Barndiva: Restaurant Review

Bacon-Wrapped Pork Tenderloin served at Barndiva in Healdsburg. (Crista Jeremiason/PD)

When El Dorado Kitchen opened in Sonoma in 2005, the food was thrilling, due in no small measure to the cooking of Ryan Fancher, who had worked at The French Laundry for three years before Thomas Keller detailed him to New York City to help open Per Se.

Chef Fancher learned well at Keller’s temples of gastronomy. The folks at Barndiva in Healdsburg were both wise and lucky to hire him three years ago to produce the food that has become the centerpiece of the Barndiva enterprise — and his cooking has only gotten better, his presentations more lively, his ideas more artful and his consciousness of ingredients deeper.

The restaurant, with its wines and cocktails, is the hub of a multi-faceted experience. Next door is Studio Barndiva, with its gallery full of art for sale and an outdoor garden in back that accommodates up to 200 people for special events. Nearby are the enterprise’s Healdsburg Modern Cottages — each cottage devoted to an American master designer’s oeuvre. Barndiva is also a founding member of Fork & Shovel, a collaborative of local farmers and chefs from 30 restaurants that strives to bring together the best from the Healdsburg foodshed.

Barndiva’s home base is the restaurant in a tall, open, airy, sunny, barn-like building that’s a work of art in itself — it feels like a happy mix of European and Californian cultures. The food that chef Fancher is now producing here is so exquisitely good to eat that eyes brighten, smiles grow, and about all you can say is that these are the best versions of these dishes you’ve ever had — except that many of them are so creative that you may never have had anything like them.

For instance, the Cauliflower Veloute ($15 ****) is a velvety blond soup with a small handful of what the staff calls “trail mix” in the center, swirled around with a port and pinot noir reduction. So many creamy soups taste only of salt and soup base rather than the main ingredient; this one thankfully tastes of cauliflower. The trail mix is a gustatory fireworks display of sweet golden raisins, salty bursts from capers, toasty slivered almonds and a dollop of paddlefish roe. The soup is a triumph.

Fancher’s creations can be visually exciting as well. His Local Fig Salad ($12 ****) bounces before your eyes with a party-colored assemblage of perfect figs, baby French Breakfast radishes, ribbons of red and orange carrot shavings, wedges of cream-colored Bellwether Farms San Andreas raw sheep’s milk cheese, almonds and radish shavings, dotted with drops of locally-made balsamic vinegar.

The interior of the room is visually exciting, too. As you enter, there’s a coat rack on your left made from shoemakers’ lasts. In one dining area, there’s a big photo of the hind end of a pig with a curly tail. Next to it is a big photo of a squash with a curly stem, looking very much like the back end of a pig. And next to that is a big photo of the stem end of a pear, looking like the hind end of a pig without the curly tail. Fascinating.

The full bar serves a variety of special house cocktails along with just about any standards you can name, and there’s a fine wine list with Dry Creek Valley and Russian River Valley wines along with a mix of wines of the world.

Locavores will enjoy the menu’s “Eat the View” theme — that is, most of the ingredients for the food are grown or raised close by. A full list of local suppliers can be found on the “About Our Menu” card you get with the main menu. As a special treat, dinner on Wednesday evenings is $35 per person ($53 with wine pairings), served family style. And there’s a five-course tasting menu for $75 per person ($115 with wine pairings).

Here’s one for you pork loin lovers: Bacon-Wrapped Pork Tenderloin ($27 ****), succulent and bacon-y, served with an apple marmalade, mashed potatoes made with lots — lots! — of butter, seared and caramelized Belgian endive and prosciutto vinaigrette.

Duck ($29 ****) is perfect, with a crispy confit leg and seared breast slices, vinegar glazed little onions and leeks and a brioche toast covered with foie gras shavings. Alaskan Halibut ($28 ***) was a tad underdone, but came with bacon, squash agnolotti, caramelized Brussels sprout leaves and pearl onions.

Desserts are every bit as good as the savory dishes.

To sum up: Barndiva is a gem among the gems in Healdsburg’s extraordinary restaurant scene.

(See more photos of Barndiva)

Jeff Cox writes a weekly restaurant review column for the Sonoma Living section. You can reach him at jeffcox@sonic.net.