joy on the menu

It’s easy to complain how living online has reduced the number of meaningful interactions we have nowadays. Language has become weaponized at the same time the experience of Covid has made us reticent to express ourselves with ease in casual social settings. Shellshocked by technological ‘progress’ that has been busily re-wiring our brains along with our social systems, “across multiple platforms,'“ it’s hard to escape the sense that we are unwittingly dumbing down real life, losing the visceral connections we so need from one another. Even the concept, the experience of “real’ has become suspect. And don’t get me started about facts. We’re parched, especially from the lack of honest connection that once served as a conduit to genuine community.

Sunday was a group quenching. Almost like a fragrance, joy floated through both gardens as past and present co-workers, industry friends, artists, friends and family gathered to celebrate Barndiva’s 20 years in Healdsburg. Geoffrey, Lukka and I were truly delighted with the memories that everyone shared at the ways the Barndiva experience holds a fond place in their lives.

There was a wonderful randomness to the crowd that made delightful sense. Let’s face it, Barndiva has never known for being just one thing: we started life as a Euro-jazzy bistro, then a gallery, then morphed into a Michelin fine dining restaurant. This year we are back into the studio with the films and soundtracks we love where you can come and dine a la carte, in larger groups, or just slip in for a cocktail or the perfect glass of wine. While the heart of our business has always been our beloved wedding programs, and that hasn’t changed, barndiva has also always been a place for vital community forums, annual collaborative wine tasting events, fund raisers. All the many programs we have invested in over the years to stay engaged, afloat, and relevant have been a reflection of the same desire: to celebrate life as we share conversations worth having around food and drink, social issues. We tilt towards the philosophy that even in spaces where great food and drink and beautiful things surrounding you are deliverable, they are not what you remember years later. It’s the experience. We have created and filled our spaces to reflect what we ourselves would love to discover if we wandered in as a traveler, or frequented as a regular.

Restaurants are the most transactional of high stakes entities, from sourcing - be it from ranch, farm or sea - through the many hands in the kitchen, to that last interaction when someone places a glass or a plate on the space in front of you and invites you to ‘enjoy’. We hide that it’s bloody hard. We delude ourselves but know it will never gets easier. So many pieces need to be in play often at the same time. A sense of urgency is always present. So to see the incredible mix of past and present staff on July 14 was a special pleasure. The same for being able to hug and catch up with artists we have supported, favorite winemakers, spirit makers, farmers, earliest customers, wedding couples… and a good dose of family friends, all commingling, gorgeous drinks in hand, on a perfect summer day in gardens which have grown more beautiful around us over the past two decades.

It was the perfect anniversary gift we could have given ourselves at 20. The flowers were glorious, cocktails divine, (with Scott very much in his element), Legacy libations ‘Steamy Windows’ and ‘On the Beach with Fidel’ brilliantly re-interperted by Charles. All the wines we asked Emily to pour reflected the talents of winemakers who passed through the barn at some point before the start of their careers. David and the team grilled succulent pork carnitas with bowls of vibrant spicy condiments that he and Erik had conspired over, and there were delicious fluatas that alas, I missed, in all the hubbub. Everyone leaving could snag a bag of Lynn’s homemade oatmeal and raisin cookies and vegan fudge brownies.

Thank you to all who attended, and big love to those out of town or who live far away and could not be with us, but sent messages of congratulations suffused with delicious, funny, beautiful, ’I don’t give a shit how this sounds I just gotta say it‘ truly remarkable memories. We love ya.

Above, Chef David Morales and his beautiful family. Below, some of our incredible staff both past and present

Below: Our who’s who of Barndiva’s Healdsburg, then and now. We have been blessed with the friendship of many talented local artists, fine winemakers, artisan spirit makers, & farmers over the years, and seeing some of them on Sunday meant the world to us. A wellspring of emotion at the memories we all shared, of a Healdsburg much transformed. Nothing stays the same, nor should it. But the value of real, personal connections built over many years from the respect and profound enjoyment of the work we have all chosen flowed through the gardens in way we rarely see anymore. The nominal ticket price we asked was all donated to FARMpreneurs, a new non-profit focused on guiding and empowering climate-smart small farmers with education and resources to enable their success. Eat the View writ large.

Stay tuned as we move through the year with more celebrations that speak to our remarkable two decades in Healdsburg!

Jil, Lukka and Geoffrey

As it turns out, Photographer Chad Surmick who shot all these images on July 11, 2024 was at our opening on July 11, 2004, though it would be another decade before we really came to know one another, and quite a few more before I was finally able to hand over photographing all things Barndiva and hand it over to him. He moonlights from an all encompassing job at the Press Democrat and Sonoma Magazine, where he has brilliantly captured the full monte of life in Sonoma County for going on 34 years. Beloved by our staff, his ability to capture a moment without affecting the people living through it, with empathy and artistry, is remarkable. We are so grateful for his talent and his grace. Image above: Chad and dear family friend Mindy and her beautiful family, shot by Lukka Feldman.

Celebrating 20 years on July 14!!

On July 14 we will celebrate a Milestone it’s fair to say we never envisioned achieving - 20 years since the day we opened Barndiva. Over the past two decades we’ve been a local bluesy Bistro Bar, a fine dining Michelin Star Restaurant, hosted thousands of wedding related parties and significant community events, celebrated artists, and worked to strengthen the bonds between farmers and chefs (even helping create a web-site for them). We’ve worked through multiple fires and inventively and safely stayed open through the pandemic. We’ve had the joys of seeing many of our staff grow their families and cherished past employees go on to create wonderful businesses of their own.

It’s been an exhilarating, challenging, frustrating, marvelously engaging life… And on July 14, from 4-6, we're throwing a party to celebrate.

If you are able to come raise a glass with us we will fill it with new versions of the Barndiva cocktail classics, "On the Beach with Fidel" and "Steamy Windows," along with remarkable wines made by vintners who once upon a time polished a glass or two here at the start of their careers. The Chefs will be grilling and the soundtrack will be curated from a 20 year playlist of our favorites. And of course, floral arrangements galore from our farm and some of our slo flower friends.

We know this newsletter goes out to many who live far away, so if you cannot join us on the 14th, please know you have our gratitude. In some way, large or small, you have made this journey with us. Loyal customers, wedding families, farmers, vintners, artists, The City of Healdsburg, and most especially past and present employees - we simply wouldn’t be here without you.

It’s an elusive but significant connection we long to make over food and drink and when it works, that moment when everything comes together, it hits all the high notes of a diva moment . We have never stopped striving for that moment - but even when we miss, we’ve felt the love. Thank you.
 
Follow the link 🥳 to join us. The $10 ticket will go in support of a game changing new nonprofit that builds farm communities -- something that's always been close to our "Eat the View" hearts.
(100% will be donated to FARMpreneurs}  

We hope you can come! 

Of the thousands of images I’ve taken from the day we opened on July 14, 2004 of every aspect of this world we’ve created, at the end of the day what has meant the most to us as a family are the people we have worked alongside, through the good times and bad. This is a stressful industry, with hundreds of moving parts. It takes tremendous effort - physically and emotionally- to stay the course and be true to a vision, especially one as idiosyncratic as Barndiva’s. What has always pulled us over the swells when they got too high has been the dedications of relentless kitchen and front of house teams. When you see the joy of a food or drink moment that has truly landed, especially if that day is significant in a families life, you know why what you do matters.

This no means a complete rogues gallery, just some of the memorable moments we have shared on our way toward writing the barndiva story over the years.

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Coming July 5th ...
Cocktailing in the Gardens begins!

We are excited to be expanding our wine and cocktail menus
so they can be enjoyed in the gardens even if you aren't joining us for dinner

View the expanded cocktail and wine menu, here!

Studio Barndiva is open for dining Thursday - Monday from 5pm.
Walk-ins are welcome, reservations are encouraged.  

We book parties! 8+? Contact us here.

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travel towards a common paradise

We travel in spring not least because age has lent greater understanding of Lao Tzu’s message “to be worn out is to be renewed.” Returning to Stockholm and Copenhagen afforded us great art and food, while time spent with our family in London, Sussex, and Gloucestershire was filled to the brim with ambling walks and resonating talks through fields, meadows, and forests filled with wildflowers and animal life, alive with all manner of sentinent being.

This brief but highly recommendable list is to give thanks, and point vigorously towards the gardeners, writers, artists, chefs, farmers, hoteliers that gave us so much pleasure the past three weeks. We travel to renew friendships and make new ones, but really, we travel for beauty, in all its forms. It’s a huge gift to be alive. Travel is a magical handshake with the world just outside your door wherever you are, every minute of every day. The name of our two favorite art exhibits, The Time is Always Now, and Trust Memory over History, really says it all.

Wherever your plans to travel this season, Carpe Diem.

Tokyorsbar (Prunus x yedoensis) in bloom alongside Lake Brunnsviken, Stockholm. The Bergius Botanic gardens consists of large systematic sections, a wetland, an orchard, trees and shrubs from all over the world. It also holds Victoria House and the Edvard Anderson Conservatory.

Firelei Baëz’s Trust Time over Memory exhibit at the Louisiana Museum. Maps and fragments of book pages emerge from beneath sumptuous lavers of paint “reminiscent of persistent ghosts of the past, haunting the present moment.”

Stages in the life of a Liu Chao Yu Ye, Nelumbo Nucifera, white lotus variety, Edvard Anderson Conservatory, Bergianska Trädgarden (Bergius Botanic Garden), Stockholm.

Firelei Báez, ‘How to Slip Out Of Your Body Quietly’; Trust Memory Over History, Louisiana Museum, Copenhagen

The standout art for us in London: The Time is Always Now, Artists Reframe the Black Figure, at the National Portrait Gallery, curated by Ekow Eshun, brilliantly showcasing the work of artists from the African diaspora.

In Copenhagen, three stunning exhibits are running alongside the permanent collection at the Louisiana Art Museum, a 30 minute drive from the city along the waterfront. This was art acutely attuned to this moment in history. We were able to spend the day at The Louisiana Museum, wandering from room to room, across the sculpture lawns, lunching beneath enormous Calder mobiles. I’ve long been a fan of @louisanamuseum. Exhibits included an extensive and stunning Chaïm Soutine exhibit of his magnificent portraits, and rooms filled with the mixed media art of Roni Horn spoke to the power of self reverential influences that now invade our waking and sleeping lives. Most thrilling was the premier European exhibition of Firelei Báez, an Dominican-American artist who overlays explosive color and figurative form on colonial maps which speak truth to power: “Confronting historical concepts we have for too long taken for granted.“

Amy Sherald portraits, and far right, Nathanial Mary Quinn, all at The Time is Always Now, National Portrait Gallery, London

Roni Horn, In Dialogue with the Film, Louisiana Museum, Copenhagen

Roni Horn, The Detour of Identity, Poured Glass, Louisiana Museum, Copenhagen

Chaim Soutine, The Groom, or The Bellboy, Louisiana Museum, Copenhagen

Detail, Untitled (Drexciya) 2020, Firelei Báez

Writer Olivia Laing’s new book ‘The Garden Against Time: In Search of a Common Paradise’ chronicles her response to the pandemic through the restoration of a walled garden in Suffolk which she wisely considers alongside an investigation of real and imagined paradises- a sub-text I find particularly relevant right now. Her talk with Internationally recognized garden designers ( and Daniel Carlson friends, lucky chap) Dan Pearson and Jonny Bruce was the initial reason for our visit to The Charleston Festival, a summer-long celebration of talks and workshops on all things gardening- historic, visionary and possible.

Opened this year by Queen Camilla, long a patron of The Charleston Trust (Bloomsbury in Sussex), it is held on the grounds of the home and gardens of that indefigable Bloomsbury couple Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant. A guided tour of their house reveals every corner of the lives they supposedly once lived there, and shared intimately with their Bloomsbury Brethren - Virginia and Leonard Woolf, E. M. Forster, Lytton Strachey, Roger Fry, and as I learned on the tour, John Maynard Keynes, apparently looking out a second floor window to the pond when he conceived ‘Keynesian’ economic theory. That depressing tidit aside, you can’t help but love these guys, obsessed as they were with philosophical questions, literature in transition between the wars, and the coming impact of modern art. The rooms feel haunted, as well as curiously small for a couple with so many friends with such varied appetites. Virtually every surface is inlaid or overpainted, rooms are chock full with books and canvases. From 1907-1930 they talked, drank, painted, coupled, decoupled, and lived a life of the mind no longer imaginable.

The talk we’d come for, “An Ordinary Paradise,’ was guided by Jonny Bruce, followed by a short but pointed Q & A. I have not yet read The Garden Against Time, but Laing more than held her own with these two rising stars of the international gardening and landscape world. Both of their remarkable careers to date have been at the heart of an ongoing re-consideration of Gertrude Jekyll’s Magiot line between the formal and wild. It’s exciting to watch a fuller understanding of the possibilities that Fergus Garrett has been espousing for decades at Great Dixter, where both Jonny and Daniel Carlson, the guiding light of our journey here at barndiva farm, have spent formative years.

For information on Festival of the Garden which will take place 18-21 of July, go to Charleston.org.uk. Dan (@daniel.carlson.co) and Suzanna Grant are teaching a workshop Friday July 19th “Gardening for Beginners.”

Follow in real time the life of an ‘ordinary’ paradise, Dan Pearson’s farm in Devon, @digdelve; for his many impressive ongoing installations, which include recreating Harold Nicolson and Vita Sackvillle-Wests never completed Delos at Sissinghurst, @coyotewillow.

To keep up with Jonny Bruce, a remarkable writer and brilliant plant consultant we hope to see in Northern California again soon, (among his many exciting projects, he continues his guardianship of Derek Jarman’s garden at Prospect Cottage) @j.bruce.garden.

Preceeding our time at Charleston, Dan and I enjoyed a ramble through the private walled garden at Knepp Estate - the 3,500 acre re-wilding / love child / groundbreaking life project of Charlie Burrell and Isabella Tree, which they embarked upon in the mid-1990’s. Its various parts are known as Knepp Wilding Estate, Knepp Castle, Knepp Safari (which makes sense given the size of the project, which controversially re- introduced rare breeds back into the land - you would need to go on safari to see it all).

Here’s the thing about re-wilding: even If your interest in gardening begins and ends with a consideration of no longer mowing your lawn, how we relate to all that’s alive and buzzing in nature - i.e. do we kill it in order to seemingly control it - is an essential conversation to be having right now. The Knepp garden restaurant under the direction of Chef Ned Burrell does wonderful things with the regenerative farm’s animals and produce. Wild range meats we bought at Knepp’s shop adjacent to the restaurant, which we cooked through and devoured at our VBRO house in Firle, was exquisite.

Given Englands historic and ongoing obsession with all things gardening, re-wilding is unsurprisingly a galvazing subject right now. Trying to envision any worldly paradise is no ordinary task, but considerations of Dante aside if we mere mortals are to seek it in this lifetime I am on team Olivia in believing it will be found - can only be found- in the ordinary.

@kneppwilding, @kneppwildingkitchen, @kneppregenfarms, @ned_burrell96, and of course @daniel.james.co for his passion, inspiration, and guidance.

All Images in Eat the View copywrite Jil Hales. Above, off the lanes near Lukka and Dan’s cottage near Tetbury, Gloucestershire; below, fields and gardens near our VRBO house in Firle, near Lewes, East Sussex. Thank you for sharing Anna - your gardens are lovely.

One of our favorite hotels in the world is Ett Hem, which means ‘at home in Swedish.’ All we can say to that is ‘as if.’ Ett Hem defines a quality of hospitality that extends to every piece of an experience you can have here through its art, design, stunning lighting, and ever present in the most delightful and delicious ways, food and drink. Ilse Crawford was the original inspiration for the design ethic back when the hotel was one building, but it is owner, Jeanette Mix, is the force of nature who ensures every vase is full, every candle lit, in room after room and gardens that overflow with moments of delight. The hotel is now two co-joined buildings with original windows and exteriors that date back to 1910. Situated in an elegant residential neighborhood, the truly impressive cross trained staff are unfailingly engaging, informative, and honestly dedicated to the mission. The tasting menu at Ett Hem proved to be our best meal in Stockholm, served in the heart of the open kitchen. @etthemstockholm

In Copenhagen the best dining was found at the Flo Campbell and Michelin Recommended Restaurant Frank, @restaurantfrankcp; @michelinguide; the most memorable at Marv & Ben celebrating life, love, and the joys of travel with new friends Robert and Sam.

We are still huge fans of Sessions Art Club in London, @sessionsartclub.

Hand carved ash vase by the artist, framer, and cabinet maker Emanuele Maria Marchi, a gift to Barndiva from the artist. He can be reached for commissions @ema.marchi

Arne Jacobsen’s Petrol Station, designed in 1938 for Texaco, as a new standard model. Now a class A historic monument, it was never put into production. Skovshoved at the northern outskirts of Copenhagen, Denmark

Plastic? Think Again.

The community gathers for Conversations Worth Having #2 : Trash Talk, February 16th, in Studio Barndiva

Full Disclosure: we initially had great concerns making Trash the subject of our second Conversation Worth Having. But something happened after our first conversation, Gorgeous Garbage, that made the conversation about trash imperative. Of the many things we took away from our first community evening the realization that haunted us, as never before, was that even if we managed to divert more organic waste into making compost and soil, even if everyone we knew got better at recycling, even if these things began to miraculously happen all over the world, humanity would still go on filling the oceans with plastic, building higher and higher landfills of toxic waste. All the things we no longer have use for - our trash - endlessly circling and befouling the globe.

CWH is all about gathering community to have Serious Fun. We want to talk about important issues in a way which enables us to come away from these conversations making better choices, strengthening a commitment to live lighter on the ground. We don’t want to give up our creature comforts. We care about design. We want to live in a world with the ability to surround ourselves with useful, beautiful things. How do we make this compatible with individual actions, taken consistently, that signal true change in the way the social order works?

As life would have it, over 50 years ago I forged a beautiful, lasting friendship that among its many gifts brought a wondrous goddaughter into my life. And as luck would have it - for me and everyone who attended our February 16th Trash Talk - she has made it her life’s work to build just such a near future, or at least the possibility one might exist. we’re talking about businesses that take honoring a healthy ecology and a respect of the earth into every step of their supply chains. We’re talking about the products and the conduits that bring them into our short and precious lives.

Her name is Zem Joaquin. A founding member of Cradle to Cradle, for many years her company Eco Fabulous espoused the philosophy that we did not have to live lives of deprivation to be good global citizens. If we knew where to look, showed extreme care about how and where things were made, we could be as fabulous as we dared. She dared.

For the past five years she has grown an astonishing community of brilliant, innovative leaders- self identified disrupters to status quo supply chains- made of up scientists, inventors, doctors, designers, artists, and producers of all the things we use in our lives. It’s called The Near Future Summit and through it she has become a champion for businesses that “accelerate solutions to improve societal, individual and planetary health.” Dawnelise, Susan, Amber and I did our due diligence and research into how best to position Trash Talk - we toured Recology SF, met with the wonderful Deborah Munk, director of the artist in residence program. We listened to fascinating sustainable producers at a Women Founders Talk at the Ferry Building. We read and researched. Finally, after an edifying three day experience at 2023’s Near Future Summit, Zem guided our choice of speakers who graciously traveled to Healdsburg to talk to a sold out crowd in Studio Barndiva on Friday, February 16 for Conversations Worth Having, #2, Trash Talk.

It was delicious but serious fun, as you know if you attended. If you didn’t, we missed you. Here is a visual taste of this throughly stimulating evening.

Our Speakers: LEFT: Toby Corey, COO of Cruz Foam, a sustainable foam packaging company that sources fully bio degradable materials made from shrimp shells, mushrooms, and recycled paper as an alternative to styrofoam. Cruz Foam was a PentAwards Bronze winner and one of TIME Magazine’s Best Inventions of 2023; CENTER: Gorgina Alcock, of GaeaStar, a ceramic zero waste alternative to single use plastic cups and vessels made of a clay, water, and salt sourced close to where it is 3’D printed (our CWH branded cups were produced in San Francisco from Sacramento clay); RIGHT: Beth Rattner, a director of the The Bio-Mimicry Institute, who walked us through the essential bridges we must start building between biology and design by advancing the adoption of nature inspired strategies. Highly recommended reading: Biomimicry, Innovation Inspired by Nature, by Janine Benyus, who founded the Biomimicry Institute, and The Second Body, by Daisy Hildyard.

ABOVE: Julia Marsh who with her Husband Matt founded Sway, also joined our speaker forum. Sway is a start up whose goal is to harness the power of seaweed to create home compostable replacements for plastic. For their efforts they were the Winners of the Tom Ford Innovation Prize for 2023.

Sway embodies a central premise of circular economies around design that was a take away from the evening: design out waste, keep materials in use, regenerate natural systems. And this: as a consumer, make better choices.

We were proud to have several local businesses who share our concerns about sustainability contribute to this Conversation Worth Having. Formost among them was Little Saint Healdsburg Healdsburg, whose chef, Stu Stalker, provided exquisite bowls of Little Saint Farm Vegetables with spreads of Carrot Tahini w/ dried chili, Cultured Cashew w/ Tomato Chutney, and Green Lentil Hummus. Little Saint’s director of beverage and sustainability, Matt Seigel collaborated with Barndiva’s Scott Beattie on both the spirit and NA cocktails: A Caipirinha made with Novo Fogo Carbon Negative Organic Cachaça, and Rangpur Me Another, our NA cocktail made with Rangpur lime as a cordial, anise hyssop tea, coconut yogurt, and Ritual N/A rum.

For those enjoying wine in their GaeaStar cups, we were honored to serve Delta Wines for Change made by our friends at Brick and Mortar, Alexis and Matt Ioconis. In bringing the climate conversation to the dinner table, Delta addresses greener packaging, reduces their carbon footprint in every aspect of wine making and supply chain choices, and donates 10% of all sales to the Surfrider Foundation, Cool Effect, and groups fostering environmental education- like Conversations Worth Having.

We also wish to thank Hotel Healdsburg’s Circe Sher for hosting some of our speakers and providing a discount for those traveling for the event. Coming soon: GaeaStar cups in the Hotel Healdsburg Spa.

And for anyone who missed the event or just wanted to keep the conversation going the next day, Flying Goat Coffee on center street hosted a pop-up on Saturday Feb. 17th using GaeaStar cups, which they gave away with every coffee sold.

A dinner for our speakers and a limited number of ticketed guests was held after the event in barndiva, which Daniel Carlson and I filled with foraged arrangements from our forest in Philo. We were so pleased he was able to join us for this CWH.

The Conversations Worth Having team is Dawnelise Rosen, director of Farmpeneurs, Susan Preston, of Preston Family Farm; Jil Hales, all things Barndiva, and Amber Keneally who researched and created our medicine cabinet art installation.

It is our goal to keep Conversation Worth Having events small enough so the actual conversation we have after listening to our speakers is forthright and meaningful. To find out about future events, sign up for the Barndiva Blog, Eat the View, or follow us @barndivahealdsburg.

The Best of 2023, Celebrated!

No skirting it, 2023 was a challenging year. It seemed like every time we looked up from from the gardens in Philo or out the windows to a seemingly flourishing Healdsburg, the news of the day brought us up short with yet another human or planetary catastrophe. A reminder, as if we needed one, of how truly fragile life is everywhere. How fortunate we are to live and work how and where we do.

This last post of the year celebrates some of the best moments of 2023 for us, giving props to the people and places who made our year appreciably better, the world we share glow a bit brighter.

Our New Years Resolution: To focus even more on joyful moments like the ones captured here. To build collaborative bridges where and how they are needed.

Thank you for dining with us, throwing a party, planning a wedding, gathering a group of friends for a dinner party, showing up at one of our annual wine events - we so appreciate you! We look forward to showing you how much in 2024!

Diptych: Spring & Winter. Photo: Chad Surmick

Photographing Barndiva in all its many beautiful facets is something I love doing, and rarely entrust with another photographer, which made collaborating with the intuitive and extremely talented Chad Surmick this year an unmitigated joy. Together we captured Barndiva’s life in food, cocktails, wine parties, and studio b dinner parties. The most enjoyable work was a series we conceived for our website landing page - four color-resplendent still-life images of the raw ingredients that informed Eric’s brilliant menus. Our hope was that they brought the food conversation about seasonality home for everyone who visited our website. They were also very much an homage to the farm, to Misha and Renee, who joined us this year in Philo, and to the many many other farmers and fisherman, foragers and gardeners who work with us in the creation of our food and cocktail menus: we are grateful to them all.

Chad and I also had the honor to photograph the men and women whose labors transformed those raw ingredients for a B&W portrait series celebrating our 2023 Michelin star.

Barndiva’s Beverage Director Scott Beattie, Bar Manager Charles Rodenkirch and their team rocked the cocktail program this year with creations that lifted our spirits and then some. These were inventive, intriguing, satisfying and absolutely gorgeous cocktails. The bar team also maintained a weekly floral and herbal ‘garden’ for the bar (shout out to Buck), most of it from our farm, that took guests breath away (and invariably cellphones out). Through Scott’s long and legendary career he has had an indefatigable interest in everything growing around him - always with an eye toward how it might end up in a cocktail.

Our cocktail classes were also a highlight of the year, and we embraced gorgeous NA cocktails like never before. A stellar year in drink, with exciting plans for next year.

To learn more about the classes, read the wonderful article written about them in Edible Marine Magazine. Scott can be reached directly scott.beattie@barndiva.com,

We re-launched Studio B events this year with a community series called “Conversations Worth Having” hosted with three of the most formidable women - Dawnelise Rosen, Amber Keneally and Susan Preston. CWH has been a lifeline for us, and we were deeply gratified for others as well, judging by the success of Conversation #1, Gorgeous Garbage. The idea for the series flows from a long held desire to share what we’re reading, listening to, and thinking as we try to live more lightly on the ground in our lives and various businesses. We hope to introduce some of the fascinating people we are meeting on this journey, explore issues that affect us here in Healdsburg, across Sonoma County, and beyond. (No surprise, they are interconnected.)

By opening these conversations to a community we love, gift -wrapped in art, incredible speakers and - this being Barndiva - kick-ass cocktails and wines, we hope to make manifest the changes we long to see in the world. Our only ground rules for the series is that they be fun, and that there is no place for judgment as we explore some pretty complex subjects. Do we believe change starts with small and well considered actions? Yes, we really do.

Next up: Trash Talk, just scheduled for February 16th. We’ve got some incredible speakers coming to town for a panel led by the eco fabulous Zem Joquin, founder of The Near Future Summit, which Dawnelise and I were thrilled to attend this year. To hear about CWH first, Follow us @barndiva.com, or sign up to receive barndiva.com/blog. We will not share your information with anyone.

Above: Conversations Worth Having, A paint and distressed paper canvas by Susan Preston; Photo: Chad Surmick

At the end of the day, everything we do comes down to fostering a genuine feeling of joy in people, and nothing we do comes even close to producing more of it than our weddings and wedding rehearsal dinners. The connections you feel from seeing generations of family and friends gather is electric. Weddings always generate the best moments of our year - they keep us alive in more than ways than one. For that we give thanks to all our wedding couples and their families, who chose Barndiva this year.

Looking forward to 2024, we are so pleased to welcome Susan Bischoff to lead our wedding team - she is already busy with tours and fielding inquiries from across the country. As we say adieu to 2023, a truly grateful thank you, with big love, to our wonderful Natalie Nelson, who after ten years at the helm of Barndiva Weddings has started an exciting new life with her growing family in Utah.

barndiva.com/events

Flowers have always been central to our lives, no surprise they are integral with our farm program, our weddings, and front and center in every dining experience we create. We are hopeful that the increasing world wide support we’re seeing for regenerative farming for food production will also inspire a similar approach when it comes to growing flowers. Because of our many weddings and private events we are able to recommend flower farms and floral designers who source this way - but it’s up to all of us to ask our favorite markets and flowers shops to support slow flower farming! The only critique we hear is “they don’t last as long,” and the most honest response is ‘ask yourself why.’

These are some of our favorites farmers and floral designers we follow near (to source) and far (for inspiration!) : @dragonflyfloral; @apple_farm_flowers; @longertablefarm; @singlethreadfarmstore; @frontporchfarm; @filigreenfarm; also: @daniel.james.co ( Daniel Carlson still directs the orchard & floral programs at our farm in Philo, now alongside the prodigiously talented Misha Vega); @nicamille; @cultivatingplace; @digdelve;@pithandvigor; @jimiblake_huntingbrookgardens; @clairetakacs

What does it take to be part of a ‘real’ restaurant food community? Michelin is clearly the most vaunted, then there’s James Beard and Slow Food, all of which seek to honor talent, innovation, hard work and tradition. But we are all businesses, from Michelin to the local diner. When we lose restaurants that nurtured talent and supported an ethical approach to food sourcing and labor, their absence is sorely felt. We will especially miss dining at Matt Orlando’s Amass in Copenhagen and The Ethicurean in Barley Wood. Both were truly inspirational in the dining experiences they presented.

We did dine in some remarkable restaurants this year, and want to give a special shout out to two that reminded us why we got into this business in the first place. Sessions Art Club in the Clerkenwell section of London (thank you Linda & Nick) is magical, from the moment you find the semi-secret door and they buzz you in, take a wonky elevator and arrive to a curiously elegant great room where history has it Charles Dickens once dined as a law clerk. The cocktails are unfussy, brilliantly balanced, perfectly served (very cold), the food a delight. The staff both nights we dined were absolutely brilliant - a gleam in the eye of jollity primed with the smooth joy of being part of something very special. We can’t wait to return.

The second memorable experience was at a ‘new’ french bistro on the quieter end of Main Street in Venice, Ca, an area I know well as I raised my first two children up the street in Ocean Park. Full Disclosure: one of those children is a co-owner of Cou Cou, Formerly Chez Tex. Jesse and Hayley Feldman started out with no experience in restaurants, though both are world class diners and share a passion for how design affects our ability to open ourselves to a shared experience. There is no gas on property, all food is cooked by wood fire, and the addition of a cocktail license has brought classy cocktails to their bright, locally sourced seasonal menus. Cou Cou perfectly captures the nostalgia and comfort of a French bistro - the kind where you want to order everything on the menu. Those menus will grow exponentially in the next few months when Hayley and Jesse open a second CouCou in WeHo.

Pay them a visit in the New Year, and order a “Bitches of the Seizeme, a Barndiva classic, on us. We know they make it correctly because, for all those Isabel Hales fans out there, she helped set up the Cou Cou bar when they first opened.

Stay healthy, sane, engaged with all the good things going on in the world.

Hope to see you in 2024!

The 'official' Pink Party Album

A familiar complaint we’ve all heard around town of late is about the dearth of genuine community in Healdsburg. It’s a grumbling refrain that holds particular meaning from anyone that remembers Healdsburg when the words quaint and small town charm could be said about it with a straight face. The usual culprits are a mind boggling collection of new businesses, hotels and restaurants that have opened over the past few years to capitalize on the town’s ‘success’ as a destination location, but the quickening pace of our lives, and the emotional distancing of technology certainly contribute to the disconnect at the heart of the discontent.

The way we see it, community isn’t stagnant, is should and must accommodate change. It’s a layered human construct that is constantly telegraphing across the web of seemingly random connections we make with the people whose paths we cross as we go about our lives, working, shopping, dining out, walking the dogs or, yes, coming out on a beautiful afternoon to taste wine.  Of course It can be locational, found in the church hall, a sporting event, working alongside neighbors at the local food pantry, but we are creating it all the time, with every interaction.  It starts with a desire to connect, is sustained by courtesy, respect, and common interests, and, if you are lucky enough to find them, shared goals.

If the only goal is to make money, if you don’t truly care about your product, respect or spend the time getting to know the people you live and work alongside, you cannot sustain genuine community. Especially in small towns like ours, relationships reverberate in subtle ways when you pay attention; good will resonates whether you’ve known someone for years, or just met them by chance. Community can happen in an afternoon – as it did on Pink Party Sunday. The thing that makes it real is the genuine presence you bring to it, no matter what role you play.

The winemakers who gathered in our gardens to pour their Rosé’s at this years Pink Party, who charmed and educated the guests who came to meet them and admire their craft, are a community with like minded goals, just as the slow flower farmers who grew the blooms we sourced to help create dazzling displays, and the food purveyors like Chef Mike Degan, The Healdsburg Bagel Company, Chef Anderson. Our wonderful staff here at Barndiva, the amazing Corazón crew lead by Ashley Mauritson, Alexis Ioconis who steered the wine ship for us for this years Pink on top of everything else she does, Amber Kneally who sewed our Pink Party Pirate flag at the last minute simply because we asked her to - these are the members of our community we depend upon who bring quality and meaning to our lives as we work through them. Dawnelise and Ari Rosen, last seen leading a joyous if bittersweet progression at the closing of campo fino with patrons who very much considered themselves a community - came to help raise funds and awareness for Corazón, the community organization they founded that focuses upon strengthening families at the very heart of hospitality in Healdsburg. Community is everywhere you choose to see it, and engage with it.

I want to give a special shout out to the many beautiful women in their pink dresses who danced together at the end of the day, as the rest of us looked on beneath the wisteria enjoying the same breeze and listening to the music. It felt so good just to be together and celebrate spring, and the abundance of Healdsburg.

The fabulous Pink Party Line Up for 2023:

@bloodrootwines, @almafriawines, @prestonfarmandwinery, @raftwines, @mauritsonwines, @idlewildwines, @jolielaidewines, @drinkseppi, @cruxwinery, @amistavineyards, @bricoleurvineyards, @brickandmortarwines, @stephane.vivier.wines, @reevewines, @daniel_sonoma, @handleycellars, @flowerswinery, @roedererestate, @grosventrewines, @breathlesswines, @dunstanwine, @tberkleywines, @marinelayerwines, @scharffenbergercellars, @hirschvineyards, @domainesott, @matanzascreekwinery, @liocowineco, @cruesswine, @leosteen_wines, @theharrisgalleryandwine, @ernestvineyards, @rootdownwines, @county_line_vineyards, @copainwines, @drinkkally, @altaorsowinery, @captûrewines, @untiwines.com, @guv_hales, @natalienelsonkirby

Special Friends who always bring it: Chef Francisco, Alexis Ioconis, Ari Rosen & Geoffrey Hales, Scott Beattie (in search of a cocktail no doubt), the irrepressible Susan Preston, Lukka Feldman in from London, Releigh and Asijah, Barndiva’s wine Director Emily Carlson, Eric Sussman, Dan Fitzgerald, Jil Hales & Chappy Cottrell, Dawnelise Rosen, and another belle of the ball in her pink frock, Birdy.

Our thanks to all the winemakers for donating to the raffle benefiting Corazón.

Healdsburg has an abundance of vital community organizations that welcome new energy - join one!

All photographs by the incredible Chad Surmick can be shared. TM us @barndivahealdsburg. And heads up: If you are one of many who missed attending when The Pink Party because it sold out so early, consider signing up to receive our newsletter, Eat the View, so you are first to know about future public events. we’ve got some doozies up our sleeves.

Tickets are now on sale for Fête Blanc, August 20.

@dragonfly_floral, @singlethreadfarm, @longertablefarm, @filigreenfarm, @frontporchfarm, @whodoestheflowers!

@airick72, @franciscoa_, @healdsburgbagel, @chefdegan

Why the Farm....and Figgy Joy

In what is turning out to be the most challenging year of our business life, three things are getting us through the days. Knowing everyone on staff is healthy is paramount. Cooking the best food of our lives, sourced as fully as possible from the surrounding ‘view’ restores a sense of mission. And playing with the concept of virtual service keeps us brainstorming creatively, making us stronger as a team. Each dish, cocktail, and wine choice is now channeled through a disembodied voice. For now, the physical anonymity of text or a telephone conversation with no actual contact at the table is overwhelmingly welcome by the majority of our guests, safer for our staff. But everyday we’re juggling with this new paradigm, learning new ways to work within it to tell an honest story about what you are looking at on the plate or in your glass. Brave New World indeed. Then again, being forced to question ourselves - what is flavor anyway? - isn’t necessarily a bad thing. We’ve always wanted to communicate the joy in provenance, and always, always, how things are made. If we can’t do that in person for a while, so be it.

But when it all gets a bit much (and it does) we fall back to our main source of élan vital - the farm.

Henri Bergson coined the term élan vital in 1907 in his book Creative Evolution. For him it referred to a life force, one responsible for growth, change, and the ability to recognize necessary or desirable adaptations. All admirable if not crucial attributes right now. The farm has always been this kind of élan vital for our family, in great part because its indelible beauty and its fecundity thrives in adversity, is in fact inseparable from it. Our dry farmed orchards struggle, yet produce better tasting fruit, with more condensed sugar. The energy is palpable up here, constantly buzzing and leaping just out of sight, with everything dying then regenerating through innumerable ecosystems of insects, animals, plants and seeds. It’s all about balance. And a constant lesson to strive if you are to survive.

There is simply no more elegant fruit here than what we harvest from our 100 year old fig trees. Figs are in the Mulberry family, one of the earliest fruit trees in history to be cultivated. In legend it was a fig that grew outside the Lupercal cave where Romulus and Remus drifted ashore and were suckled by a she-wolf that kept them - and the very notion of a Rome - alive. The fig tree was thought then to be an emblem of the future prosperity of the race - and while that didn’t work out so well for the Roman Empire, it’s interesting to note what eventually brought them down: climate upheaval which affected crops, a series of pandemics brought about in great part because of the way they lived, and massive inequality that went hand in hand with political corruption. How many times do we need to hear the phrase ‘those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it?’

In the meantime, old fig trees drape their branches to the ground, deeply lobed leaves hiding swelling fruit from predators. Most years the blue jays are a nuisance, but this season sleek western Tanagers have appeared in droves. They have taken to dive bombing the figs at twilight, yellow and green flashes of light that zig and zag, mad jazz, quite beautiful. Give me a dozen Tanagers, some really old fig trees, throw in a martini or two and we’re good to go tomorrow.

Big shout out to Jordan and Francisco - great farm partners this month. We now have jam, Aunty Lynn compote, figgy syrup cakes. If you have booked to dine soon in the gardens look for Barndiva Farm figs on several new dishes.

 Stay healthy.

Thank you @daniel.james.co for looking after and loving the farm as you do. And for posing (which I know you hate/love) for all our action shots, lol.

Next up on farm report: The Ongoing Apple Syrup Project. Don’t miss it.

@chef.jordan.rosas

#staytuned #stayhealthy #stayhealdsburg #healdsburgchamber #eattheview #barndiva #togo #healdsburg #thisishealdsburg #sonomacounty #mendocinocounty #sommtablehealdsburg #sonomastrong #ediblemarinwc #lovehealdsburg #biteclubeats

A Return to Dining Out

Owning a restaurant in Wine Country the past few years has come with considerable challenges, but in an ironic yet edifying turn of events it was these very challenges which have provided the building blocks to navigating the difficult months of Covid-19. By staying open and pivoting to a To Go only menu we initially pulled on the skill set that got us through two fires and an evacuation. Owner Lukka Feldman, manager Cathryn Hulsman and wine director Chappy Cottrell are used to landing on their feet, damn the mind boggling logistics. With the arrival of Jordan Rosas to lead our kitchens a renewed sense of mission around the kind of food we want to source and cook, and how we want to serve you, our valued customers, neighbors and friends, has emerged.

Despite what you read in bucolic magazine profiles that seem to tout the proliferation of small farms, 30-40% of small independent farms nationwide are facing bankruptcy*. Going into this pandemic, purveyors that supply restaurants like ours were especially threatened with a catastrophic loss of revenue just as they were contemplating the spring planting season. With Jordan’s passion for local sourcing we are doubling down on our seminal Eat the View mission. We also view this moment as a crucial time to address inequities built into the hospitality industry at the most basic and structural levels.

This pandemic has revealed many weaknesses to the social systems we depend upon. Weaknesses to our healthcare systems, to big government, to the entire retail industry, to access to a just and healthy food system. It’s up to all of us to challenge and re-envision the pieces of our lives and businesses we have control over. As we pray the resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement will teach even the most recalcitrant among us, when it comes to the social contract we all depend upon, ultimately, we rise or fall together.

Restaurant dining may never be the same. But what if this is an opportunity to make it even better?

To be sure, we miss the Barndiva dining room vibe - cocktails shaking in time to the music, extravagant floral arrangements, candlelight, multiple conversations studded with laughter. All that will soon return inside. But as we go into a summer with a safe distance dining model, we do so with a new approach to the food we serve and the desire to make all the pieces that contribute to that experience more equatable. We are talking full healthcare insurance and a better living wage. Strengthening the teamwork between front of house and back of house that too often divides instead of unifies.

This will not change the relationship we hope to have with you, our diners, except to enrich it. Our first Saturday serving customers on property again was notable not just for an appreciation of Jordan’s food, the beauty of the gardens, the pared down but focused professionalism of our returning staff, but in the kindness shown by diners who returned with a new appreciation of how important restaurants like ours are to a shared cultural experience.

For the time being, to minimize direct interaction we will rely on cell phones to provide the depth of service we usually provide at the table. Credit card information will be taken with your reservation and a 19% service charge added to all bills - you may tip above that if you wish and while greatly appreciated it is not necessary. Once your temperature is taken by a host at the door and you are shown a table, all you need do is go to our website for the menu, then call or text us to discuss or place your order. Our bartenders have been busy concocting summer cocktails and a full bar experience is available. You can talk to our sommelier about a great bottle of wine. Talk to the chef through our restaurant manager about ingredients, sourcing, technique. We will have a number of staff on the phones at all times. Because we will have your table number once you are seated, all you need do is text or call to add to your order or pay your bill.

A rising star in Los Angeles before he made the move North to inspire and lead our kitchens here in Healdsburg, Jordan Rosas’ approach is light and elegant, deeply satisfying, thoughtful, gorgeous, and utterly delicious. We are thrilled to welcome him to the Barndiva family. Dishes like celery root, turnip and nettle soup with slivers of pickled onion, drizzled with herb oil and seared Liberty Duck with first of the season cherries, Russian kale and forest namekos have already become favorites. Our desserts, by the wonderful Sarah Ellsworth, change daily, but will always include her macaroons, the most popular item (along with Auntie Lynn’s carrot cake) of the desserts on the To Go Menu, which is still going strong for all those who wish to continue sheltering in place. Lunch menus will feature Barndiva burgers, fried chicken sandwiches, teriyaki glazed salmon, house made pastas and wonderful salads. But to discover the depth of this young man’s remarkable talents we encourage you to dine with us at dinner. He’s just getting started.

Seared local halibut with Manila clam broccoli ‘chowder.’

Mastering the Smize: behind masks as they deliver dishes were Jessica, Hayden, Isabel - and Natalie and Terra (not shown)

It was most gratifying to see the number of families with children and dogs out on Saturday, along with Barndiva To Go regulars who walked through the gardens in a post quarantine daze. The gardens are blooming. Summer is here. We would love to see you soon!

In this bucket from the farm: Azaleas, Mock Orange, green flowering Tobacco, Knautia, Artichoke, Foxglove. To keep up with what’s growing in Philo we encourage you to follow our farm manager and brilliant gardener Daniel Carlson @daniel.james.co.

*For more information on the challenges small farmers are facing, click here.

#staytuned #stayhealthy #stayhealdsburg #healdsburgchamber #stayhome #eattheview #shelteringinplace #barndiva #togo #healdsburg #thisishealdsburg #sonomacounty #sommtablehealdsburg #sonomastrong