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 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

Remembering Sally Schmitt

The Philo Apple Farm, looking towards Hendy Woods and Greenwood Ridge

We talk about farm to table a lot these days without understanding the back breaking, thoroughly unglamorous hours of work it takes to accomplish anything close to that profound connection. Or, for that matter, loom to sweater or clay to vase… instead we covet power and the goodies that come with money and recognition as proof of some notion of success that increasingly seems to come and go with the season. But the deeply felt rewards of following your intuition and putting in the time and work because you care was Sally Schmitt’s genius, and clearly something she taught her children. In her case it came in the form of taking honed traditional values and making them ‘true’ to her own time and her family’s ongoing needs. It’s very old fashioned to think of character in this way - in the sense that True North is philosophical as well as directional. Sally Schmitt didn’t set out to be a trendsetter for so many of the things we’ve come back around to valuing today - she lived those values. And it was bloody hard work until it became easier. 

Sally, who passed away peacefully at The Apple Farm on March 5, was the formidable mother of my good friend Karen Bates who moved to Philo with her husband Tim the same year, 1984, that we bought our farm on Greenwood Ridge.  Whenever I saw Sally after she and Don had sold the French Laundry to Thomas Keller and re-located to Anderson Valley, first to Elk and then the Apple Farm, I was still hopping on planes from London every summer to get my family back to our ‘work-in-progress’ farm. Always in her apron, moving slowly but with purpose, she’d stop and break into a beatific smile when she saw me and the kids. I like to think this was because she knew I loved her family, but it also just might have been that she knew I connected all my crazy dots about life in a way that also revolved around family, creativity, hard work. Our backgrounds could not have been more different except that I had a mother for whom nothing was impossible if you believed it was the right thing for you and your family. So. A kindred spirit. 

In interacting and observing the world Sally built with her children over the years, I saw how much it centered around family, and food. Specifically food that exemplified Brillat-Savarin’s ideal that all great dishes must ultimately come down to satisfying ‘le goût du revenez-y’ – the taste you come back to. Savarin never established where this longing started – in childhood perhaps – but it has always rung true. And Sally’s cooking nailed it.  

The last time I saw Sally for any length of time was at her granddaughter Rita’s splendid wedding to Jerzy. Never the social butterfly and moving more slowly by then, she was happy to watch her family celebrate around her - she did not move far from her chair that day – and I took the opportunity to keep her company. We talked about the whole pig we roasted per her recipe at Barndiva for Grandson Perry’s wedding and the extraordinary dancing at Grandson Joe’s wedding at The Apple Farm years before that – Joe’s sons now running wild in the orchards below us. At some point I remember her turning in her chair to look me straight on and ask how things were going “at that barn of yours in Healdsburg.” I shook my head, said something like “I may have bitten off more than I can chew,” expecting some pithy Sally response like “take smaller bites.” What she said, simply, was ‘You know what you are doing.’ I didn’t fully. Not that day, and not now – do any of us? We hope and too often our hubris allows us to think we know, but do we? 

But thinking back now it wasn’t that she thought I “knew” in the sense of planning for a tomorrow that might never come, especially in the crazy world of hospitality and restaurants, but in Montaigne’s sense that “the greatest thing in the world is to know how to live to yourself.” Staying true, somehow, to that indefatigable North Star even as it moves across the sky of your life, through loss and success, joy and sadness. Just willing to put the work in.  

There’s a wonderful line in Richard Powers The Overstory – one of many in that great book – that seems applicable here: “As certain as weather coming from the west the things people know will change. There is no knowing for a fact. The only dependable things are humility and looking.”

I’ve had trouble learning humility. My mother warned me of this. But as a woman in a man’s world, being fierce was – as I saw it and built my life – the only way forward without being compliant to anyone’s version of the status quo, or, crucially, becoming complicit in supporting values that were morally reprehensible. I am still learning to lean into humility.  But I do know it starts with looking. 

I am not in the habit of making predictions but here’s one I am sure of: Six California Kitchens is going to be a classic. Troyce, yet another talented grandson, has done a magnificent job melding the old photographs of Sally’s life with images of dishes she and daughters Karen and Kathy cooked and styled at The Apple Farm.  There is no spiffy cookbook artifice here - gorgeously photographed dishes you can’t hope to recreate - just wonderful recipes, and the story of one remarkable woman’s life.

If you find yourself heading up to Anderson Valley and can cage a reservation to stay at The Apple Farm to experience a real small family farm, do not hesitate, and try to talk to Tim about apples. The extremely talented Perry Hoffman, now working with his Uncle Johnny at the Boonville Hotel can cook you dinner there - the best Anderson Valley has to offer. And don’t miss stopping off first for some wine and cheese at Pennyroyal Farm, where if you are very lucky you may get a glimpse of granddaughter Sofia if she’s not off on some mountain above Navarro tending their sheep.

Life is not easy to get through unscathed, but the trait of character that gets one through it – at least to the extent you are satisfied with the life you’ve led at the end of it - is something I’m pretty sure Sally Schmitt figured out.

What a legacy. RIP Sally. 

Food to Banish the Blues

While we’ve still got one foot firmly planted in winter as we await more rain, the other has taken a giant step into a spring where flowers are not the only things blooming with fantastical color and form. For a year now we’ve been driven to cook and devour big plates of comfort food to sustain us- the messier the better. Many of those dishes we’ve grown to love, but it’s all systems go in our kitchens now especially on the dinner menu where new dishes from Chefs Jordan Rosas and Neidy Venegas dance with incredible scent, layered flavors, and elegant plating that refuses to go back in the (To Go) box. As we come out of our caves again, the longing for beautiful food and a return to the simple luxury of time spent lingering over a meal is palpable. We’re excited.

Join us for Lunch and Dinner in the Gardens. Menus will change frequently…follow us @barndivahealdsburg!

Sonoma County Meat Company 6 oz Filet Mignon, potato mille-feuille, confit pearl onions filled with bone marrow & cauliflower purée, topped with crispy shallots, finished with tarragon and chive powder. Sauce perigourdine, aromatic with black truffles. Sweet peas from Freckle Farms.

Monkfish & Manila Clams with romanesco in a foamy clam ‘chowder’ made with monkfish fume, clam juice and emulsified butter. Below: Compressed cauliflower stems hold romanesco purée. Sourcing from Sun Catcher Farm, Freckle Farm, Feed Sonoma and Barndiva Farm.

Blood orange Mousse Cake with passion fruit gelee spheres, fresh citrus. The frozen mousse cake slices are sprayed with white chocolate in a vivid shade of jaunty yellow, the better to play off peeled segments of cara cara, kumquat, blood orange and grapefruit, which nestle on blood orange gel.

Mignardise of Hibiscus Campari Pâte de fruit and Coriander Guanaja Valrhona fudge- surprise delights after a meal - a small but sweet thank you for dining with us.

@saverestaurants #staytuned #stayhealthy @stayhealdsburg #healdsburgchamber #eattheview #barndiva #healdsburg #thisishealdsburg #sonomacounty #mendocinocounty #sommtablehealdsburg #sonomastrong #ediblemarinwc #lovehealdsburg @barndivahealdsburg @sonomamag @winecountry @slowfoodusa @chef.jordan.rosas, @spontaneidy, @wckitchen, @independantrestaurantcoalition, @BarndivaHealdsburg, @CityofHealdsburg, @HealdsburgChamber @tockhq @socomeatco @frecklefarmshealdsburg @suncatcherfarm @feedsonoma, @eater_sf

THE GARDENS ARE OPEN!

On the Valentine’s Menu: Strawberry Cream Gâteau for two, coconut & fresh citrus. Dessert will also include assorted mignardises.

We wish to sincerely thank everyone who has continued to support us through this dreadful pandemic by ordering Barndiva To Go, buying Gift Certificates to pay it forward, and patronizing our new Shop Provisions which Jordan and Neidy are growing by the week. To Go has widened our understanding of food in new ways, not just what holds up on the ride home and what doesn’t, but what hits comfort notes and still captures the thrill of new flavors. We’re honored it has been lauded in reviews, and we intend to keep it going, but hearing from so many of you, knowing this community had our backs, is what has made all the difference.

We are so thrilled we are able to open the Gardens again to dining on property from Feb. 3. We have missed seeing the gardens full of diners, the interactions, the ambiance. For the time being it will be weather permitting so please make reservations with the knowledge that if rain is inclement, while we will contact you, we are going to play it close because often the skies clear and we have glorious days after a good rain.

It’s been quite a challenge to continue to push out creatively these past months, but we knew in our hearts there was no point in surviving if we didn’t. As we reopen we want to share dishes with you that excite us, cook food that captures the singular seasonality of the beautiful landscape that surrounds us, celebrate the extraordinary talents of small local farmers and purveyors.

And yes, we are taking reservations for Valentine’s in the gardens, and they are filling up fast. But with an understanding we all have different comfort levels for meeting again in person, we are also offering the same prix fixe menu as an interactive VALENTINE’S kit you can enjoy at home. It will come with videos for each dish - how to simply plate, gently re-heat, or cook from scratch, hopefully together! Included are perfect wines to pair with your romantic meal, and we’d love to add a beautiful bouquet from Dan and Nick. Following our sold out Mother’s Day model, Barndiva’s interactive Valentine’s kit will be available for pick up in Healdsburg, Marin and San Francisco.

We’re pulling out all the stops for Valentine’s because it’s a holiday focused on a consideration of the importance of love - the perfect stepping off point as we head into a future where the joy in kindness is going to be needed in great supply. We’re so ready.

Please  keep in touch via Instagram and Facebook. Stay hopeful, stay safe, stay sane. We hope to see you in the gardens soon. Thank you again for your continued support.

 @socomeatco, @arafanelliwinery, @champagnebrunopaillard, @saverestaurants #staytuned #stayhealthy @stayhealdsburg #healdsburgchamber #eattheview #barndiva #togo #healdsburg #thisishealdsburg #sonomacounty #mendocinocounty #sommtablehealdsburg #sonomastrong #ediblemarinwc #lovehealdsburg @barndivahealdsburg @sonomamag @winecountry @slowfoodusa @chef.jordan.rosas, @spontaneidy, @wckitchen, @independantrestaurantcoalition, @BarndivaHealdsburg, @CityofHealdsburg, @HealdsburgChamber @tockhq

Thanksgiving 2020

Turns out Jordan Rosas, our extraordinary lead chef, who has deftly navigated Barndiva through Covid and the wildfires, is a passionate traditionalist. He loves Thanksgiving. Ditto his second in command, our imaginative pastry chef Neidy Venegas. Both grew up in large families and love big old-fashioned menus cooked from the heart. When we floated the idea of offering a feast for guests old and new this year, one they could enjoy at home, it didn’t take long for them to come up with a gorgeous menu of ready to warm dishes with a house-brined pasture-raised turkey you just pop in the oven, the better to get those roasting aromas going. It’s a menu that hits all the best Thanksgiving notes - with some delightful surprises.

We’ve never been opened on Thanksgiving before, in order to give our staff time with their families, but if there was ever was a year we break with that tradition this would be it. Travel will be difficult, gathering in large groups not advisable, and even sourcing the myriad of ingredients you love to include in this once-a-year meal may prove a challenge. All the more reason we’re looking forward to cooking every dish on this menu, which will be sourced entirely in Sonoma and Mendocino. It’s the best way we know to support the incredible food shed surrounding Healdsburg, and all who work within it. Yes, business is always about the bottom line; we choose not to draw ours in the sand, but in the soil.

Cook at Home Thanksgiving Feast can be booked online by going to our website, Barndiva.com. It will be available for pick up at Studio Barndiva on Wednesday, November 25, from 12-6 and on Thanksgiving day until noon.

Chef Jordan Rosas and Pastry Chef Neidy Venegas. The beautiful squash, pumpkins, and flours Neidy will use to bake her biscuits, pound cakes and pies were all grown at Preston Family Farm in Dry Creek Valley. Filberts, most chestnuts and all apple products are from Barndiva Farm in Philo.

#saverestaurants #staytuned #stayhealthy #stayhealdsburg #healdsburgchamber #eattheview #barndiva #togo #healdsburg #thisishealdsburg #sonomacounty #mendocinocounty #sommtablehealdsburg #sonomastrong #ediblemarinwc #lovehealdsburg #biteclubeats @barndivahealdsburg  @chef.jordan.rosas @spontaneidy

Neidy in Wonderland

Neidy Venegas, our new pastry chef is young and gifted, a heady combination when you’re also channeling Alice in Wonderland’s wide eyed appetite for adventure. With every creation she establishes a familiar reference point you can relate to, then takes a leap in a direction you least expect. Only last week she noticed something we walk by everyday at the farm without ever thinking of it as edible - beautiful fig leaves from our 100 year old trees - and transformed them into a magical dust and an aromatic oil to finish a confection that was both sophisticated and childlike - a lush perfectly baked chocolate financier cake with clouds of white chocolate crémeux and a summery blackberry sorbet.

This week’s new dessert showcases an ingredient grown only a few miles from the Barn, but to my knowledge one we have never used in the kitchens before: Husk Cherries. It’s a confection as delightful as a hat at Ascot, with delicate sherbert shades, flirtatious form, and flavors both fresh and capricious.

These are desserts that feed the body and soothe the aching soul, perfect companions to Jordan’s remarkable command of all things savory. The irony that this level of talent is reaching full expression in a time of Corona, wildfires, and a maddening election (oh my) has not been lost on us. But there’s never been a better time to put food like this on the Barndiva menus. We are grateful to our Executive Chef Jordan Rosas and to Lukka for bringing Neidy and her beautiful collaborative energy into the Barndiva Family.

Husk Cherries, a distant relative to the Cape Gooseberry, are an Ashwagandha nightshade sometimes referred to as Indian Ginseng. Its flavor is ephemeral, with notes of citrus, pineapple and tomato. The fruit grows in a delicate calyx which Neidy has made a central feature of her dessert. This confection presents the Husk Cherry’s delicate flavor four ways - raw, lightly frozen, candied, and as jam. Our Husk Cherries come from Freckle Farms here in Healdsburg.

After carefully removing the cherries from the calyx without breaking, it is lightly candied and set aside. Husk Cherry jam is pipped over an almond GF sable cookie, then decorated with sliced slightly frozen fruit. The sable sits atop a scoop of house made lemon verbena ice cream, held in place by a dollop of jam. Raw whole Husk Cherries are delicately placed in the candied husks.

Pears from the farm; Neidy Venegas (@spontaneidy); the new Barndiva Bagel (soon to make a debut on our all-star Brunch Menu with a Jordan Rosas signature schmear.)

#saverestaurants #staytuned #stayhealthy #stayhealdsburg #healdsburgchamber #eattheview #barndiva #togo #healdsburg #thisishealdsburg #sonomacounty #mendocinocounty #sommtablehealdsburg #sonomastrong #ediblemarinwc #lovehealdsburg #biteclubeats @barndivahealdsburg  @chef.jordan.rosas @spontaneidy @frecklefarmhealdsburg