A Season to Sparkle

Barndiva and Stay Healdsburg’s Sparkling Soirée, November 17

It was a big community driven week-end for us, and boy did we need the hit of friendly faces and the sense of the joy that can be found in creative accomplishment. On Saturday evening we helped stage the True West Film Center’s annual fund raiser honoring actor Steve Zahn which raised over $200,000. True West will bring much needed eclectic film-going back to Healdsburg, as well as launch educational programs for students, when it opens 2025.

On Sunday we put on our fancy duds and hosted Barndiva’s first ever Sparkling Soirée with Stay Healdsburg to officially launch Healdsburg’s ‘Season to Sparkle.’ We didn’t know what to expect until 200 Healdsburg habitués arrived on a drizzly cold evening ready to party, then boy did we ever - Sparkling Soirée was so much fun we are considering making it annual. When Stay Healdsburg’s Jessica Bohon first approached us a few months back about co-hosting the kick off-party for the City’s run up to the Holidays, she was looking for the secret sauce that makes our parties, especially spring’s Pink Party and summer’s Fête Blanc so popular. She was asking the right question. But what indeed goes into making a party great?

In truth we are almost too blessed with where we live when it comes to making wine the only reason you venture out to a public event. Sure, If you are visiting Healdsburg the opportunity to meet a winemaker or taste something out of the ordinary from a purveyor off the beaten track is catnip. But we’ve lived in Sonoma and Mendocino County for 40 years. Even if you are relatively new to wine country chances are someone in your immediate family or good friend makes great wine.

A plethora of factors go into hosting comprehensive collaborative experiences, especially when it comes to wine. Different terroirs, different hands, including those of the weather gods.

Rule #1 if wine is at the heart of your event: only invite winemakers and cellar masters who know what they are talking about, and truly love what they make and sell. Our ‘Sommelier For The People’ Emily Carlson is pukka on this, with personal relationships to winemakers she admires, and a curious mind (nose and palate) for new discoveries. Emily is relentless in her focus on the where and how the grapes are farmed, who is farming them. For Sparkling Soirée she was keen to showcase a smaller group than our bigger outdoor collaborative wine events. She wanted to guide guests through unique tastings that would leave them more discerning to what makes a great bubbly as we head into the season where, if our luck holds, we will be drinking quite a few of them.

We were thrilled to welcome our great friend Alexis Iaconis (above left) of @brickandmortarwines and sparkling icon Joy Sterling (above right) of @ironhorsevyds who were joined by an exciting group on Sunday evening which included @almafriawines; @amistavineyards; @bansheewinesguys; @breathlesswines; @cartographwines; @comstockwines; @crusewine; @gloriaferrerwinery; @kokomowinery; @lambertbridge; @orsifamilyvineyards; @drinkseppi; @trailmarkerwineco; and for a taste of Anderson Valley @handleycellars; @roedererestate; @scharffenbergercellers.

Rule #2 Take your inspiration for the look and feel of the party from the season - whatever the ‘reason’ or focus of the event, you can’t go wrong because It’s in our DNA to feel the seasons changing and want to follow where the weather is heading, even if we do so unconsciously. November is about seeking warmth, and scratching the itch of anticipation. The year is almost over and whether it was good or dreadful you can find myriad of reasons to raise a glass to it’s ending. This year, coming out of contentious election season, virtually everyone who stepped into Barndiva on Sunday was in the mood to find joyful relief in seeing old friends, open to the possibility of making new ones. The energy was just so much fun on Sunday night. Remember fun?

Rule #3: give your guests a reason to engage. For us this is where party games or ‘experiences’ come in that take you a step deeper into what you’ve come to celebrate. We love our scent boxes for wine events - they are mysterious and sensual and essential when it comes to expanding your knowledge of bouquet, but for Sparkle we added a Riddling Rack Game - no riddling, no method champenoise, no great bubbly people! (exception would be the wonderful pet nat we tasted). Lily Zarat, a lead server in Studio B who is studying wine walked anyone game through the technique, (its all in the wrist), then started the stop watch. How fast can it take to turn 12 sparkling wine bottles 45 degrees to the right? (a professional Riddler can turn 30,000 bottles in a day). The winning time was 2.9 seconds.

Rule #4: Whatever the season you are mining for inspiration, great parties give people a reason to dress up, down, sideways. The point being, If enough people show up wearing something they feel good in, the space around them starts to resonate with shared energy. Our Pink Party is conspicuously pink, Fête Blanc trends a subdued elegance. Sparkle turned out to be the most enjoyable dress up party of the year. It didn’t matter whether you dragged a cape from the back of the closet ( quite a few of those) went out to find the perfect item to set the upcoming season ablaze (many more), or made your ensemble as our Conversations Worth Having partner Amber McInnis did (above right). Everywhere you looked Sunday glimmered with finery in the candlelight. ( Hotel Healdsburg’s Circe Sher, above left, got the memo)

#5 Great parties need great Florals displays, subtle fresh scents. While this is a no brainer easy for us in springtime, summer, and early fall when we can party in the gardens surrounding ourselves with what we grow in Philo or sourcing from our many friends in AV and around Sonoma County, its chilly out now, and pretty bare in all our gardens. For Sparkle we filled the barn with white orchids and mums, pale ecru roses, black pussy willows, and a range of silvery green branches -huckleberry, arberry, abelia,-our farm manager and special events florist Misha Vega foraged from the farm.

Rule #6: Great parties need perfect lighting, especially if you are inside where sunlight and shadow cannot do their magic. Years ago I did an install for Barndiva after a stupendous Perrier Jouët champagne event that left us with two dozen of the Maison’s famous Japanese anemone bottles designed by art nouveau pioneer Emile Galle in 1902 for their Belle Époque Curvée I could not bear to recycle. My trusty PA K2 scrolled the names of infamous champagne drinkers (men and women) I would have liked to raise a glass with once upon a time, or still do. For Sparkle Party 2024 I pulled them out of the world so high and we danced a parade of them, with thin black candles interspersed with potted white orchids, along the bar. Guessing who the names referred to was part of the fun. (who wouldn’t want to raise a glass with Kiki de Montparnasse.. Orsen Wells? Lukka Feldman?)

#7: Music is mood. We were of two minds for Sparkling, with two buildings in play, each with tastings. Two rooms to decorate as well. Barndiva’s great friend Pamela Joyce, herself an incredible singer, recommended Jeanette Isenberg @jeanette@acoustic-resonance.com to indulge our fancy for a Bridgerton inspired violin and cello welcome to Sparkle in Barndiva, which we wanted to feel more elegant. But over in the studio we pulled out a funky NYE playlist Isabel Hales put together back in 2014, which played alongside her silent NYE compilation reel of famous film parties pre 1940’s. A looser vibe as we knew the crowd would eventually drift over there to settle, which is exactly what happened toward the end of the evening. We also loaded the Studio up with even more candles than we have for our regular dinner service, hung our cradle to cradle decorations which will stay up through the holidays, and let it rip.

(Above, center, Jessica Bohon, the driving force behind Stay Healdsburg, our co-hosts for The Sparkling Soirée, with Healdsburg Mayor David Hagele).

A quick word about food. It circumvents our rulebook because it is always present at Barndiva, first and foremost. But for large parties that focus on wine, food should not be the star, its a support player. We are known for elegantly plated Hors d’oeuvres that are delicate, delicious, with flavors that don’t linger on the palate.

Food should never compete with what you are tasting in the glass; it’s also good if what you serve has proteins that absorb alcohol. We are extremely proud of the dishes coming out of Chef David Morales kitchen this year. For Soirée we passed our infamous goat cheese croquettes with lavender honey, the Studio’s popular Crispy Chicken with green chermoula tahini dressing, Ora King Salmon with egg yolk jam, and Black truffle Grilled Cheese squares with American or gruyère on sliced brioche. Last, but never least especially at the Holidays we sent out boards with our Potato Latkes with sour cream and Chef Erik Anderson’s wonderful Piper Caviar.

And so it flowed. Winemakers poured, the Barndiva kitchen sent out platters of delicious bites, we sipped and sashayed, sparkled, hugged and laughed. All in all, it was a much needed, simply wonderful evening. When all is said and done perhaps the most important ‘rule’ for throwing a great party is to invite everyone to participate. Life is a temporary adventure that involves all our senses. There is always reason- and a profound need- to celebrate that!

Our thanks to all the friends, neighbors, and visitors to our fair town who showed up for The Sparkling Soirée, with a special shout out to our winemaking friends who participated.

The buck, and pretty much everything else for a party like Sparkling Soirée, stops here. On the far left, Susan Bischoff, Barndiva’s event director; next to her Emily Carlson, our fiercely talented wine director. On the far right Scott Beattie, our Beverage Director in character as Dom Perignon, the French Benedictine monk often credited with ‘inventing’ Champagne. He did not- the first sparkling wine thought to have been intentionally made was in England. He did, however, apparently say “come quickly, I am tasting the stars” the first time he tasted sparkling wine. We agree.

We hope to see you over the holidays - throw a cocktail party with friends in the Barn, book dinner in the Studio, or just slide in for a drink and enjoy our cradle to cradle Christmas decorations. And don’t forget: Sunday Dec 8 the entire property will be open for a Makers Market! Your wonderful no crap Christmas or C2C Chanukah starts here this year!

All Photos: Chad Surmick, All Copy, Barndiva 2024

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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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!

CWH #1. For the love of soil

OK, Full disclosure:  garbage is not gorgeous. Even as we choose the name “gorgeous garbage” to launch our Conversation Worth Having series, we assumed it would be an uphill climb to find an audience. But here was our dilemma: how to entice the community to come talk about food waste… all that messy swill of stinky stuff we toss into the bin every day of our lives, unloved. How to make it lovable, and, yes, covetable?

Our hope was to encourage nothing less than a profound shift in perspective. To begin to see organic waste as a sensous entity, one we literally cannot live without. To break through to a realization that it can be transformed into

• Soil for food

• A way to reduce carbon emissions so we can stay on this planet a little longer

• A way to create a truly circular green economy - I mean how many opportunities do we have as individuals to contribute to that?

As it turned out we needn’t have worried. With this cast of speakers and the incredible audience who showed up we could not have asked for anything more to introduce CWH. Heartfelt thanks to Brock, Tucker, Eric, and Ariel for their wisdom and their humility – and for making their remarkable work lives accessible in delicious and meaningful ways we can all enjoy… We’re talking OAEC, Jackson Estate Culinary Gardens, Radio Coteau & County Line Vineyards, Healdsburg Local Government!

Above: The incredible group of farmers, educators, community leaders, diners, and the just plain curious who gathered for Conversations Worth Having #1, “Gorgeous Garbage,” held on Nov. 2 in Studio B.

The Indomitable Brock Dolman, Occidental Arts & Ecology 

Ariel Kelley, Mayor, City of Healdsburg

Tucker Taylor, Director, Jackson Estate Culinary Gardens

Eric Sussman, Radio Coteau/ County Line Vineyards, setting up the Find Your Inner Dog scent box game.

James Gore, Sonoma County Supervisor

Deb Fudge, Councilwoman, Windsor

Josh Whiton, Founder @makesoil.org

Daniel Sonnenberg, OAEC, with our “Look, Smell, Play” interactive soil exhibit

 To supervisor James Gore, Josh Whiton, founder @makesoil.org, Mimi Enright and Xinxi Tan from Zero Waste, the lovely Daniel Sonnenberg from OAEC … Thank you all for being so supportive of this conversation. We look forward to a viaduct of information around compost planning for Healdsburg (and Sonoma County) that is actionable. We will pass it all on!

Barndiva canapé starred Tucker’s produce- including his infamous crosnes, Japanese radish, ice lettuce

From the cellers we poured our own label 2015 Barndiva Syrah, graciously made by Eric Sussman

Scott Beattie’s Compost Cocktail, Tops n’ Tails: beet and carrot scrap shrub, lemon rind soda, cool pickled beet and carrot garnish, with carrot top green sprigs. Offered N/A or with Square One organic vodka

Most of all we wish to thank everyone who showed up to have this conversation with us. We were bowled away by your engagement and your on-point questions.

One of our mission statements is to make these great nights of discovery and information. Curiosity is our muse, urgency our engine.

When we decided to foist this series on our unsuspecting neighbors here in Healdsburg, we never dreamed we would re-discover community. We thought we were going in search of something we’d lost, when it was here all the time.

@barndivahealdsburg will announce future conversations as soon as dates are finalized. And no, we haven’t stopped talking about garbage! This is such a perfectly delicious problem for our community to solve that even as we move on to the next conversation we promise to stay connected to the many opportunities the evening presented.

 Eat the view!

Jil, Dawnelise, Susan, Amber

Gratitude Dining after the event with our speakers, in the Studio B garden
(yes Virginia, holiday parties can still be booked at the Orchard table, weather permitting, but they are cozier inside).

Credits for CWH #1: Gorgeous Garbage

Food is Medicine : aka the palpable presence of alternatives… our irreverent homage to Joseph Cornell by way of Dr Seuss.

Concept: Jil Hales; Artwork: Susan Preston; Soil: OAEC; Veg Starts: Barndiva Farm, Tucker Taylor; dehydrated Veg Scraps: Dawnelise Rosen, Chef Syd.
Vegetable Starts: Barndiva Farm, Tucker Taylor Jackson Culinary Gardens. 
Corks chosen by barndiva wine director Emily Carlson from bio dynamic vineyards. 
Execution: Geoff Hales, Chef Syd, and Daniel Sonnenberg (thank you Marcos for the silver shelf!)

Information Tower : our what we are reading, watching, who we are following ongoing resource compilation, compiled and designed by Amber Keneally. (see link above)

Look, Smell, Play! : Our interactive garbage to compost to soil installation, executed by Daniel Sonnenberg.

All Photography: Chad Surmick

For all those who played the ‘find your inner dog’ scent game, contact us if you guessed ‘compost’ was #3!

@barndivahealdsburg

Conversations Worth Having, in Studio B

“Central to our use of all systems thinking is the recognition that self-reflexive consciousness is a function of choice-making.  Whatever the limitations of our life, we are still free to choose which version of reality – or story about our world – we value and want to serve. We can choose to align with business as usual, the unraveling of living systems, or the creation of a life-sustaining society.”

Joanna Macy

Studio Barndiva has long been known as the memorable space where we host our extraordinary weddings and parties, but we have always stolen time from this, our ‘day job,’ to put forth events we feel of cultural interest to the community.  Through photography, paint, film, wire, sculpture, soil, ceramics, literature, wine, food, farming and yes, even the making of cheese, our evening soirees, dinner parties and exhibits all rest upon the belief Joanna Macy elucidates so eloquently in the quote above: the freedom to choose which version of reality - or story about our world - we value and want to serve.

The conceit of hosting a series called CONVERSATIONS WORTH HAVING now, as barndiva enters its 20th year, rests upon the assumption that our most indelible stories are drawn from human interactions we value, especially through conversations that excite, intrigue, and nourish us. In our role as cultural scouts, my CWH partner Dawnelise Rosen and I hope to bring to Studio B inspirational speakers committed to creating circular economies that engender true sustainability in how they approach the future, on both a local and planetary level. Because they are intricately inter-connected. Because conversations about those connections are, in this present moment, imperative.

Our goal beyond listening, and hearing your reactions to what is presented, is to ignite the combustible joy that comes from great ideas and invigorating one on one discourse.

To find out more about Conversation #1, take a scroll below. Future events will be posted here and @barndivahealdsburg.

Eat the View with us!

Jil, Geoffrey, Lukka

CONVERSATION #1 : Gorgeous Garbage

In Northern California, in Sonoma County, right here in Healdsburg, we are blessed to live within a food shed that provides the raw ingredients for some of the most exciting dining in the country. Not only do restaurants make sourcing a priority, but local markets and the proliferation of farmers markets allow us, whether dining in or out, to eat at the very tippy top of the food chain.

 But for far too long our attention- wherever we live - has been captivated by what’s on the plate with little or no attention paid to what happens after we push off from the table, happy and sated from a delicious food moment.

We all understand on some level that to grow nourishing food one needs good soil, along with water and sunlight; we get that there is a circular process taking place. But it is hard for most of us to look at a plate of food as we raise our forks and truly see, much less feel admiration for what we scrape into the trash when all the sourcing, cutting, cooking, plating, and dining is done.  We call it garbage, what the Oxford English dictionary defines as “wasted or spoiled food and other refuse… a thing that is considered worthless or meaningless.”

But is it?

In every scrap of organic waste we throw in the bin after our meals, in every ton of garbage trucks haul away in the early mornings is the potential, at almost at no cost, to grows the food we need to thrive. With no carbon footprint left behind. Compost is an essential component in regenerative farming, it sequesters carbon and converts it into energy. But while SB-1383 – the ‘’compost law” – is now in effect for all residences, restaurants, and food banks in California, that potential is only vaguely understood; in Healdburg alone, like too many cities and towns across California, SB-1383 lacks the essential support systems that could take organic waste and turn it into compost, into soil.

On Nov. 2,  for our first Conversation Worth Having, we have gathered some esteemed guests at the top of their game in permaculture, winemaking, farming and social action to talk through how we might best transform all our glorious garbage into compost and nutrient rich soil for the benefit of our community and – if we are successful – create a blueprint that might be of use to other towns.

Join us if you can, stay in touch if you can’t. With this cast of characters and the subject at hand, It promises to be an illuminating - and surprisingly delicious evening, with more to come!

Warmly,

Jil Hales, Co-Owner, Creative Director, Barndiva/Studio Barndiva/Barndiva Farm

Dawnelise Rosen, Former Co-Owner Scopa/Campo Fina; Co-Founder, CorazónHealdsburg; Director, Farmpreneurs

L to R: Brock Dolman, OAEC; Eric Sussman, Radio Coteau; Tucker Taylor, Jackson Family Farms; Ariel Kelley, Mayor, City of Healdsburg

Photo: Jil Hales for Daniel Carlson Photo: Chad Surmick for The Press Democrat

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New Year New Opportunities for Studio B

Healdsburg is justly famous as a mecca of fine dining these days, and Barndiva is proud to have been a part of that evolution, just as we are truly honored to have been awarded a Michelin Star for a second year. But this community has always been about more than fine dining for us. It is also a motherlode of single owner shops and galleries, makers and creators, neighbors, and friends – all of us surrounded by magnificent, verdant countryside.

If the past few years have taught us anything about keeping this landscape truly healthy so we can all thrive, we need to gather more to talk and listen, the better to protect what we love about this singular community. And who knows, these conversations might eventually have a ripple effect.

So it is that one of our resolutions this New Year is to focus on extended use of Studio Barndiva to foster more ongoing community conversations. First up in the newly branded Studio B is an afternoon celebrating four remarkable women whose food journeys have a great deal to teach us.

Tanya Holland is a new friend of the barn, a restaurateur, magnetic TV & podcast host and cookbook author of bestsellers like “Brown Sugar Kitchen.” She has just released a fabulous new cookbook called “California Soul,” something she has in abundance and is gracious enough to share.

Jennifer Reichardt is the winemaker/owner of Raft Wines always a star at The Pink Party and Fête Blanc – and she also has a new cookbook, “The Whole Duck,” which draws its recipes from her family owned business Liberty Duck – a valued purveyor of Barndiva’s since the day we opened.  

We have admired Elizabeth Falkner since her Citizen Cake days, long before she went on to open four more acclaimed restaurants in San Francisco and New York and became an international presence as a TV personality and consultant. She now adds filmmaker to her impressive resume with the release “Sorry We’re Closed,” a timely film she directed about how the pandemic has adversely affected small restaurants throughout the country.

Healdsburg’s Duskie Estes hardly needs an introduction — the former owner of beloved restaurant Zazu and The Black Pig Meat Co with husband John Stewart, she is an iron chef, a brilliant speaker and mentor to many. Duskie has transformed Healdsburg’s non-profit Farm to Pantry in ways that are having a profound impact across the state on how to address food insecurity by strengthening our faltering food distribution systems.  

That these four women are successful business owners, Top Chefs, Iron Chefs, Food Network Stars, winemakers and authors isn’t beside the point – the take away for us is how they are all using their considerable personal successes to fuel conversations about definitive ways to support farms, restaurants, and organizations that care as much about people as the food they source, serve, and distribute.

In the final days of December, we hosted a sold-out dinner for the late Sally Schmitt’s Six California Kitchens with Sally’s family, friends of our Philo family for many many years. Winemaker Phil Baxter gave a toast that night I have thought about often since. It was after a cooking class with Sally in 1999 that his parents decided to uproot their lives and come live and work in the Anderson Valley. “That single experience, Phil explained, “that connection to the Schmitt family, is the pure reason why I am living in Anderson Valley and doing what I do today.”

We are all looking for pure connections, especially those that provide direction to our lives. We all know they are rare. But as we try and build our businesses around meaningful lives in these most difficult times, trying to feed necessary personal notions of success that will keep us going, it is essential we form more inclusive, expansive definitions of what it means to be part of a “family.”  Cooking and serving food and wine to the public we are ever mindful of farming practices and conscious sourcing; we try to honor connections to our purveyors and our work force. But you, our customers and clients, are the other side of that equation. Taken altogether, in good faith, in an environment where kindness matters, this is the family we have chosen.

We hope you are able to join us on January 22nd in Studio B, and meet these four remarkable women. We will be sipping Alma de Oakland cocktails and Raft wine, nibbling bites Chef Erik Anderson has prepared from California Soul. The authors will be talking about and signing their cookbooks, we’ll hear about and preview a bit of “Sorry We’re Closed,” and Duskie will inspire us about the vital mission of Farm to Pantry and what they have planned for the new year. If you are unable to be with us we encourage you to go out and purchase ‘California Soul’ and ‘The Whole Duck’ cookbooks at your local bookshop, seek out Elizabeth’s Film “Sorry We’re Closed,” and to find and support – with whatever resources you can manage – a non-profit food distribution network where you live.

FOOD NEWS: Chef Erik Anderson’s Winter Prix Fixe Menu

Maine Lobster from our January 4 menu

Photo: Chad Surmick

We are thrilled to present prix fixe menus this winter the better to showcase more of Erik’s prodigious talents. The menus will also enable us– including our chefs – to spend more time with our guests. The prix fixe will reflect exciting seasonal changes every week*, and can be enjoyed by vegetarians from start to sweet finish. Wine pairings are optional – a chance to dig through the cellar for gems and wines we love from lesser known vineyards. This week’s pairing from Barndiva’s (and soon to open Maison Healdsburg Wine Bar) Jade Hufford.

Starting this Janurary there will also be Bar Menus ~ come in for a Scott Beattie cocktail and share something unexpected.

We’d love to see you.

The Fête Blanc Album!

This is a photo album and the following images speak in a language we all understand. Our first Fête Blanc since 2019, it was lovely to gather once again to celebrate fine white wines and the people who make them. We wish to thank our guests for the delightful energy they brought to our gardens on Sunday. Fête Blanc draws incredible talent from across Sonoma and Mendocino; it attracts one of the most discerning and engaged group of wine drinkers we see in the year. But boy, do they know how to enjoy an afternoon. You brought the shade friends. Thank you for joining us. Onward!

Our executive chef is Erik Anderson, our pastry chef is Neidy Venegas. Natalie Nelson directs our event team. The exquisite floral arrangements in both gardens were grown in Philo at Barndiva Farm, under the direction of Nick Gueli.

Over $2,000 was raised at Fête Blanc through an auction of wine donated by participants toward our continued support of Healdsburg’s Farm to Pantry.

We love this image. It speaks to both our history and our future, and the intersection is a good part of why we continue to love this community. The gentleman on the far right, Daniel Fitzgerald, was Barndiva’s very first bartender, his sister Emily, our very first server. The man sitting next to him, Sam Bilbro, also worked behind our bar quite a few moons ago. It gives us immense pleasure to welcome them both back for Fête Blanc as singularly talented winemakers - of Daniel Wines and Idlewild, respectively. This story of connection was repeated through the gardens on Sunday. As for the three rogues on the left, well, hopefully they are here to stay for a while. The renown mixologist and gleaner Scott Beattie, also a dear friend of many many years, now directs our beverage program. He is flanked by Barndiva’s newest bartenders, Charles and Daniel. The beat goes on.

All Rights Reserved Barndiva, LLC. Photography: Chad Surmick and Jil Hales.

Dining at Barndiva this summer

We have never been as proud of the food we are sourcing and serving than in this moment. And it couldn’t have come at a better time.

Challenges across the hospitality industry are still being felt acutely, and building kitchen and front of house teams that have the desire to work with great skill and integrity has been a considerable challenge. All of which raises the bar on what to deliver when guests come in search of a great - make that gorgeous - food and drink experience. We get it.

Enter Erik Anderson, for whom every challenge is met with a nod and a wink. He and Thomas Noonan, the guiding force behind our hospitality, have built kitchen and Front of House teams that have both the skill set and the desire to be a part of something truly special. Erik's food has an elegant focus of flavors, subtly of texture, glorious color. We will savor the memory of the food we are cooking this summer for a long time to come.

Neidy Venegas continues to create deliriously delicious desserts, and she has expanded her heritage bread program for both dinner and brunch.

Here then is a snapshot of some of our favorite dishes on the dinner menu right now. Reservations are accepted one month out, but the bar, under the direction of Scott Beattie, is now serving dinner on a drop-in without reservation, first come first serve basis.

Barndiva serves dinner Wednesday - Sunday, with a later reservations policy of 9:30 on Friday and Saturday.

We are also pleased to present the new barndiva brunch menu, below.

We hope to see you for a meal, or a cocktail soon. Eat the view!

Dishes above: Nijimasu Crudo horseradish, buttermilk, smoked trout roe, english cucumber; Charcoal Roasted Squab medjool dates, coco nibs; Mount Lassen Trout saffron nage, Jimmy nardello pepper, grilled baby fenne; ; Grilled Spanish Octopus, pimenton caramel, pepper relish, salsa verde;

Our wonderful in house pasta program continues.. on the left: Brentwood Corn Snail Shell Pasta w/ sunflower yogurt, fresno peppers, perilla. on the right: Egg Yolk Dumplings w/ peas, onions, bacon, radish

Roasted Chicken green asparagus, morels, vin jaune, petit baguette

Red Currant Curd chocolate tahini crust, glazed Preston peaches, ras el hanout ice cream

Big News…

While Barndiva will no longer be serving lunch on Wednesday and Thursday, we have expanded our hours for Brunch with an exciting and completely new Menu.

On Friday, Saturday, and Sunday Barndiva Brunch will be served from 11-2:30. This collaboration between Erik and Neidy have created a big C Comfort menu that is surprisingly fresh and nuanced. Never to be outdone, Scott has upped the ante on brunch cocktails and every week we will be offering a new short list of the best wines to drink on an afternoon. Reservations are required, but as with dinner the bar will be open for diners on a first come first serve basis. And of course, If there are cancellations in the gardens on any afternoon, we will try our best to accommodate your party.

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all rights reserved Barndiva llc. Photography: Chad Surmick

Return of The Pink Party (and other stories you need to hear)

We hope this Eat the View finds you well, your spirit intact and exciting plans for gathering with friends, extended family, and co-workers gaining momentum. It is so great to be out together again, maskless, re-connecting. While It’s been beautiful here in Sonoma and Mendocino - cold, sunny, green - we need more rain and the News of the World continues to be challenging (to say the least). Call it the new normal - but all we know for sure living in these wonderful, confounding, delicious, too often heartbreaking times is that life is so much better trying to make sense of things with other people who are passionate about food and wine and design and gardens. we hope like us you are intent on rooting out genuine storylines that are ongoing and real, if slightly fantastical. We have been largely silent of late on the blog front for a reason, taking stock and getting ready for a spring… of emergence. We’re ready now.

This Eat the View contains three events we want to tell you about that capture what we’re feeling and planning right now: the first is a deep dive dinner party Wednesday, March 9; the second is a scoop for Eat the View readers; the third a temptation around libations unlike anything we’ve done (or seen) before.

Read on. And thank you for your continued support!

DEEP DIVE DINNER PARTY Our wine director the inimitable Sally Kim, formerly of the Delfina Restaurant Group will be curating a seasonal series of unusual wine maker evenings in the elegant Studio Barndiva this spring kicking off 9th March with a Deep Dive into the best of Sonoma Coast’s wines, starting with the legendary Littorai vineyards. Biodynamic grape growers, farmers, winemakers and educators Ted & Heidi Lemon will be joining us, pairing their wines with a dynamic five course menu created by Barndiva’s Chef Erik Anderson. $350 per person, all inclusive.

CLICK HERE FOR THE MENU, WINE PAIRINGS, AND A SEAT AT THE TABLE.

THE SCOOP: Tickets have quietly gone on sale, online as of today, for the long awaited return of The Pink Party on the 3rd April, 11am – 2pm. Our 40+ winemaker Sunday extravaganza (you know if you’ve been there) is a glorious collaboration and celebration of over 35 local wineries, with winemakers in attendance serving their finest local Rosé’s accompanied by delectable, Barndiva canapé & hors d’oeuvres. Served beneath the flowering wisteria and mulberries of our gardens- with Nick Gueli this year doing the honors of our instagram floral wall- you won’t want to miss this launch of the season. Be advised dear Eat the View Readers, tickets will disappear.

CLICK HERE

THE TEMPTATION:. if you follow us @barndivahealdsburg you may know that come April 1st - no fool he- the legendary mixologist Scott Beattie will be joining us as our Beverage Director. Future Eat the Views will no doubt have to be sub-titled Drink the View in future as Scott, after a short honeymoon, puts the finishing touches on an exciting new cocktail service to be followed with a return to dining at the bar.

And we are pleased to offer the very first series of Scott Beattie Cocktail Classes at Barndiva. These will be lively, full sensatory experiences where Scott will teach you how to make classic and original cocktails using the finest spirits, elixirs and organic fruit material, much of it forged from the Barndiva Farm. Classes start at $150 per person and can be booked for 6 – 24 ‘students’ in a spectacular classroom otherwiseknowas The Studio Barndvia Gardens.

Learn how to make great seasonal cocktails from the man who wrote the book on it.

DIRECT BOOKING ONLY: 707 4310100.

Reflecting on our Michelin star

We can’t help but smile when asked how it feels to have received a Michelin star. Especially as it’s a question that, after an incredulous pause, usually ends …."and after 17 years!”    

The simple answer is unequivocal: to be acknowledged in this way following the year our industry has suffered through is simply terrific. It’s a major, career-affirming event for our executive chef Jordan Rosas and pastry chef Neidy Venegas, both of whom moved to our small town from one of the biggest and diverse cities in the world only to confront raging forest fires and vexing pandemic closures. Forced to re-envision their approach to cooking, they pivoted from To Go, to Provisions, to an innovative version of ‘Safe Distance Dining,’ strengthening and even expanding our farm partnerships. To receive a star is wonderful for them - as it is for all of our cooks, bartenders, servers, and dishwashers, who immediately felt the wind in their sails when they came to work. Pride is an amazing elixir.

If you’ve read this blog at all over the many years K2 and I have been putting it together, you know how we’ve filled those 17 years. Keeping the farm and the mantra ‘Eat the View’ relevant. Constantly upping our game when it comes to sustainability and rewarding labor. Gathering wine and spirit makers, artists and designers of all stripes and finding new ways to incorporate their work into the quarter-acre we occupy in the center of Healdsburg. For all the perfect nights in the gardens, the cocktails shaken, the farmers laden with boxes shouting hello at the kitchen door, not a day has gone by when we haven’t faced obstacles, some pretty damn challenging. Restaurants are first and foremost a performative art. What you learn must be practiced, over and over, then re-enacted with split second timing night after night, without losing that spark of initial inspiration that makes a dish memorable. Fire isn’t the only thing that flares up; knives aren’t the only things around with sharp edges. People whose private lives are filled with drama seem drawn to this profession. But you don’t get into this life - certainly don’t stay - if you can’ t stand the heat in the kitchen. Because when it’s showtime, you just have to bring it.

So yes, we’re proud of those 17 years. If nothing else we’ve been consistent in our passion to figure out - to do more than just survive - this exasperating, exhilarating, exhausting but ultimately life-affirming business. Being able to interact with people who make delicious things, sharing with them the desire to tell compelling food and wine stories - connecting them and their stories to our guests - this is what sustains and guides us. We want to thank Michelin for keeping us in their sights and welcoming us into their community.

Chef Neidy Venegas’ dish above: Quince/ Verbena/Grains of Paradise + Tahini Manjari Mousse. Chef Jordan Rosas’ dish above: White Bass/ Broccoli Chowder/ Manila Clams/ fennel/ broccoli stems

A few weeks ago I wrote about how we hoped to come out of Covid in a manner that might embrace ‘dining out’ as more of collaboration, a commitment of time with delicious intent shared by both diner and host. It’s also very much a collaboration between chef and farmer, chef and purveyor, and each member of staff working together, showing care for every element of service, and, crucially, for one another.

But the further we get into society opening up again the more I feel the truth that the social zone we are re-entering - for all its old sheep’s clothing - presents a new paradigm. We are all looking for purchase in this new world, relevant experiences that will resonate, not just for an afternoon or evening but as a thread running through our lives.

Reading Richard Powers’ new novel “Bewilderment” a few weeks back a line jumped out at me that I can’t get out of my head,  “…if some small but critical mass of people recovers a sense of kinship, economics would become ecology. We’d want different things. We’d find our meaning out there.”  Whether this is an achievable goal or not isn’t the point. We need to try. And there may be no better place than the communal dining room, especially those that take their cues from nature and its seasons. With so much of life in the 21st Century spent dipping into virtual realities, there is great solace to be found in the fact that there is - as yet - no virtual substitution to sitting down in a room full of strangers and taking food and drink into your body to be nourished, engaged, and looked after in the pleasurable way humans have craved for centuries. To quote the last line of an Erika Meitner poem, “gather is a transitive verb.” To have the ability to work at what it means ‘to gather’ so it exalts this time, in this place, rewarding human endeavor, living our lives doing what we love, has been an honor and a privilege.  

To celebrate the year ahead, upholding traditions we think have always made Barndiva unique, we’re hosting special exhibits, parties, and collaborative events that speak to our interests, and, we hope, yours. The Pink Party, Fête Blanc, and Fête Rouge are back. Collaborations with other chefs who Eat the View. A ‘throw out the playbook’ series of parties, starting with New Year’s Eve. But first up a mixed media evening that combines the talents of three rising stars in the ceramic world with the work of Barndiva’s brilliant floral farmer. Up from the Earth is one from the heart for us. It elementally connects everything we do in Philo to everything we do here in Healdsburg.

Stay tuned and keep your calendars fluid. From Chefs Jordan and Neidy, and the entire Family at the Barn, we hope to see you soon!

Up from the Earth will take place November 12, from 4-8. It is for one night only. Barndiva’s Nick Gueli will be joined by Grace Khalsa, Ian Hazard-Bill and Miles McCreary from the Mendocino Arts Center to display work specifically made for the show that combines their Anagama wood-fired kiln vases and food safe vessels with florals Nick has grown and dried at the farm. Thanks to the wonderful Lulu Handley, we will be pouring wines from Handley Cellars, and the Gallery Bar with Isabel at the helm will be open for the first time since, well, you know.

Please note: all the work will be for sale, and range in size and price, with all proceeds going to the artists. Join us to celebrate these talented individuals.

Support the Arts!