Author: Ann Bauer

  • Pretty Flighty

    When friends of ours — dedicated and robust red wine drinkers — dropped by last weekend, here’s what I had on hand: A $100 Hartwell Stags Leap District Cabernet Sauvignon (2002) that someone had given me as a gift [because believe me, this is not in my keep-it-around-the-house price range]. A Chilean Merlot from Casa…

  • duplex: The Little Restaurant that Could

    When my friends David and Grant moved here from Manhattan during a flat, frigid stretch of January 2006, I assured them there were plenty of wonderful restaurants in the Twin Cities where they could occupy themselves during the winter. Try La Belle Vie, I said. Heartland, Restaurant Alma, Five (now closed), Cosmos, and Fugaise. I’ll…

  • Don't Have Sex to Sousa

    If only I’d known when I posted my last entry about White Burgundy and Fall Out Boy! Suddenly, everyone in the wine world seems to be talking about Clark Smith who — along with his wife, Dr. Susan Mayer-Smith — has been conducting "research" into the relationship between wine and music. The owners of GrapeCraft…

  • The Mysterious Male Id

    I’ve fallen in love with plenty of imperfect movies. There was Donnie Darko, a film whose haphazard, cross-genre narrative I forgave because it cut right to the core of how weird and perilous it feels to be a depressed teenager. And Benny & Joon, a sweet, just-shy-of-precious story that was redeemed by genuine filial warmth…

  • White Burgundy: Smooth Sunlit Chardonnay

    You would think — would you not? — that having been rendered temporarily, partially deaf would improve one’s ability to evaluate wine. Blindness, after all, makes the other senses more acute. Why not a faint pain and constant ringing of the ears. I had occasion to ponder this on Thanksgiving, after attending the Young Wild…

  • My Last Supper: What's Yours?

    It’s #128 on Amazon, so I’m guessing this book will appear under many tinsel-frocked Christmas trees — My Last Supper: 50 Great Chefs and Their Final Meals, by Melanie Dunea — a thick, lush photo, interview, recipe volume that’s been described as Annie Liebowitz meets Heat. The conceit here is that 50 chefs, ranging from…