We attended Barnsdall Fridays Wine Nights on Frank Lloyd Wright’s lawn. Here’s what Silverlake Wine poured; and weighing the pro’s and con’s of the event. Tickets at barnsdall.org.
There is a version of Los Angeles that still surprises even the most veteran of LA transplants. Barnsdall Fridays Wine Nights is one of them.
Barnsdall Fridays Wine Nights has a reputation for being hard to get in. It’s not a snobby Club 54 reference. It just sells out every week. Usually weeks in advance. Last summer, you’d have to book a month in advance.
So, is it worth it?
We attended the June 20th edition of the 17th annual series hosted by the Barnsdall Art Park Foundation on the grounds of Hollyhock House, Frank Lloyd Wright’s first Los Angeles commission and the city’s only UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The West Lawn opens every Friday through September 11, and the $55 ticket gets you four pours curated by Silverlake Wine, access to food vendors, a DJ, and a view over Hollywood that earns every superlative Angelenos have thrown at it for seventeen years.
Arrive Early. This Is Not a Secret.
Let’s get the practical reality out of the way: this event is popular. Genuinely, substantially crowded. The West Lawn fills, the food vendor lines build, and if you arrive expecting a quiet hilltop moment with a glass of natural wine, you will need to recalibrate.
Barnsdall Fridays is a community event at scale, and it operates like one.
That said, the crowd is part of what makes it work. There is something uncommon about this many Angelenos gathered on a Friday evening around something that isn’t a concert; simply seeing friends, meeting new friends, a Silverlake Wine curation, and a view that stops most conversations mid-sentence.
The view from Olive Hill is not a selling point. It is one of the bigger points of the entire conversation.
The Santa Monica Mountains at golden hour, the Hollywood skyline catching the last light, the city laid out below Wright’s horizontal rooflines — it is the kind of sight that makes you understand why Aline Barnsdall chose this hill in 1921 and why people have been climbing it every summer Friday for seventeen years since.
It is that gorgeous, magical, majestic.
I’d share a picture of it with you, but I would have had to step over 20 people’s picnic blankets to get there. I try to be a good neighbor.
The Wine Is the Point
Silverlake Wines curated four bottles for the evening, and the range was more intentional than a casual outdoor event typically warrants.
The Enkidu 2023 Cuvée “M” Grenache Blanc from Borden Ranch in Lodi was the standout white and the first genuine surprise of the night.
Lodi doesn’t get the credit it deserves for white wine production, and this pour made the case directly: bright, structured, and refreshing as the early evening heat was still sitting on the hill.
The Los Conejos Malditos Rosado from Spain and the Blau red held the middle of the lineup before the evening’s other standout.
Two things I especially liked about Silverlake Wine’s setup.
First, the wines they chose were diverse, special, but affordable. Each under $20. Their goal wasn’t to show-off an extraordinary rare bottle. It was to give you a taste of something that you could come back to the store and reasonably buy next week.
Second, in front of us in line were two women in their 20s. In about 40 seconds, the Silverlake Somm answered their questions, poured the next bottle, explained the region, the flavor profile, and teased them to come back for the next sip.
At a time when wine culture continues to fight against being intimidating, they were playing their part perfectly. Fun, playful, casual. Wine doesn’t have to be so serious. It can be a delicious chilled glass tasted around friends, while enjoying an incredible sunset.
Silverlake Wine did an incredible job of reminding us that.
The fourth pour and the fruit-forward standout: the Dos Minas Malbec from Valle de Cafayate in Salta, Argentina.
High-altitude Malbec, Cafayate sits above 5,000 feet, produces a distinctly different expression than the Mendoza bottles most Angelenos know. Deeper color, tighter structure, more tension on the finish. It was the right wine to be holding as the sun dropped behind the mountains.
For anyone intimidated by wine, this is the perfect setting for you. Very beautiful, very casual setting with a Silverlake Wine team on the other side of the table, delivering fast and playful notes.
The obvious: this is not a serious wine tasting.
Triple Beam Pizza Made the Right Call Being Here
The food vendor lineup included Surfer Taco, the self-described house of the shrimp and lobster burrito, and Triple Beam Pizza, whose red tent was running at capacity most of the evening. Their menu ran from a $6.50 cheese slice up to a $10.25 roasted mushroom, with acorn squash in between. The crowd around that tent was consistent and telling. When a pizza vendor is doing that kind of volume at a wine event, they’ve earned it.
Why This Event Matters Beyond the Pour
One hundred percent of proceeds fund arts programming and preservation at Barnsdall Art Park, landscape stewardship on Olive Hill, equipment for the Arts Center and Junior Arts Center, theatrical upgrades at the Gallery Theatre.
In a year when the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs faces proposed budget cuts that could materially impact cultural sites across the city, the stakes for this series are higher than the calendar suggests.
The $90 ticket tier adds an after-hours interior tour of Hollyhock House. Seeing Wright’s early California textile block experiments in the evening quiet, with the city below and a glass of Salta Malbec still in memory, is a different experience than the daytime tour.
Just across the way is Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery
Barnsdall Fridays runs every Friday through September 11, 5:30 to 9:00 p.m.
Tickets at barnsdall.org.
Go on a clear evening. Get there early.
