Exciting News!

EAT THE VIEW won the most votes in the documentary category in Saveur Magazine’s Video Festival last week, taking home the People's Choice Award.

How cool is that? Very! In addition to bragging rights (Saveur’s Editor-in-Chief and Top Chef Masters judge James Oseland commended us for a video that “really stood out to us for strong sense of place and story”), we will be getting a check for $250 which will go directly into the video kitty. Making EAT THE VIEW with Drew and the crew was a joy. It is ganache on the cake to have been recognized in this fashion.

To each and every one of you WHO TOOK THE TIME TO VOTE  ~ THANK YOU! We are especially grateful to the social media mavens who helped get the word out ~ Carey Sweet, Elizabeth Cosin, Tod Brilliant, Scott Keneally, John Mamus, you are the best! E.A.T. (all the way in Richmond, Virginia) thank you for your infectious support. As for our co-stars, a shout out to Preston Family Farm, all the guys at MIX, and the Callahan’s and Lenny at Bellwether, who also urged folks to vote through their websites and blogs. Drew and I are sincerely grateful for the continued support we’ve felt on this project ~ with a special nod to the indomitable K2’s, who entered us in the competition and kept the energy flowing. As a result more people will come to know what we mean by eating the view here in Healdsburg.

Saveur is running all the winning videos on their site.

All text Jil Hales. All photos Jil Hales, Dawid Jaworski.

Barndiva ~ In the News

Because we always keep schtum about it, you'd probably be amazed at the number of famous people who have wandered into (and often stumbled out of) Barndiva over the years.If discretion is not the better form of valour, it's up right up there. But when a famous person mentions you on national TV in the same sentence as "one of the best restaurants I've ever been to" it's okay to out their visit. Before she came to brunch on Oscar Sunday we're embarrassed to admit some of us didn't even know who Chelsea Handler was. Now we do and we think you should too.

Why? Because it turns out that besides having very good taste in restaurants, Chelsea Handler is very, very funny. Cue Dorothy Parker, this bestselling author and stand up comic manages to project a genuine yet deeply sardonic point of view rare in the otherwise mind numbing world of talk shows ~ check out her interview with Brit singer Adele if you don't believe us. As for Ed McMahon being reincarnated as Chewy the Mexican midget...Johnny would have loved it.

Click here to watch.

Chelsea Handler Hearts Barndiva

Lukka Feldman and his Barndiva restaurant made quite the impression on comedian Chelsea Handler.

While visiting San Francisco last week, the best-selling author and star of E! Network’s “Chelsea Lately,” trekked up to Healdsburg for a Sunday brunch. She said she’d never been to Sonoma County, but went to Barndiva at the behest of her friends. So taken was she by Lukka and the food, that she gushed about it on her hit late-night talk show.

“I wanna give a quick shout-out to my new friend Lukka who runs the Barndiva which is in Healdsburg, California. So if you’re ever in Northern California and you want a really really good meal, it’s one of the best restaurants I’ve ever been to. So there.” After the applause subsided, she added, “And I did pay for my meal, in case anyone was wondering.”

Ms. Handler doesn’t often give on-air shout-outs, so it was that much more remarkable.

So what did the young restaurateur have to say about all of this? “I was shocked and flattered,” says Lukka. “She presumably eats at world-class restaurants all the time. So for her to say that about Barndiva, well, that was quite an honor.”

Scott Keneally for The Press Democrat