Braeburn

Last week, I was invited by Braeburn to a tasting with some fellow bloggers. I’ve never visited Braeburn, but was very excited to try it because I walked by it after a lunch at Perry Street. Braeburn is located on Perry Street and was named after the Braeburn apple; the owners came up with lists of potential names and the first name they all liked was Braeburn.

We started at the bar with some appetizers:

We moved to the ground floor where we had a private dining room (which is also used as a wine cellar). The chef prepared a four course tasting for us so we could sample their new menu offerings for fall and the owner paired them with his favorite wines. We started off with warm smoked trout with roasted butternut squash, toasted pumpkin seeds, apple-celery salad, and brown butter vinaigrette with a riesling, Vielles Vigne Albert Boxler:

I’m not that knowledgeable about wine, but I really enjoyed the crisp and sweet riesling with the trout. It’s funny to eat with food bloggers; most of the time, I’m the only one with a camera at the table but we were all taking pictures before we started eating!

Our next course was the Long Island Fluke with creamless celery root clam chowder, bacon, early squash, paired with sauvignon blanc, Daniel Chotard:

I thought the fluke was a little heavy with the clam chowder, but the clam chowder was creamy and none of us could believe that there was no cream in the chowder! There were also bits of lobster meat and clam meat in the chowder that made it very decadent.

For our next course, we were presented with an uncooked oyster and trumpet mushroom:

Then servers came around to all of our seats and poured soup into the bowl to poach the oyster for our creamless trumpet royale soup with poached wellfleet oyster, crispy potatoes, paired with Voignier, “Chery” Andre Perret:

I actually had a large oyster shell in my soup, which kind of ruined the dish for me, but the trumpet mushroom had a full fall flavor that was delicious. I wasn’t a fan of the oyster to begin with (some things should just be slurped down raw) but the soup and trumpet mushroom were delicious.

My wines from the evening:

I felt terrible that I wasn’t drinking more, but I really couldn’t drink so much after I had a campari drink at the bar (also, I’m so used to not drinking wine when I eat that it doesn’t seem normal to me now).

Our final savory course of the night was the breast of Long Island duck with kohlrabi, wheat berries, duck confit, and prune puree:

The duck was tender, moist, and very well done.

After our savory courses, servers came and cleared our plates and then brought a slew of desserts for everyone to try. I started with the apple cobbler with ice cream (with apples picked from the chef’s house in Connecticut!):

Then I tried the yogurt souffle with concord grapes:

A reconstructed Almond Joy:

Beignets filled with chocolate:

And my absolute favorite of the night, banana pudding:

The banana pudding had whipped cream that was so light and airy that it was the exact opposite of Magnolia’s (although I do love Magnolia’s as well). If Magnolia’s banana pudding appeals to children and people with a sweet tooth, Braeburn’s banana pudding appeals to the adult crowd; not cloyingly sweet, light, airy, and every bite had just the right combination of banana, pudding, and cake.

After dinner, Brian Bistrong, the chef and part owner of the restaurant, joined us at the dinner table and talked to us about opening the restaurant, his family, and restaurants he likes to visit in the city (a lot of restaurants in Chinatown, surprisingly). Braeburn has a fried chicken dinner on Wednesday nights and the chef also mentioned their weekend brunch, which is also very popular. I definitely want to return to Braeburn for brunch or for dinner; the restaurant is cozy, well lit for a date, and has really great food!