Osburnt: Dispatches From a Life Seared by the Arts

  • Austrian Wine Dinner

    Austrian Wine Dinner

    I celebrated my first day in Manhattan after Sandy by signing up last minute for the Austrian Wine Dinner at Corkbuzz on Monday night. There were just four of us, due to hurricane related cancellations, which meant we got plenty of one-on-one attention. The wine was all served cool or on ice, which was counter-intuitively…

  • Truffle Dinner

    Truffle Dinner

    Halfway through this week’s Truffle Dinner at Corkbuzz, the sommelier’s table was a chaotic jumble of half consumed bottles of Nebbiolo, along with a few extras, but still awaiting the Pedro Ximenez that would top off the experience. As usual, both the food and the wine were superb, and went well together, with little flecks…

  • Spanish Wine Dinner

    Spanish Wine Dinner

    At the Spanish Wine Dinner at Corkbuzz on Tuesday night, the labels alone were pretty intriguing, including one printed in Braille from a winery that uses blind persons, with their heightened taste buds and olfactory abilities, to test the wines. An interesting slide show accompanied the meal, narrated by Kerin Auth, who owns the excellent…

  • Daniel Berlin

    Daniel Berlin

    Courtesy of guest chef Daniel Berlin, there was a special tasting menu this week at Aquavit to extol the flavors and ingredients of the Swedish region of Skåne. The style was contemporary, the flavors paradoxically earthy and clean, the textures complex and interactive, the plates photogenic in the extreme. A parcel of codfish, buried in…

  • Camila Meza • North Square

    Camila Meza • North Square

    From time to time when I have needed a place to park myself prior to a later engagement, I have dropped in at the North Square for a drink. It is sort of perfect as a “lounge,” as a opposed to a bar or club – dimly lit, bartenders rather than mixologists, the sort of…

  • The Spanish G and T

    The Spanish G and T

    The tradition in saunas is to be beaten with a pine branch, and so I sought solace in the swelter that was Manhattan on Saturday in the great juniper based cocktail that is a gin and tonic. For that I went straight to Boqueria at its Flatirons location, from which I had received a promotional…

  • Buenos Aires Restaurant

    Buenos Aires Restaurant

    If I understood the situation correctly I was, a number of years ago, the first customer at Buenos Aires Restaurant. Excited upon walking down 6th Street and discovering that an Argentine parrilla was about to open in my neighborhood, I jotted down the phone number and called as soon as I got home. It was…

  • Alexandra Castaño Trio

    Alexandra Castaño Trio

    I used to go to the Anyway Café all the time, savoring the house-infused vodkas, excellent martinis made with same, Russian-French bistro food, and classic bohemian atmosphere. But for whatever reason, I fell out of the habit of going there. Until, that is, last Saturday, when the Alexandra Castaño Trio lured me in with several…

  • Summer of Reisling

    Summer of Reisling

    Since attending the SUMMER OF REISLING dinner at Corkbuzz on Monday evening I have stood corrected on the subject of Rieslings, which I have always regarded as a light, non-serious white, and usually a little too sweet, although refreshing enough as a summer accompaniment. Now I know courtesy of sommelier Laura Maniec and Reisling enthusiast…

  • Tutuma Social Club

    Tutuma Social Club

    The Tutuma Social Club has always been at the top of my list for out-of-town visitors and any in-towners who haven’t discovered it on their own yet, especially on a night when the house band was playing. If the Gabriel Alegria Afro-Peruvian Sextet isn’t the best jazz band you’ve never heard of, then it may…