Studio Barndiva

Oh the joys found in Healdsburg. Life offers many pleasures and this treasure of a noshing spot certainly satisfies a few of those pleasures. I love coming here for happy hour as their drinks are simple and classic (at least what I experience) and their well options are solid and beyond most places top shelf option. Price point isn’t why you come here. This is a spot to drink cool drinks, taste delightful nibbles, and be a little more awesome than usual while you sit in the live work art gallery.
Popcorn is the optional fare of choice available on the house. Anyone who knows me knows this is a huge winning point for me.
I’ve tried their pome frittes (not standard style), frito misto asparagus, and goat cheese croquettes with lavender honey. The pome frittes were sliced waffle-​type cut spuds that seem puffed and lightly fried and sprinkled with salt. Delicious and simple. The asparagus was ok but probably my least favorite of the fares tried. Nothing special about the dish compared to other places who do this. Crispy crust was flaky, messy, and not adhered well to the stalks. The croquettes were stunning rolled in the honey with the bite of goat cheese beautifully paired against the sweetness.
My recommendation — dirty martini with blue cheese stuffed olives. The staff is willing to take this extra step and it is worth the short wait for that added deliciousness.

We had our rehearsal dinner at Studio Barndiva for our October 2014 wedding, and it was fabulous! I can’t think of a better way to have kicked off our weekend of celebration.
I’ve eaten at Barndiva the restaurant a few different times. In general, I’ve found the food to be superb, although there have been a couple misses and inconsistencies (as some people note). They do not offer official tastings for rehearsal dinners, which was a little disappointing since ours was wedding-​sized, and that makes it tough to choose the best options when you’re spending a lot of money; but we were happy with the salmon and pork dishes we chose (especially the salmon — it was cooked perfectly for nearly 100 people, very impressive!). And the hors d’oeuvres were all excellent, as was the dessert bar. We chose two specialty cocktails from favorite spots in San Francisco, which the bartender did a great job making, and there was a good variety of wine & beer available too. The service was very good — my only wish was that they’d come around with wine more frequently, especially during the toasts, since we ran out and my husband had to shout «More toasting wine!» across the room.
My dad put together a slide show, which they projected on a big screen using a laptop hookup. We also hooked up an iPad with a playlist we’d put together, although it was hard to hear over the buzz. If I were doing it again, I would have purchased the sound package too, since the room was larger than we’d realized and we had to shout during our welcome toast for everyone to hear us.
Studio Barndiva is a super cool space with interesting artwork lining the walls and an amazing antler chandelier hanging from the ceiling. The garden out back is beautiful too, but since our wedding was in mid-​to-​late October, I didn’t want to risk it getting too cold with an outdoor dinner. Having it inside was perfect (especially since we didn’t have to worry about the rain that was forecast for that day!) and cozy, but at the same time spacious enough to comfortably fit nearly 100 guests for a sit-​down dinner.
I found the planning part a little difficult at times, since the team is very laid back and they got some important information wrong (e.g., I discovered that they had us down for the outdoor garden, even though we had booked the indoor studio from the start) or took a long time to respond. But they are all very nice and they certainly pulled through in the end, because our rehearsal dinner came out absolutely perfect! We supplied some autumn decorations and rented hurricane lanterns from them, and they set up the tables beautifully. The food was great, the cocktails were tasty, and we and our guests all had an amazing time!

It should be noted that the studio — which is actually connected to the main restaurant — also serves drinks and snacks. Healdsburg is a town that shuts down early but the studio is open on the later side. The bartender was incredibly accommodating of the people who continued to trickle in looking for that nightcap. There’s a limited selection of drinks at the studio but the bartender bent over backwards to get people the drinks they wanted which included going over to the restaurant for the right ingredients.
The bar part of the studio is small — a small number of tables and about five seats at the bar. They were showing old movies on the wall which reminded me of Foreign Cinema in SF…

Oh my gosh, awesome space and great art. Betsy and I wanted to buy the framed cigarette cards. They have an amazing collection out. The owner has curated this amazingly large collection.
It’s part of the magical Barndiva experience we had… We stumbled across the bar/​restaurant and had a drink the night before and then went into the gallery the next day. Impeccable taste and really nice art and some great furniture — I will go back to help decorate our next home when I have lots and lots of money.

I very much enjoyed the ten minutes I spent in this gallery imideatly following our lunch. It’s well laid out with an open feeling. Very inviting. Stop in for ten minutes, you’ll enjoy it.