s emotional and heartbreaking, but it’s for the best because it’s gonna grow bigger in San Francisco.”

Among the artists preparing for their final sets is Kellie Fuller, who first performed at Blue Note in 2017 and returns each December with the Mike Greensill Trio. This year’s concert, she said, will carry special meaning. “Many locals have said that it’s how they start the holidays. Little did we know when we scheduled it that it’s going to be our farewell show too. Now that I know this, we’ll be adding in some surprises to help make it even more special.”

Downtown leaders are bracing for the loss as well. Bill LaLiberte, executive director of the Downtown Napa Association, called the closure a major blow. The venue, he said, brought people to Napa for more than wine.

“That’s been hugely valuable for our downtown identity,” he said. “They were an organization that had far reach beyond Napa… that brought in world-class performances, and that will be hard to replace.”