Nathan Davis’ first hospitality job included a nightly magic show. He wasn’t the magician, but he was in charge of practically everything else at a 16-room San Francisco hotel. And he was just 18.
Napa Valley Wine Train
From there, Davis took on bigger hotels and bigger roles in cities such as New York City, Dana Point, Bodega Bay, San Diego and Maui.
“I thrive while being and thinking on my feet and facing constant challenges and different people all the time,” said Davis.
Today he works as the general manager of the Napa Valley Wine Train. However, his long-term aspiration is “to be a great dad, a passionate and caring hospitality veteran, a staunch advocate, steward, and trailblazer for our wonderful Napa Valley, and the best husband I can be,” said Davis.
1. What’s the worst job you ever had?
Perhaps the “worst” job I have ever had the pleasure to enjoy was working a day job for a short while at a finance leasing company doing outbound sales calls.
2. What job would you like to try/not try?
Try: My degree in International Relations from CSU Chico launched me into trying out for the State Department as a diplomat. I got an invite to return, which I never followed through on as I had already launched into my hospitality career in earnest.
Not try: Going back to a finance leasing company.
3. How did you get into the hospitality industry?
I jumped into my first job while attending Chico High School at 16 at Taco Bell. One of many pivotal leaps, prompted largely by the death of my mom immediately following high school graduation, was a move to San Francisco at 18 in the fall of 1993.
Working at the (then) Mansions Hotel and Restaurant for room and board in a basement room was a great way to get my feet under me to learn about myself, San Francisco and the world of hospitality in an intimate 16-room environment with a nightly dinner and magic show.
At the Mansions, I learned to wear many hats quickly (as) the sole morning breakfast cook, server, dishwasher, then housekeeper tearing through the guest room check-outs and stay-overs.
After a brief respite to explore the city in the afternoons, I would return as prepcook, followed by server for the dinner service then shift back into the whites to wash the dishes.
To finish the night, all other staff would leave for the day and all phones would be transferred to my bedside phone.
I continued through the restaurant scene in San Francisco with 5 years with Kimpton at two hotel restaurants, spent one year in New York City, then started back to school at CSU Chico at 25 working my way through college at a fine dining restaurant.
Upon graduating, I opened and operated all food and beverage operations at Chico’s Hotel Diamond and then fully committed to this career in hospitality at 30 moving to Dana Point to help lead the Michael Mina restaurant, Stonehill Tavern, at the St. Regis Monarch Beach Resort and Spa.
Having joined Starwood Hotels and Resorts in Dana Point, I capitalized on the learning and growth opportunities they made available and quickly moved up and around in the organization from the Sheraton Grand Sacramento, to the Westin Maui Resort and Spa as food and beverage director, then being promoted to director of operations for the U.S. Grant Hotel in San Diego, and finally achieving on a longterm goal of moving my expanding family to Napa to partner with the Silverado Resort and Spa team.
With my wife being a Napa native, this move brought us close to her family and the wonderful support this offers. Woodside Hotels and Resorts lured me into my first general manager opportunity at the Bodega Bay Lodge, with a quick pivot to Harvest Inn, St. Helena for approximately four years, and since July 2021 as a member of the Napa Valley Wine Train team and finally having become firmly rooted at home in Napa.
4. What is the biggest challenge the hospitality industry has faced?
People and culture in the workplace. The most important thing we do as leaders in hospitality is invest in our people, provide them the tools and empowerment to provide exceptional service for our guests. This starts with having the right people, and in the needed quantity, and on the right seats to complete on our assignments, and that has long been the big problem our industry has faced.
5. What’s one thing Napa could do to help local business?
Napa must continue to band together as neighbors in aligning our overall sales mission of promoting this destination first through the lens of a local. If it is a great place to live, then it will be a great place to visit.
6. If you could change one thing about the hospitality industry, what would it be?
It is a blessing and a curse this hospitality industry inspires such passion in those who fall in love with it. The passion inspires a desire to leave it better at the end of each day, which is very demanding given the days in hospitality can already be long.
Then when you have already worked a full day, you are charged to put in that extra time at the end of the day to attend to the things you could not prioritize earlier in the day. Before you know it, you compromise on your priorities to your wife, kids, friends and hobbies.
7. What’s your favorite gift to give?
Wine that tells a story. To me, there is nothing more personal than understanding a person for who they are and gifting them with a wine that you know will speak to their soul.
8. What’s your favorite charity or nonprofit?
Having been a foster family in Napa, we love and adore the unconditional work that Peggy and Tom do with Expressions of Hope. On a larger scale, the benefits and life skills invested into our youth by the Boys and Girls Club of Napa is inspiring. Their multi-faceted approach with engagement in their core programming will bring a young person in and help take them as far as their dreams will allow.
