Celebrating Excellence

With the exception of the Mendocino County Fair in Boonville, where the sight of gold ribbons festooning our apples has been known to make us giddy, we are not generally award seekers. Sure, it’s great to be acknowledged, but the desire to impress critics and judges too often shifts focus from the real people we should be pleasing... our customers. Take your eye off the ball for even a minute with a dining experience like ours, which strives to engage all the senses, and you can blow it. Talent without consistency is like only being able to sing a perfect aria in the shower. You need to hit the high notes with every performance.

At the end of day diners here know Ryan holds their pleasure as the hallmark of our achievement. We’re with him.

That being said, earlier this year we made an exception and gave our deeply talented wine director and somm Alexis Iaconis the resources to expand our cellar, and giddy we were when we learned Barndiva has earned a coveted 'two glasses' in the Wine Spectator’s Best Of Awards “for excellent breadth across multiple wine growing regions and/or significant vertical depth of top producers, along with superior presentation."

To win in this category you need a minimum of 350 or more selections (or faces) within two specialties. Ours were California and France, which befits our food profile. For all his drive and innovation Ryan has never strayed far from a love of a California/French style of cooking in great part inspired from his years working alongside Thomas Keller at both The French Laundry and Per Se.

Here in town, Dry Creek Kitchen has justly held two glasses for many years, with Charlie Palmer’s deep bank of California wines and his wonderful Pinot Festival a hallmark on the wine calendar. This award puts us in some esteemed company with restaurants we admire -Atelier Crenn, Coi, Quince, Auberge du soleil. (To check out all the winners, click here.)

Also breaking news: three of the selections on our “award winning” list will soon have a Barndiva label on them. Thanks to Alexis, Wells Guthrie, and the talented folks at Copain Winery, we are adding three Barndiva Label wines this Fall: an elegant Chardonnay with aromas of honeysuckle, jasmine and lemon curd, with a lively palate of fresh orchard and crushed stone; a Tous Ensembles Syrah in classic Wells style, exhibiting great tension and balance; a Pinot Noir with a nose of fresh red fruits, rose petal and vanilla, a body redolent of dark stone fruit and apple skins. (don't you just love wine nomenclature?) All three will be available BTG in Barndiva and The Gallery Bar & bistro this Fall. We are especially pleased the organic grapes for the Chardonnay were grown not far from Barndiva's Farm in Anderson Valley. 

 Alexis, Cathryn and Lukka have also been hard at work this year expanding our reach in wine events, especially those which showcase excellence, talent, and, yes, as important to wine making as it is to food, consistency.  In the gallery and gardens we've twice hosted the wonderful local collaborative that throws the White and Pink Parties, catered many individual winery launches and tastings, and will continue through Fall to host a very special “last Friday of the month" lunch with Lioco winemakers, which is open to the public.

Working with Alexis - a new mom again - we have all been reinvigorated by the depth of her passion. Though her knowledge is prodigious, (Our Cup Runneth Over), her abiding goal is that our cellar reflects an expansive range that's exciting but approachable. She is just as happy to discover a unknown gem from a small vineyard as she is to go deep with classic producers and vintages that never fail to make intriguing connections to the finer nuances of Ryan Fancher menus. She does not miss a beat.

 It’s not just that Alexis understands the connection between wine and food. It's that she 'gets' the connection between wine and life, the almost magical way that by enhancing the experience of one, you invariably lift all there is to celebrate about the other. 

If you craft or represent a superior wine you'd like us to consider, you can reach Alexis at wine@barndiva.com. To host a wine related event in The Gallery or in one of our beautiful gardens, contact events@barndiva.com.

Cheers!

Read: 13 World Class Restaurants in Napa and Sonoma Wine County

#inthegardensnow #intheorchardsnow #inthekitchennow

First up: Beauty Plums. To be followed by Laredo Sweet Purple, Pluot Greens, French Prunes

Scotty Noll's Summer Plum Cobbler - The Gallery Bar + bistro

Summer vacation? You're kidding, right? We are all too busy juggling Barndiva, The Gallery Bistro, two dining gardens, and a full roster of stellar celebratory private parties to think about taking a summer vacay, not that we're complaining. Living between Sonoma and Mendocino Counties we are blessed to see and smell and taste summer in all its glorious forms every minute of every day. Here are a few visual shout outs to some of our favorite people this summer who are growing, jamming, cooking the bounty coming in through the kitchen doors. 

Summer doesn't last forever. Both glorious gardens are now open for libations and dining. 

Herbal bounty from our new collaboration with Big Dream Ranch

A bumper crop of genoa figs  - most of our trees are over 80 years old

Pancho - our pasta program's secret weapon ("release the secret weapon!")

Summer farm program: cherry toms

Chanterelles drying on the gallery bar

wild salmon, herbs and flowers - Barndiva

Summer farm program: mesclun greens

Daniel sowing

The Ridge Mesclun Salad - Barndiva

Lioco and the last Friday of every month!

Join us Friday July 29, as Lioco winery hosts lunch "somewhere" in Barndivaland - a wonderful opportunity to meet some extremely talented winemakers and strangers who may become friends. You don't have to be a member of their wine club. You do have to love wine.

and the beat goes on...

A few months ago we were confronted with a quandary. Our lives at Barndiva have always been, first and foremost, about creating exciting food and drink experiences. We strive to do this by nurturing new talent, pushing the creative envelope, consistently strengthening the ties that keep the farmer to chef connection thriving.

We are blessed with a Chef who remains fully committed to ‘touching’ every plate that leaves the Barndiva kitchen, but increasing numbers of people want to experience Ryan Fancher's food in spaces we’ve designed. The time had clearly come for us to expand, and where else but next door, in the shiny new kitchen we had built for our events and private parties.

Ryan was hankering to put a new spin on classic French Country, cooking which would reflect the easy, brassier style of our early days in town, and he has an extremely talented sous chef, Andrew Wycoff, raring to lead the new kitchen. I have been longing to curate a highly edited selection of fine artisanal spirits;  daughter Isabel was game to produce a series of B&W film montages and a playlist that wasn’t just about filling space with white noise; Lukka wanted to book more live music. 

The only question that hung over all this enthusiastic dreaming was what would become of the art gallery inside the studio. How could we move forward without giving up what we cherished most about Studio Barndiva as it began to fill with bistro tables, wire couches, deep leather armchairs. 

When we first opened the Studio we produced a card that proclaimed: “We All Forage,” and I still believe that sentiment to be inherently true. We filled the space with "Beautiful Objects, Made with Respect" (another of our early aphorisms), handmade arts and crafts that resonated in a way that things designed by algorithm, easily found on the internet, cannot. Sourcing Vetiver nests from Africa, recycled glass chandeliers from Syria, handwoven Balinese batiks, stinging nettle runners from Kathmandu, brought the world closer, in a meaningful way. Perhaps it even helped a few small artisan economies survive.

But over the years it had become increasingly clear that the real heart of the gallery lay closer to home. Whether showcasing remarkable singular talents like Manok Cohen, Seth Minor, Ismael Sanchez, Susan Preston, Jordy Morgan, John Youngblood, Chris Blum, Wil Edwards, or hosting collaborative exhibits like Laura Parker's Taste of Place and Salon de Sens, the art which captured our attention the most returned again and again to explorations of a similar theme: how we define and encourage meaningful connections to the landscape that surrounds us. One that, like it or not, is rapidly changing. 

There is no reason to think a bistro within a gallery that hews to this directive won't inform and delight; if anything it might even allow us to burrow deeper into performance art and music,  venue underrepresented but very much alive in our exceptional and happily expanding north bay community. 

It has been an incredible honor to have a space in the center of town that’s continued to flourish while being able to change, to do its own thing in its own inimitable style. For that we give thanks for your support all these years. We have loved every new incarnation – but it’s a love that needs to keep growing, as much for Ryan, Drew and the kitchen, as for our artists.

While many of the artworks and antiques that surround you as you drink and dine in The 'new' Gallery are now part of our permanent collection, we hope you'll look around for the tags, spend some time with some of the remarkable local artists whose work we will continue to exhibit for sale.

The Gallery Bar & Bistro has only been open for a few months (our prix fixe Sunday Suppers are probably the worst kept secret in town) and we're incredibly pleased it's already become a space that encourages a lively exchange of energy and conversation- for us,  an integral and joyful part of the experience of dining.

On Friday, June 17th, we will add one more piece to 237 Center Street's portmanteau as we open The Gallery Garden to the public for the very first time. Come enjoy the music of Sunday Gravy, the first band up in what we hope will be a monthly series. 

The exhibit that opened Barndiva, coming up on 12 years ago, was called "A Taste of Art."  While so much has changed for Barndiva, and for Healdsburg, in the ensuing years, there is sweet irony that we continue to explore, honor, and expand what those words mean. Having an art gallery- with a bistro inside- is our version of having your cake and eating it too. Come by and have a taste.  Eat the View!

---

The new Artisan sells out

Ryan was in his early 20’s, working every station at the San Ysidro Ranch in Santa Barbara, when he came to the sudden realization he’d found his path in life. One night he glanced over at the Chef de Cuisine, standing at the pass in his whites, and just knew. What I didn’t discover until last week was that his epiphany flowed, in great part, from the style of cooking he was learning at the time which celebrated classic Latino flavors “that just got into my head, and really have never gone away."

Through his years at Redd, The French Laundry, and Per Se, which brought an intimate understanding of European (especially French) cuisine, he found himself returning again and again to that place where Mexico and California meet: a land of layered heat, spices that shimmer, fat, rich, sharp flavors that burst in the mouth, a confirmation of life through food. It hasn’t hurt that for the past 20 years he’s cooked alongside some very talented Mexican chefs who have generously shared influences and techniques. We got onto the topic of what guides our food paths when I shot these images of the newest version of the Barndiva Artisan, an instant sell out in the bistro last week.

The Artisan has been with us, in one form or another, since we opened in 2004 with “The Works.” Lukka reminds me it featured four obscure handmade cheeses (long before the word “artisan” caught fire and, some would argue, imploded), charcuterie by Paul Bertoli (his early Fra' Mani days) and breads by Della Fattoria(before they stopped delivering this far north). It’s never left the menu, traveling through dozens of iterations since, with terrines and pâtés and condiments that pulled their inspiration from across the European continent. For some reason no one here can parse (but makes us crazy happy) this is the first time we’ve had a Mexican Grandmother as our muse. 

What Ryan and Andrew have done is take a classic duck confit (one of three alternative proteins you can order), and put a carnitas sizzle in it. Served on the bone, you pull off pieces, moo shu style, building each mouthful on a handmade tortilla from a board heaped with gorgeous pico de gallo, slivers of vinegary purple onions, sweet hot red peppers, a stack of baby bib lettuce, a dollop of crème frâiche, fresh limes and cilantro. A velvety smooth guacamole with an intriguing, layered heat plays the role of master of ceremonies, pulling all these brilliantly disparate flavors together. It's a riff on a family recipe which came to us from Chef Poncho's Abuelita Carmen and carries the indelible flavorprint of tomatillos, cucumber, jalapeños, fresh lemon and a mortar full of dark red and brown spices. (Sorry, I am sworn to secrecy). Veronica's tortillas are just the right size and weight, thick and moist, with crispy edges, the better to catch all the mingling sauces.

There's a good reason we will always have an Artisan on the menu at Barndiva... it embodies our general philosophy of food and hospitality. Give us a big wood board overflowing with delicious bites, a bottle of great wine to be shared in a languorous green shade pervasive with the smell of roses, and we are happy. All joy is temporary. Isn’t that the reason they invented summer?

The new Latino inspired Artisan comes with a choice of three proteins - duck carnitas, chimichurri steak, chicken asado. Chef Wycoff is happy to send vegetarian Artisans out as well, upon request.

Sweet Sundays

Food and joy are inextricably tied, often in unexpected ways, but more often than not bound up in celebrations around tradition. Easter is a special joy, coming as it does (and not by accident) at the start of Spring, when the world around us is bursting with color and promise.

Our Gardens were chock full this Easter Sunday with beautiful families coming back from church, regular brunchers, and friends from out of town meeting up for farewell mimosas. Among the bustling crowd were two little girls in matching Easter dresses who made the day extra special for all of us here. Rylee Fancher is an old hand at hunting Easter eggs by now, but this year was baby sister Reese's first go at hunting eggs in the gardens. Coming at the end of a busy week our Sunday brunch service, with it's split second timing, can be a challenge. This past Sunday, all that hard work to make it memorable never felt so good.

Weather permitting the Barndiva Gardens are now open for lunch, brunch and dinner service. The Gallery Gardens will serve cocktails, wine and our full bistro menu. Get ready to be blown away by this new use of the space - previously only available for private parties.  The Gallery Bar Garden is slated to open May 1. 

Coach with Brioche French Toast for a little guest, Caramelized Onion, Blue Cheese and Bacon Tart

Omar with Quiche Florentine & Baby Hearts of Romaine Salad, Eggs Benedict with Prosciutto di Parma, Lobster Huervos Rancheros

Ryan in the thick of things - Barndiva is blessed to have a chef that still insists on 'touching' every plate that leaves our kitchen.

Ryan and Reese find the golden egg.

"Funny Face" cocktails; Barndiva Farm lilics

George making Flying Goat lattes

Scott Noll's Easter dessert: Carrot Cake with Toasted Pecan Streusel and Cream Cheese Ice Cream. 

Going, going...

Almost but not quite gone are tickets to the fabulous Terrie Odabi concert and the Pink Party, a tasting of Rosé from some of the finest wineries around (when I say finest I'm talking Banshee, Claypool, Copain, Front Porch, Idlewild, La Pitchoune, Limerick Lane, Lioco, Passalacqua, Petrichor, Poe, Red Car, Reeve, Rootdown, Unti, Westwood and Wind Gap!) You can purchase tickets for Terrie's concert on Friday April 22 (and make reservation for dinner on the same night) here in Studio Barndiva, or at Copperfields Bookstore. Pink Party tickets can be had at any of the participating wineries or online at brownpapertickets.

Joy in the Drenching

Navarro River at Hendy Woods

Flower Fields at Front Porch Farm

Water was everywhere last week, overflowing the banks of the Navarro, battering the buds and first blooms on the trees, flooding fields and vineyards. But oh, it was a welcome deluge as we gratefully worked through our own perfect storm of Restaurant Week, round 2 of Barrel Tasting and a loyal local clientele who all bundled in, wet but happy, filling both the barn and the bistro to capacity. There were moments Saturday and Sunday evening that felt like we were in the middle of a massive community huddle. 

Through all this controlled mayhem Chef found time to finalize our initial Spring menu. First up was a gorgeous sweetbread ravioli “salad”  with mascarpone, crème frâiche and bright green stinging nettle. Sweet little turnips and carrots, plump favas, leaves of toy box romaine and crispy nuggets of Zoe’s bacon played off the richness of the ravioli, with thin slivers of  Abbaye de Belloc  cheese harmoniously bridging the umami and bright spring flavors.

Monday dawned bright and sunny and while we are all hoping more rain is on the way, we welcome this brief respite. So much to plan: construction for the new portable bar in the Studio Garden, Pigs n' Pinot this weekend, publicity for exciting upcoming events, including the Pink Party and our second Lioco lunch. And let us not forget Easter is in the wind.

I will be writing more on all these special menus next week- right now Lukka is telling me we need to give a special shout to our readers that tickets for the Terrie Odabi concert have already gone on sale at Copperfields Bookstore and here in Studio Barndiva.  Terrie is a rising star in the music world - The San Francisco Chronicle calls her "easily the most dynamic blues and soul woman to have emerged in the Bay Area since Etta James." 

Terrie will play one long set with an intermission, which will afford ticket holders ample time to wander into the gardens and enjoy a libation at the new Gallery Garden Bar.  What you won’t find on the posters around town is that we will be serving a special bistro menu in the gardens before Terrie's set begins - reservations are a must.

Her evening in Studio Barndiva on April 22 will be the hottest ticket outside of the Healdsburg Jazz festival this year. Don't miss it.

A busy, beautiful weekend of events

From the look of the trees around town we are in the middle of a warm, beautiful spring in Healdsburg, with a full dance card of events this weekend in the Restaurant, The Gallery and out at Jordan Winery. Here are a few of the things we're up to, in addition to our regular lunch and dinner service.

Keep scrolling for the March prix fixe menus for every Sunday's French Country Suppers. Reservations advised. Enjoy the weather!

Today we launch our Spring through Fall Luncheons with Lioco Winery. These last Friday of the month gatherings will move around the property and feature delectable fare paired with special wine selections presented by the extraordinary Lioco winemakers.   http://www.liocowine.com/events

On Saturday Chef Fancher joins 11 other wine country chefs in support of the Monterey Bay Aquarium's "Cooking for Solutions." Ryan's contribution will be wild bbq salmon with caviar, crème fraîche and accoutrements all wrapped in soft green scallion crêpes. This is a wonderful event to support - with a vital message to take home about sustainability as it effects the ocean's bounty.   http://www.montereybayaquarium.org/visit/special-events/cooking-for-solutions/healdsburg

Our 10th annual Oscar Evening kicks off at 5:30 on Sunday evening. It's informal this year- with an incredible prix fixe as we will be serving our French Country Supper menu. Full bar and big screen. Going to be fun.

Speaking of our French Country Suppers here is the full March board of Menus with some favorites and loads of new "classic" dishes as Winter turns to Spring. Cheers! 

Down Home Moves Uptown, Spirit Intact

One of my fondest memories growing up was rushing in from a hard morning of play terrorizing the neighborhood to one of my mother’s infamous tuna fish sandwiches. Though she started out a purist: just tuna, Hellman’s and celery, by the end of my childhood she had expanded into a Daliesque oeuvre that included apples, pickles, capers, red onion, sliced hard boiled eggs, even - quelle horreur - a dash of mustard. All were delicious. So it was all smiles when I saw many of these same ingredients laid out in the kitchen the other day as Chef worked through a first course for one of our French Country Sunday Suppers in the Gallery. 

The fish did not come out of a can, it was line caught and pan seared in butter, garlic and thyme; the mayo did not come out of a jar, it was house made aioli. The baby kale had been harvested that morning and the bread - from a new supplier, Red Bird - was not Jewish Rye but perfectly crusted Levain, toasted, with a light slick of garlicky olive oil. 

But with the exception of a bouquet of bright yellow rapini flowers and some tiny breakfast radish Mom would have smiled in recognition at Ryan's artful display of quail eggs, capers, red onion (marinated to take the raw edge off), cornichons (instead of huge kosher pickles) and kumquats (which technically never appeared in her tuna fish, but we used to pilfer for her from a neighbors tree). Even with the upgrades, served open faced, more bruschetta than sandwich, all the signature flavors I loved were there, and then some. 

Thanks Ryan. We may not be in Kansas anymore, but the only thing missing was Mom.

Why grow flowers?

Most obsessions are formed early in life, but 40 years into a passion for gardening which has led me down a fragrant, if financially imprudent path, I’m still wondering how I got here. Until the age of ten my floral universe was pretty much a blank, relegated to what I saw at weddings or funerals. Except for my friend Dave's crazy uncle who grew orchids in a greenhouse he rarely left, no one I knew had a house full of roses, much less a garden to cut them from. 

As it happens, I had been born somewhere with exotic, sensual flora and sometimes, exploring the canyons above the Pacific, I’d come across a bloom growing wild that stirred a memory. Then one afternoon on a school trip to the newly opened LA County Museum I wandered away from the group and found myself in a room filled with Dutch still life paintings. A canvas on the far wall depicted flowers in a vase, but oh, what extraordinary things they were - tight buds, opulent blooms, and one wilting rose whose molding petals were so luminous they seemed rendered in pearl. There were a few pieces of fruit on the table beneath the vase, grapes and a half eaten pear which had begun to rot, drawing a single black fly with filigree wings as intricate as old lace, transparent as glass. There was nothing still about the painting. It pulsated with dangerous, beautiful life. 

From that moment on I began to really look at flowers - how their symmetry and myriad of textures delighted the eye and eased my brain, slaking a deep thirst for natural color that living life in the fast lane of big gray cities had engendered. It would be years before I wandered into the gardens at Sissinghurst wanting to know more about the kinship between Virginia Woolf and the great diarist and gardener Vita Sackville West and discovered in myself not just the need to look at beautiful gardens, but the desire to get my hands dirty. To echo, if only in the smallest way, some of the intrinsic beauty I began to see in great gardens all over the world.

I've always felt a connection with the untamable parts of the natural world. Jungles, forests, and bodies of water you cannot see across test one's bravery, feed a boy's own (and girl's!) desire for adventure - they astound with a fearsome, beautiful inevitability. The untamed world is a Russian novel. A tended, truly loved garden, no matter how large or small, is a middling poem striving to be a great haiku.

And while the pride I've felt harvesting crops and orchards is inestimable, it's prosaic. Grow food and the result, a full stomach, is its own reward. A flower garden feeds something else. You must suffer through many cuts and something that looks an awful lot like death to get there, but as counter intuitive as it seems the end result - a garden in bloom -  does not just fill you with it's beauty, it's also incredibly optimistic. For a soul like mine that leaned toward the melancholic, flowering gardens held a sort of salvation. They were the opposite of Virginia's pocketful of stones. 

In a wonderful short piece which appeared in the NY Times Magazine last June the horticulturist Umberto Pasti writes “To become a gardener means to try, to fail, to stubbornly plug away at something, to endure serious disappointments and small triumphs that encourage you to try and fail again.” It also sounds like the quintessential definition of a romantic. Or an artist. Or a mother.

What the garden doesn’t do in so many words, that partners and children can and do, is talk back. It speaks of itself or for itself, but in its total obliviousness to your imprudence in trying to control it, frees you in a way that loved ones and work - which depend on approbation -  cannot. It encourages you to risk, to take chances. Even when some grand plan fails, you know winter is coming and with it rain and spring and something remarkable rising from the soil. It’s hard to remember that happiness follows sorrow in life, but it can and more often than not does. The garden is a reminder of this, and the great truth that sometimes what doesn’t grow in one place often thrives in another. 

For me, time spent in the gardens is a guiltless way to recharge an appetite for joy and in a roundabout way, to dig away at sorrow. It's a place where you learn not to take yourself too seriously. It may be a garden you've created and encouraged to thrive, but Nature rules and you inevitably contend with the truth that you are not much more than a part of the equation. I see this as a good thing. Being constantly self-referential is a boomerang, not a kite.  

Of course once you succumb to a garden’s magic, it will take all you have to give it, in both time and money. I could have circled the globe a dozen times for the amount I’ve spend in four decades fighting, then learning to work in tandem with the wild forests that surround our gardens on Greenwood Ridge. It has never felt, not for an instant, like time or money ill spent. The flower gardens have been my emotional tuning fork in life. Just below the sound of the wind and in among the bees, whose buzzing happily attests my irrelevance, is a place where I can really hear myself think. 

There is a prescient line in Sherry Turkle’s Ted Talk about how technology has made being alone feel like a problem that needs to be solved. It isn’t, it’s a solution, for to be comfortable in your own skin and to do so (sometimes at least) without other people is to be receptive to a state of being honestly alive, free from false exigencies. 

The art of being yourself and losing yourself, this is what I find when I wander my gardens now, especially in the early morning or just before dark. Whether I am filling buckets for the restaurant arrangements, raising the camera, or just wandering, I do not really have a predetermined agenda. For while gardening reawakens the recognition that all we have is time, it reaffirms there is no time to waste. The preciousness of the present is so easily lost in the rushed way we are incessantly encouraged to live our lives, it's a message you need to hear whatever your age. I think this was the whisper I heard from that painted vase of flowers I came upon so many years ago. In any case, it is a meditation that lingers.

Moving forward...

2016 is going to be an even more exciting year for florals in Barndiva.  

For the past two years Daniel Carlson has been Head Mover of Soil at the farm and Instigator in Chief behind apple cider production, while overseeing the edible floral beds in the Studio Garden.  In the same time frame he has also been designing extraordinary floral displays for weddings and private parties across the country on his own and under the auspices of our great friend Danielle Rowe at Brown Paper Design. This year Dan will launch an in-house floral program at Barndiva and offer his exquisitely designed natural arrangements to all of Barndiva's dinner parties and weddings, large and small. He can be reached directly through his new website: www.dcwestgarden.com

A short list of "local" FLORAL RESOURCES

NOW is the time to start thinking about expanding or even starting a flower garden. Some of our favorite flower farms and nurseries offer retail accounts and fantastic educational opportunities. When it comes to buying seeds and flats remember: Like most everything else in life, you get what you pay for.

Dragonfly Floral is both a resource and an inspiration, it always tops our local list. They are not a nursery but do everything else: you can order an arrangement to be delivered, buy loose blooms directly from the farm, take a class or a degree oriented series, or ask advice from Bonnie Z, Dragonfly's beloved owner and a muse for three generations of Healdsburg gardeners. You're even welcome to stop and smell the roses in their magnificent gardens on Westside Road. www.dragonflyhealdsburg.com

Emerisa  is a great nursery that works both wholesale and retail lanes Don't expect a lot of help- do your homework first. www.emerisa.com

Goodness Grows in Boonville is Dan and Lukka's favorite "local" nursery in Anderson Valley, always helpful and they will order for you. 11201 Anderson Valley Way, Boonville.

Digging Dog Nursery all the way out in Albion is an acquired taste, but one you should acquire if you have any esoteric aspirations for your garden at all. Check they're open, and don't expect a lot of help, but it's always worth a visit for their unique plants. www.diggingdog.com

Occidental Arts and Ecology  - Become a member. Their plant sales in spring - though they have others- is a rite of passage. But get there early and leave time for a walk.  (Just don't trust they can look after your stash, even once you pay. Stuff your treasures in a back seat, with the window cracked.) www.oaec.org

CalFlora is worth a trip because it's one of the Bay Area's oldest California native plant nurseries. www.calfloranursery.com

Even farther down the road in Richmond but also worth the trip is Annie's Annuals for it's impressive table displays. They always have plants in all stages of bloom, so you can see what you're committing to.  www.anniesannuals.com

Finally, a second organic local farm where you can source superb cut flowers. Front Porch is a relative newcomer to the scene, but driven by the flower mad Mimi Buckley it has become one of our favorite suppliers. Front Porch grows over 60 varieties throughout the year for events, but they are equally happy to fill small custom orders that can be picked up at their beautiful farm. Contact zoe@fpfarm.com

Milk and Honey + Our 10th annual Oscar Party!

Winter is a curious time for desserts. There’s an abundance of glorious citrus around but for the most part the trees are bare of fruit, the vines bereft of berries. What’s a girl to do? In our case, have a pastry chef that rolls up his sleeves instead of just rolling his eyes. 

Last week Scott raided Vidal’s honey harvest, big time. He baked delectably light honey tea cakes, poached pears in honey water, spun the creamiest honey ice cream to rest on a little mound of pollen, dehydrated milk until it turned into flakes as light as snow. He even foraged velvety dark purple pansies from the garden which had manage to survive beneath a rain tent. If all that wasn’t enough for a sublime dessert, he fabricated tiny edible ‘hives’ from cocoa butter, and filled them with pure nectar.  

This dessert has all the hallmarks of becoming a classic. Especially as 2016 will mark an exclusive collaboration with Kristee Rosendahl's Dream Ranch to produce wild honey for Barndiva. We use a lot of honey on our goat cheese croquette plate, a tried and true BD classic. Stay tuned for more about Dream Ranch and the Barndiva hives in the wilds above Lake Sonoma. 

If there had been a boycott of this year's Oscar Ceremony, we would have supported it. Like many of our faltering institutions (yes, predominately run by cranky old white men) it's time for change, not just with how the Oscar's are chosen, but with who decides on what movies get made. As of this writing there is no boycott planned, so we're looking forward to having a great time watching the Oscar Ceremonies LIVE on the big screen in the Studio gallery on February 28th. As it will coincide with our Sunday French Country Supper, which is growing in popularity through word of mouth, we strongly recommend reservations - any size party is fine. It's going to be a great evening - there is a pretty cool field of movies and performances this year. Ballots will be available from Feb. 22, prize to be announced (though chances are it's going to be something award worthy you can drink...).

Our Oscar poster was designed by the ever talented K2 - Kirsten Petrie. 

Love Me Deux: 2 very special Valentine menus

Like our expectations of love itself, great Valentine's menus are a precarious balancing act that takes elements we cherish about the achingly familiar and tries to infuse them with flavors both fresh and new. And yes, while there are some luxurious ingredients on the Barn’s nuanced restaurant menu, in both our dining rooms on Feb 14th expect a truly romantic experience. We know it’s an evening many of our diners consider sacrosanct. 

I caught Chef working through a third course for the Barn's V day prix fixe last week, managing to get off a few shots of a magnificent spiny lobster from Santa Barbara he had poached in court bouillon, its shell as vivid as a five alarm fire. He likes to work alone when he's thinking through a new dish, and while he had not yet decided on the plating, he was almost there with the flavors he was after, working with a generous dollop of soft and luscious lobster meat enrobed in saffron pasta flecked with fresh herbs. The idea was to pair the tortellini with baby bok choi bathed in a mysteriously fragrant soy butter brightened with a few toasted fennel seeds. Brilliant.

Here are both menus. If you hope to join us for either dinner service, I encourage you to book now. Both rooms began to fill weeks ago, before we even published our menus (and curiously, not just with two tops!). Whatever your romantic status, have a good one.

Forever Curious Moonlight

I was never the most avid fan of David Bowie’s music, though Changes and Let's Dance were certainly anthems at some point. Yet I felt incredibly bereft to learn of his death, as did almost everyone I spoke with for the next day or so. Young and old, “did you hear” was the first thing we all said to one another, sotto voce, as it became increasingly clear something important in the world had been lost, leaving a gap we had no idea how to fill.

There was just something about Bowie, beyond the music, beyond Ziggy and Major Tom and the Thin White Duke, that made him remarkable. Whether he was Aladdin Sane or a lad insane, here was a man hiding in plain sight, mocking the profane while mourning it. Did he have the pulse of a beautiful victim masquerading as a survivor, or was he the ultimate poseur, a glorious high wire act we watched in amazed amusement all these years, mouth agape at the chutzpa. What is clear and increasingly rare is how Bowie, for all his fame, seemed to remain true to himself. He managed to escape the maw of our horrible sinking music culture, even, in his last year, instigating interesting new projects. His was an art that strove to levitate. He leaves us with a rich monologue of aural and visual invention that at the very least (and there was so much more) defied gender limitations before most of us even knew they existed.

Creativity like that comes at a price, and it’s rare. But that’s not the reason true creatives are few and far between while their imitators proliferate. There was always a sense behind David Bowie’s mannered, beautiful glide through life that kindness had an inestimable value, that we could all do with being a bit classier. All you hear talk about these days is “class” with respect to the growing gap between the rich and poor. Yes, well. But Bowie’s kind of class wasn’t about money (not everything is!) or even power, really. Fashionistas and wannabes of every stripe skimmed off the top of his aura but it was the disenfranchised outliers, the weirdos, the kooks, the sleeper extraterrestrials in our midst - anyone who understood longing - who loved him best. 

In 1984, when Lukka was 5, I took him to a Bowie concert in Inglewood. For reasons lost in the fogs of time it seemed imperative he witness the Starman before he stopped touring or worse, burned out. We had dreadful seats. I can’t recall the playlist. But what I do remember and have never forgotten was an abundant feeling that energy was expandable. No one even noticed the little guy I kept hoisting onto my shoulders above the crowd as we all clapped and swayed. Lukka kept asking if I could see Bowie’s shoes - so I hoisted him higher - but in reminiscing about that night a few days ago he remembered differently. “There was a lot of fog on the stage, but I swear it looked like his feet never touched the ground." 

In naming a constellation after Bowie last week Philippe Mollet, from the MIRA Observatory in Belgium aptly, though perhaps unintentionally, noted “it was not easy to determine the appropriate stars." Generally, the more massive the star the faster it burns out. Small comfort then the seven little stars they choose for Bowie are in no danger of burning out anytime soon.

http://stardustforbowie.be/

We’d been playing around with the idea of a “music video night” in the gallery for a few weeks before David Bowie died and we’ll kick it off this coming Friday with an evening of Bowie videos. In future weeks we’ll comb back through early MTV, letting eau d'bowie and Barndiva's own eclectic creative spirit guide us. We welcome your suggestions - music videos that have panache and point of view, groovy visuals wrapped around great tunes.  

The Studio Barndiva Gallery is open Wed – Sunday from 10am; The Gallery Bar, with its bistro menus and great cocktails, begins serving at 3:00 until closing. Sunday night we offer a  prix fixe Classic French Country Supper, reservations suggested.

Who We Are Now....

THE BARNDIVA BAR, December 31, 2015

When people smile when you snap their picture you can instantly tell whether they're just putting it on or they are genuinely happy to have someone there to record a particular moment in their lives. These two albums attest to the latter. On New Year's Eve both dining rooms were full to bursting with great eaters, drinkers and after midnight dancers... there was a big table of doctors, a newspaper editor extraordinaire, a local design guru, an archaeologist, a leading water conservationist, a bikeshop owner, a wine maker (or three), even a beloved world famous actor... and lets not forget the girlfriends and boyfriends of our chefs, managers and bartenders. Incredibly, some of the happiest faces I saw all night belonged to our staff.  Despite the fact they were working their butts off, they just seemed to be making a great time of it. Which they have been doing all year.

So here are a few snaps from NYE of some of our favorite people, whom we are lucky to be able to work alongside every day. Their commitment, professionalism, work ethic and sense of fun have made us deeply proud of each and every dining and private event we produced through 2015. 

Lukka, Ryan, Geoff and I want to give a big shout out to Andrew, Poncho, Tom, Deron, Manny, Raul, Saul, C.J., Veronica, Rosalia, Teresa, Javier, Nico, Daniel and Scotty... and to Cathryn, Jason, Omar, Maritza, Cristina, Kevin, Jessica, Tori, Alex, Camille, George, Chris, Essie, Liz, Coach, Matty, Lynn, Davey, Russell, Fatimah, Natalie, Dawid, Daniel and Isabel. Heartfelt thanks and Happy New Year!   Here's hoping for more of the same in 2016.  Cheers!!

SLIDE SHOW #1:  In the Barn everything was polished, elegant, and Fancherlicious...

SLIDE SHOW #2: While over in the Bistro,  before the last desserts sailed out of the kitchen the Gallery started rocking out...

 

Studio parties will continue all year, so keep in touch! And don't forget our annual Evening at the Oscars  ... February 28!

THE BISTRO BAR in Studio Barndiva, December 31 2015

 

Last Bite out of 2015

A few weeks back I found myself on a ridge straddling the Pacific Ocean and Tomales Bay. It was one of the last gloriously sunny days of autumn before heavy rains were due to arrive, and I wanted to capture the moment. No camera - but I had my iphone with its nifty pano option. I began to shoot but quickly found that no matter where I stood, or how fast or slowly I turned, I could not get all that I was seeing into the frame.

If I started at the ocean, where the sun was setting over a vast opalescent sea and moved across the small herd of Elk placidly grazing on the undulating mountaintop, I was just able to include a hawk perched on a stump a few feet to the right of the path we had just traveled, but no Bay. If I began on a speck across the Bay I thought to be the old Marshall Store and panned over the grassy ridge with its stone outcroppings, I managed to get the setting sun, but missed the elk, my dearest friend, and the road ahead, which looked fetchingly mysterious in the gloaming. The thought that I was simply trying to take in too much was not lost on me. Alas, it is a feeling quite familiar, but there just wasn’t anything I felt I could leave out of the shot and consider it complete.

Nor was it a case of information overload, which we are all vulnerable to these days. My (unproved) theory is that the current obsession with selfies is really just a pinterestic way of fixing ourselves to a landscape to claim and define our space (if not necessarily our place) in this increasingly frenetic world. We crave boundaries. Even the disingenuous selflie - a fake vignette that apes famous people who themselves are faking onscreen lives, while boring in the extreme, stems from a natural impulse to connect with a moment in your life, to be part of the flow of history. You don’t need Everest or a Moon Landing to want to say “Look at me. I was here.” Who really wants to be a Waldo in this one life?

From the cave paintings forward the desire to mark our time on earth has been sacrosanct. I wasn’t picking up a paintbrush or a chisel, or even trying to put myself in the frame, but the truth is that every time we aim a lens we are creating a decisive moment of our choosing. To celebrate the fact that while, yes, the present is fleeting, as long as memory stays, we'll have proof of the journey we've made. 

I’ve had a great many New Year's resolutions over the years, most of them repeats. Some are specific (drink more water, less gin) some are hopelessly optimistic (seek the good in people) some seemingly impossible (control your temper). This year it finally struck me I could well be going about this all wrong. The impulse to start fresh every year is a good one, but all these pejorative declarations do little more than set us up to fail.

The hospitality business is all about engagement. People come to us in all different states of mind, moods, desires. Reading what they want and giving it to them, to the best of our ability, in a manner that will be fresh but satisfying doesn’t just happen when we design the menus or create the drinks or pull a cork. It’s a dance we get paid to do well, but interaction takes two to tango. Which is where the distance we are to the actions we take comes into play. Immerse yourself - and this goes for the seemingly smallest of actions - and your perspective changes from outside in to inside out.

It’s the difference between looking at a lake (beautiful... now focus and snap!) to jumping in, feeling it envelope you with all the sensations you can’t get from just looking: temperature, weight, smell. The sense that without the ground beneath you, without gravity weighing you down, you have no choice but to give yourself up to the act of floating. Immersion is easier if you start with the things you love to do, or think you might love if you only gave them a bit more time. I lose myself gardening and designing but it doesn’t have to be a self referential act - some of the best moments I had this past year were entering into the creative worlds of others - Ivo van Hove’s staging of View from the Bridge, Clio Barnard’s film The Selfish Giant, Helen Macdonald’s memoir H is for Hawk, Charlie Musselwhite at the Navarro General Store, The Miró Quartet at The Green Music Center, Christina and the Queens video Tilted. Even sitting on stage in NY watching 'View,' surrounded by strangers, I was able to have a complex personal connection to this inescapable thing called the Human Race.

Shifting your view a little from where you think you should fit into a moment is sort of like a meditation, it’s a small, gentle, seemingly benign action that doesn’t hold out any promise to make you thinner, smarter, richer. It does nothing about all the challenges we must face in the greater world - hatred, hunger, abuse - all those things we will need to engage with, care about, make our voices heard. But it affords you a calming, copacetic perspective. And it’s a movement you can practice doing with grace.

These are truly exciting times for food and drink in Healdsburg, and 2015 held some big moments for the Barndiva family. We opened BD Bistro without any fanfare in Studio Barndiva to unanimous - and happily, mostly local- applause. Without taking his eye off the main kitchen in Barndiva, and with the extremely talented help of Andrew Wycoff, BD Bistro gives Ryan the chance to re-visit and expand his deep love for classic French country cuisine. Our lightening rod daughter Isabel Hales joined the family enterprise behind the main bar, bringing along a talent for incredible soundtracks and film montages that add to a dining experience here like no other in town. Scotty Noll, with us when we opened Barndiva 12 years ago, made a triumphant return to lead our pastry program for both restaurants and private parties, while at the farm, Lukka and Daniel began to expand our greenhouses on the ridge and fill the Barn with yet more barrels of aging apple cider. I am blessed to be able to wander through the kitchens and gardens at any hour and see beautiful food in all stages of preparation and plating. And while it is not lost on me that Ryan’s consistency, the foundation of any successful restaurant, is a hallmark of his training, his greatest talent flows from his ability to immerse himself and engage fully with any task at hand, whether he's done it thousands of times before or it's a first.  

Hands down, of the thousands of images I shot over the year, my favorite is this one of Geoffrey and the beautiful Fancher girls. When Rebekah went into labor very prematurely with Reese we had a nail-biting few months. Resilient and somehow confident all would be well despite the weeks in hospital that followed, Bekah's courage made it possible for us to carry on - in fact she insisted on it. Reese is thriving now. In a year where it was impossible to look away from hardship and unfolding tragedies all over the world, here was a lesson that sometimes, with faith and resolve, great struggle can reward with great joy.

Happy 2016!!

Barndiva Cheers the Holidays

We will be celebrating the Holidays in both the Barn and the Bistro this year with a la carte and prix fixe parties on Christmas Eve, a Boxing Day Brunch, and two distinct menus on New Year's -  the penultimate meal of the year. 

Our Holiday calendar can be found HERE and on the homepage. We invite you to join us for one, two or even three remarkable services. We have much to celebrate this year and we hope you will allow us to show you our appreciation for your continued patronage by raising a glass with us in the run up to 2016.

The Holidays for Barndiva is all about extolling the virtues of luxurious comfort - celebrating cherished traditions in our version of grand style. The epitome of what we mean by luxurious comfort can be found in a deceptively simple dish that started life when Ryan decided to re-conceive the loaded baked potato. Humble in origin - like the best traditions often are - Chef takes a single potato and transforms it into an elegant dish that celebrates what we love about holiday fare.

It starts with a plump Yukon Gold he sous vides in duck fat. The tender spud is then top and tailed, cross hatching the soft inner slice which is then pan basted in butter, garlic and thyme. Last step is under the salamander where the top surface forms a salty, peppery crust, the encircling potato skin blistering to a deep golden brown.

Kendall Farm crème frâiche, a handful of tiny chopped scallion tops, and a holiday crown of Ryan’s pickled red cabbage complete the dish. Flavors are earthy and bright green, with a vinegary punch from the cabbage and a deeply satisfying contrast in texture as you bite through the crust into the smooth confit aromatics of the long cooked spud. The perfect accompaniment to an entrée of herbed sole, you can order it 'off the menu' as the first act for a winter meal that delights. Welcome to the Holiday Season. 

While on the Cocktail Front....

We are blasting through cocktails right now as recent tastings have expanded our artisanal spirit collections in both bars. In case you haven't discovered by now, Barndiva and the Gallery Bar have distinctly different personalities. Cocktails in the Barn are layered and mysterious, while the Gallery focuses on nailing the classic cocktail (3 ingredients or less) in all its forms.

By far the most most popular new cocktail we are shaking this Holiday in Barndiva is The Crystal Ball - the first night we made over 20 of them. It's a collaboration with our new friend Erin Hines, the talent behind Bitter Girl Bitters, a wonderful range of Bitters sourced and made by Erin right here in Sonoma County. We fell in love with Erin's Batch 1 and immediately thought of pairing it with Barndiva's Apple Syrup, made from 20 varieties of our heirloom dry farmed (county fair winning) apples. Blood Orange Vodka turned out to be a perfect meeting place for these two intriguing ingredients. Barndiva and Bitter Girl don't just partner up in this wintery, citrusy libation, we dance the light fantastic. You don't need a crystal ball to know this cocktail will become a  Barn classic. 

You can find the whole range of Bitter Girl Bitters at Bottle Barn (no relation), K&L Liquors, or jump onto Erin's website, bittergirlbitters.com. 

And as a special Christmas treat, Barndiva has bottled some of our precious 2014 Barndiva Farm Heirloom Apple Syrup - so conceivably you could try this cocktail at home. Here's an idea: pick one up when you come in for a Barndiva Gift Certificate, the perfect last minute gift. Good for replenishing the soul next year with great food and drink - and unconventional art - in the Barn, the Bistro and the Gallery. 

why grow apples?

Why grow apples? This is not a trick question, it’s one I ask myself every year about this time, when I start to wonder what in the hell we’re going do with tons and tons of them. Ours are dry farmed on a remote ridge far from any marketplace. Organize picking, transport, press, I think. Then what.

Because even after you’ve learned how to extend an apple’s life into juice, jam, cider, vinegar, syrup, and balsamic; after you’ve built dining rooms that produce beautiful salads, glorious tarts, elegant cocktails; long after you’ve fed the bears and fed your neighbors, and fed yourself, the question is still not rhetorical. 

You don’t do it for the money, though shame on that. It just doesn’t work with a farm as small as ours. We’ve done the math.  

The very first time I faced this quandary I bribed laborers away from the vineyards to pick, rented a U haul and drove south to my food co-op in Santa Monica where thanks to well earned nepotism, I was paid top price for them. I lost money. The next year I set up shop in the old barn and made jams and apple butter, listening to Puccini (etymology of the name Barndiva) drinking til dawn, designing labels, cajoling boutique food shops to sell them at a (then) astronomical price. I made just enough money to cover our groundsman Vidal’s salary. So frustrating was this yearly rebuke I was in fact relieved when we moved to England and I had no choice but to let the apples fall. Relieved but miserable. We had luckily handed off the nuts and figs to a dear friend and my goddaughter, but every fall I could hear my apple orchards lowing.

Challenges abound with farming: they are non-stop. But there are quiet moments that stretch across a lifetime. When you look over the orchards in the full bloom of spring, or at the end of summer when fruit hangs heavy on the boughs you just feel good about life. Proud of this beautiful organic product you produce, content you are doing your small part in keeping traditions (in our case over 100 years of them) alive. Farming introduces you to the best people - mentors, employees, and neighbors, who in our case became life long friends. People as crazy as we are. 

So it was on the last Tuesday of September that Geoffrey, Lukka, Daniel, Isabel and I met at the lower barn where Vidal (still with us, thankfully) had stored our apples. We loaded up and headed down the hill to the Apple Farm where Rita, Jerzy and Mark waited to help us press this year's batch of cider vinegar. They had been hard at it all morning, still in incredibly good spirits. The fragrance of fresh juice mingled in the crisp Fall air with the heavier scent of apple syrup bubbling away in the cooker. The old press sits on a lovely old deck overlooking the Navarro River. Standing there inhaling, the only thing closer to bittersweet heaven is the perfume of our orchards a few weeks after harvest, late afternoon, when the sweet rot of sun soaked fruit shimmers up from the ground in a lazy bee chorus. 

On Tuesday we laughed about our combined blue ribbons from the fair, smiled up into leaves turning red to gold, sipped cider, yelled at the dogs to get out of the way of cars coming and going to the fruit stand. Then we got down to work. A few hours later we had this year's batch of juice which will rest alongside the eight barrels of vinegar already aging in the lower barn.

Last year's apple syrup figures in Barndiva menus and cocktails. It will have a special place on this week's Bistro Sunday Supper menu.   

 

Bistro Sunday is friends night, family night, totally relaxed,  incredibly delicious.

Here are some snaps from last Sunday's Supper:

 

And here is the rest of our October Menus. Join us! 

The Jolie Laide Sauce Brigade *video*

Ok, so these lovely people are probably not talking about sauce at this particular moment, as Liz flies across the room bottle aloft, but it's not an exaggeration that at some point Sunday evening everyone in the Gallery feasting on the Boeuf Bourguignon took note. Even if just monosyllabically. More than once.

Ryan will be the first to say that the many steps of labor isn’t what he wants our guests to think about when they take that first bite of a dish and oooh, ahhh or just go silent. Nothing should impede what you smell and taste in that instant. Knowledgeable sourcing and classic European technique is certainly at the heart of what we're cooking in the Gallery kitchen these days, but this is comfort food that doesn't ask you to think. Just enjoy.

Most of these recipes are centuries old. They come from a time women had good reason to hang around the kitchen all day when it was easy enough while stoking the fire to give a stir or skim the fat off a soup on the way to the potager, the chicken coop, the barn, all the interconnected arteries through which flowed the lifeblood of the farm. I often wonder things like this: at what point did the marinade come into play? What enterprising woman decided it was a shame not to roast those aromatic vegetables? In what restaurant did the man in the white toques decide to steadily increase the number of times he deglazed and cleaned, filtered and reduced his sauce, adding additional stocks to deepen the flavors? What a long road to creating the sauce we call Bourguignon.  

Marinating beautifully marbled short ribs in red wine is day one. After that aromatics are added for another day. Then the ribs come out of their bath to be glazed, the aromatics roasted, then all the elements meet again in the pan and off they go into a low oven overnight. After they come out, the sauce is cleaned and put back on the heat for constant skimming and reducing, fresh chicken stock is added, more skimming and reducing until, just before service, Andrew achieves the viscosity, the clarity and most importantly the rich flavors in the sauce that Chef is after.

Sunday's Supper began with a crispy Salad de Laitues, slivers of our Mendocino County Fair award winning apples, crispy bacon, soft blue cheese, and a light but creamy cabernet vinaigrette. It ended with soft golden crêpes Scotty made that morning, which Drew filled with frothy fromage blanc and topped with a bright blueberry coulis.

Great meal, great energy in the room, Isabel's sound tracks and fantastic short films streaking across the Barn wall. My fork touched the shortrib and the meat fell away from the bone, a good sign. There was a savory but bittersweet mouthful in the tiny mound of late summer tomato coulis (summer is really over), but a devil may care crunch in the tempura hericot vert. That was the moment I cast my eye on the sauce, which I'd seen through all its jolie laide, ugly yet beautiful stages. In the candlelight it glimmered, like a necklace of dark purple jewels. On the tongue it had the consistency of honey off a hot spoon, but it was not sweet, it was earthy, rich, vinous. Virtuous to a fault. I like this food and the care and love that goes into the making of it.

Reserve Sunday Supper by calling the restaurant (707 431 0100). If you reserve online make a note it's French Sunday Supper you want to book. We're capping the number at 50 to ensure lots of room to move around, but if you miss out, not to worry, many of the dishes Ryan and Andrew will debut at Sunday Supper will most likely find their way onto the à la carte menus in the gallery. For now Barndiva bar+bistro is open for drinks and bites Wednesday through Sunday, but stay tuned for expanded hours. 

Cheers.

Salade Cresson, Poulet Rôti, Crème Brûlée...oui!

Supper in the gallery this Sunday begins with SALADE CRESSON with sliced red Jonathan dry farmed heirloom apples from Barndiva Farm on Greenwood Ridge, which hopefully will be one of our apples that medal at the Mendocino Apple Fair in Boonville this weekend. Walnuts, bacon and blue if you want them.

Next up is POULET RÔTI, whole roasted chicken for 2, with sautéed spinach, natural jus. CRÈME BRÛLÉE for dessert! 

If you're just joining us reading the blog, French Country Supper is a weekly prix fixe dinner served until it runs out in our beautiful art gallery. Killer sound track, a montage of very old film snippets projected on the wall, classic cocktails and great wines by the glass. We're putting these menus together slowly, month by month, picking favorites for winter.  

To reserve call the restaurant and specify you are booking Sunday Supper in the Gallery. This week's 3 course menu is $42. Mention the blog (eat the view) and this week FCD comes with a glass of bubbly on the maison. 

Paillard or Schnitzel? You Decide

Sweltering 100 degree weather is still very much with us but as we head into the last few weeks of the summer's bounty, new menus that speak of fall continue to multiply. This Sunday’s prix fixe Country Supper in the Studio features two classic dishes that would find a welcome home on any bistro menu - a mixed bean, gloriously colored Soupe au Pistou, and a succulent, golden crusted Paillard de Porc.

But was it a Paillard or a Schnitzel, as both Dawid, who is Polish, and Lukka, schooled in France, made the case it be called. Here’s the skinny: The official dish of Austria, the Wiener Schnitzel, is a pounded and three step breaded boneless veal chop; while Paillards, also pounded, can be chicken, pork, veal or even reindeer (depending how far north you travel) and are not traditionally breaded. Both dishes gained popularity across Europe in the early 19th century when expeditious use of a mallet became the rage... tenderizing meat by breaking down its fibers, equalizing the thickness to allow it to cook evenly and thinning the protein to cut down cooking time from skillet to plate.

The focus of our Sunday prix fixe dinners has been decidedly French, and the addition of a lemon caper butter sauce which brightens each rich mouthful, the little raft of butter with garlic, rosemary and thyme used to baste the pork in the pan, are decidedly Gallic. What’s in a name? I’m with Shakespeare on this one.

The finished Paillard de Porc (aka Wolfie Schnitzel in honor of the redoubtable Wolfgang Puck who may be Austrian by birth but a California culinary genius in spirit) will be followed by a Scotty Noll Mousse au Chocolat. Our pastry chef may not be French, but when it comes to chocolate, C'est trop bien!

Cheers!

(View all Barndiva’s menus here.)

Fabulous Fall Salads & Sept Menus for FCD

beets and brie

Fall is upon us, and with it comes glorious salads and decidedly autumnal dishes like crispy skin Mt. Lassen Trout, Brandade, Lamb Rillette, and the last colorful hurrah of indelible heirloom tomatoes. These show up in a rich soup with Bolognese Ravioli, baked into a Ricotta Tart served with herb roasted Filet Mignon, or dressed in nothing but a light Spanish Sherry vinegar with burrata and fresh basil. We can’t get enough of our tomatoes in September, especially when we know their season is winding down.

All Hail Kale Caesar

White Anchovy Niçoise

While the Barn rocks it with long leisurely lunches and elegant dining in the main garden, Ryan and Andrew have put the finishing touches on September's Sunday menus for the Studio’s French Country prix fixe dinners. Many of these classic dishes also appear on the gallery bar’s bistro menu from Happy Hour on, but Sunday is the day we want to carve out for meeting up with old friends and making new ones over re-interpreted classic dishes served alongside great soundtracks and another new video from Isabel Hales. Last week's Coq au vin Sunday sold out, so call the restaurant to get your name on the list, or sign up in the Studio when you come for a drink and bite.

Our next blog will detail the exciting Fall cocktails list which makes good use of Barndiva's dry farmed apples and pears, but make haste while this incredible weather lasts and visit the Barn while we are still enjoying the gardens and the incredible bounty from Sonoma and Mendocino County. Cheers!

FRENCH COUNTRY DINNERS
September Menus

Sept 6
TARTE de TAMATE puff pastry, fresh ricotta, arugula, heirloom tomato
CROQUETTES POISSON POMME de TERRE fish cakes, kale salad, creamy dill vinaigrette
TARTE TATIN aux HÉRITAGE POIRES de BARNDIVA FARM

Sept 13
SOUPE au PISTOU white bean soup, cherry tomato, garlic toast, basil pesto
PAILLARD de PORC grilled pork loin, gnocchi, lemon, caper
MOUSSE au CHOCOLAT

Sept 20
SALADE CRESSON watercress salad, barndiva farm asian pear, walnut
POULET RÔTI whole roasted chicken for 2, sautéed spinach, natural jus
CRÈME BRÛLÉE aux FRAMBOISE

Sept 27
SALADE de LAITES au FROMAGE BLEU butter lettuce, blue cheese, bacon
BOEUF BOURGUIGNON red wine braised beef short ribs, pickled red onion marmalade, haricot vert
MACARON au CHOCOLAT