Osburnt: Dispatches From a Life Seared by the Arts

  • Cata

    Cata

    “Cata” means “tasting” or “bit or sample” in Spanish, and so the experience of the so-named Iberian bar and restaurant on the Bowery is best understood less as tapas bar and more as do-it-yourself tasting menu. The tapas are for the most part traditional, with very few modernist touches, simply prepared, the flavors rich and…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • Amor y Amargo

    Amor y Amargo

    Amor y Amargo popped up a few months ago, just steps from Tompkins Square Park, to become one of the more interesting little bars in New York, specializing in homemade vermouth on tap, bitters and other herbal liqueurs, and a few Spanish tapas. I tried the vermouth (perfect, not too sweet), the francophile flight (it…