EATS

Theatre Arlington is offering an adults-only BYOB night this Thursday for its production of the wacky comedy The Book of Liz. You can bring your own beverage to drink in the lobby before the show from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. (I.D.s will be checked). The theater's also planning similar nights for productions of The Boyfriend on June 19 and Perfect Wedding on Aug. 7.

Imagine consuming 66 hot dogs in Wonder Bread hot-dog buns. Well, Joey Chestnut can do it. In 12 minutes, yet.

He's the current champion in the Nathan's Famous Hot Dog Eating Competition. And now Nathan's is looking for challengers in a regional qualifying round, to be held June 21 at Sam's Club, 1200 E. Spring Creek Pkway. in Plano.

You must be 18 or older to compete, and you must enter in advance, online. Regional winners will compete with Joey C. for the national title on July 4th, in Coney Island. Prize: the coveted Yellow Mustard Belt. (And, we imagine, a major bout with indigestion.)

Dallasite Lisa Garza, who's a contestant on The Next Food Network Star, will appear at Williams-Sonoma in Highland Park Village on Saturday, May 10, from 1 to 3 p.m. She will do cooking demos, and there also will be food samplings.

Lisa's a designer, and also the wife of Gilbert Garza, co-owner of Suze.

I had the pleasure of speaking with food and wine expert Ted Allen on Wednesday morning. He was in Puerto Rico where he's filming the final episodes of Top Chef (and trying to squeeze in some vacation time). He discussed his Sunday appearance at Taste Addison and talked a little about what's coming on Top Chef. His not-exactly-a-spoiler: "Whatever you may think or however you might want to handicap it, remember it doesn't matter who the best chef is. There are front-runners in this cast. But it doesn't matter." You can read the rest of my Q&A with him here.

He had a lot to say – as you can imagine if you've seen him on Top Chef, Iron Chef America or Queer Eye for the Straight Guy. And there wasn't enough room in the paper. So I'm sharing some leftovers. Click below to read more about his advice for aspiring oenophiles and his love-hate relationship with his Top Chef blog on BravoTV.com.

The KLTY-FM (94.9) and Market Street "Two-Minute Family Grocery Dash" will be held at 7 a.m. this Saturday (May 10) at the Market Street in Allen (985 W. Bethany Drive).

Traci Griseta of Terrell; her husband, Tony; son, Colton, 16; and daughter, Emerald, 14 will have two minutes to run through Market Street and grab as many groceries as they can.

Bijoux's Italy Tour takes a spin through the Piedmont and Tuscany regions, with experts such as Stefano Chiarlo (oenologist at Piedmont's Michele Chiarlo) on board. The four-course wine dinner highlights seven wines. May 12 at 7 p.m. $145. 214-350-6100 for reservations.

Need reservations for Mother's Day? Check out our dining guide. We've got brunch , lunch and dinner options. There are buffets with omelet stations, prix fixe meals with fig-glazed quail salad, bottomless mimosas, frozen Bellinis, sushi, specials for kids, chocolates for mom and more.

Saturday is Customer Appreciation Day at the Coppell Farmers Market, held in conjunction with the Old Town Coppell Festival, a small-town shindig, fun for a family outing.

The "appreciation" is in the form of a free raffle for prizes provided by the vendors, and burgers and hot dogs fresh off the grill. Kids will enjoy the free pony rides with photographs and a miniature stagecoach ride, plus some Clydesdales, antique tractors and a bluegrass band. The festival also brings out craftpersons, artists and gift vendors.

But you really come to buy the foodstuffs, and Marilyn Horton, the market chair this year, writes that Saturday there will be tomatoes, green beans, zucchini and yellow squash, a few cucumbers, green beans, garlic, new potatoes, sweet potatoes, turnips, mushrooms, poke sallet, broccoli, lettuces, chard, kale, spinach, collards and turnip greens. "We usually get a few surprises, too," she writes.

Also at the market: cheese, pastured meats, eggs from real free-range hens, seafood from the Gulf, Alaskan wild-caught salmon, honey, jams, fresh pasta, breads, pecans, teas and coffees, homemade soaps and those earthworm casings. And lots of plants: bedding, herbs, veggies, hanging baskets, the works.

If you're collecting the full set of Flying Saucer commemorative glasses, you won't want to miss next Wednesday's annual Beer Knurd glass (see left), which the bartenders will start filling at 7 p.m. There's a small charge for the glass, plus the beer in it. If you've just got to have it, get there early; we're told they go fast. The Flying Saucer is at 14999 Montfort Drive in Addison.

Usually when a store offers free sorbet, it comes on an itsy-bitsy plastic spoon. Not so with Sorbeteria, the new sorbet and smoothie emporium that just opened in the strip center at 7700 W. Northwest Highway, across from NorthPark Mall.

Come May 17, Sorbeteria will give out free full-sized servings of your choice of 16 fruit sorbets or nine fruit smoothies. It's a one-day-only grand opening event, designed to get you hooked on a treat that's really good -- and good for you.

We beat the rush and sampled a couple of flavors today. Prices are $3 for a single scoop, $4 for a double and $6 for a take-home pint. The Apricot-Tangerine sorbet bursts with intensely fruity flavor with just the right amount of tanginess.

The Doubleberry Sorbet Smoothie -- a blend of Marion Blackberry and Strawberry Sorbets with fresh berries -- packs a whollop of flavor, plus antioxidants to boot.

The sorbets are made with 90 percent ripe fruit -- much of it from Texas farmers -- and have less than a teaspoon of added sugar per serving. You'd never guess that while tasting these sorbets though -- that's a tribute to the abundance of naturally sweet, ripe fruit used to make them.

Bring the kids for the freebies, and feel good about indulging them with something so healthful.

Sorbeteria
Open 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily
7700 W. Northwest Highway
214-373-7777

Tina Danze

Dallas ex-pat Kathryn Hall (how could anyone leave Dallas for Napa Valley?) leads the discussion and previews new HALL Winery vintages at an Abacus wine dinner May 13 at 6:30 p.m.

Kent Rathbun and crew will be pouring the 2007 sauvignon blanc, 2005 merlot, and the 2004 and 2005 cabs with courses that include quail-foie-gras-stuffed mushrooms, grilled elk medallions and pan-seared scallops wtih braised spinach. It's a great chance to see the new digs, too.

The dinner is $130 a person plus tax and 20 percent gratuity. For reservations, e-mail here. For more info, call 469-867-3681.

Victory Park eatery La Condesa celebrates Cinco de Mayo with music, half-price Cazadores tequila and $5 Cazadores margaritas. While there, check out the restaurant's menu of Mexican street food and cantina favorites. The party begins at 7 tonight. Click here for more Cinco de Mayo dining options.

Ted Allen of Top Chef, Iron Chef America and Queer Eye for the Straight Guy will conduct a cooking demo at Taste Addison this Sunday at 2 p.m. with the Robert Mondavi Special Selection Discover Wine exhibit.

Mr. Allen, who is as easy to talk to as he seems on TV, has been working with the Napa Valley winery as an educational spokesman for about four years. "I have no intention of perpetuating wine snobbery," he said. He prefers talking to people who are not experts, people who just want to enjoy wine and be more comfortable buying and serving it.

His advice is to "taste, taste, taste" in wine shops, restaurants and at festivals like Taste Addison and don't be afraid to ask for help at a retail store or restaurant.

Mr. Allen is excited to be working with the Mondavi winery because of Robert Mondavi's history and contribution of wine in America. The Discover Wine exhibit is a way to bring the excitement of harvest time, or the "crush," to people who don't live in wine country. The winery road show has an exhibit showing how wine is made, a tasting bar and a demo kitchen where Mr. Allen will be on Sunday.

Mr. Allen's had a bit of experience with Dallas and Dallasites. He spent nearly a month in Dallas filming three episodes of Queer Eye. He has also judged the work Dallas chefs both on Top Chef and Iron Chef America. He was particularly impressed with the Rathbun brothers, Kent and Kevin, who won against Bobby Flay on Iron Chef America. He noted that it is very hard for a challenger to beat the Iron Chef, but Kent and Kevin had the showmanship for TV and big, bold flavors in their food to impress the judges.

Rebecca Murphy

Not to slobber all over the Rosewood Mansion Restaurant, but these days when I get to attend a special dinner there, I anticipiate that it will in some way push the envelope.

I wasn't disppointed over the weekend when exec chef John Tesar and wine director Michael Flynn devised their wine dinner for Spring Mountain Winery in the Napa Valley. "This is the first time we're doing a wine retrospective of this magnitude," said winemaker Jac Cole, there for commentary. To wit: an 11-year vertical tasting. (Great slide show of the estate here.)

What's a vertical tasting? You taste one wine through several vintages, in this case the Spring Mountain Vineyard Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon, later renamed Elivette, from 1993 through 2003. Read on to see what the Mansion duo did with these wonderful wines.

Need reservations for Mother's Day? Check out our dining guide. We've got brunch , lunch and dinner options. There are buffets with omelet stations, prix fixe meals with fig-glazed quail salad, bottomless mimosas, frozen Bellinis, sushi, specials for kids, chocolates for mom and more. And remember to check back as we'll be adding to the list as more specials hit our inboxes.

Latte Da Dairy in Flower Mound invites everyone out to see their "Dairy Divas" (aka goats) tomorrow from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. It's also a chance to meet cheesemaker Anne Jones and see her operation. Plus, it's the middle of kidding season, notes Jennifer Uygur in her Slow Food Dallas e-blast, which means a lot of new babies are being born weekly. And baby goats are so cute. The dairy farm is at 1304 Bridle Bit Road in Flower Mound. Here's a link to a map. Phone is 817-490-5004.

According to the Web site, the Frisco Farmers Market opens Saturday (May 3) and runs through Sept. 6, Saturdays from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m., at Frisco Square. I went last year, and it was tiny then, but maybe it'll grow like the rest of Frisco.

No news -- I just loved this snap of chef John Tesar of the Rosewood Mansion on Turtle Creek, preparing to do battle with a king crab claw. David Woo shot it Saturday at the Dallas Wine and Food Festival.

Pinkalicious fans are already tickled pink that the book about the 8-year-old with an insatiable desire for pink cupcakes has been adapted as Pinkalicious: The Musical, to be seen at Taste Addison May 10 and 11. Now for those who develop a craving for the colorful confections that will be offered as part of a $20 after-show package (along with pink lemonade and a photo with the cast), we have discovered that it is none other than Delicious Cakes that will be doing the baking. So if you gotta have more, you know where to go.

Thanks to Sur La Table for pointing out that Maria Simmons' class on Friday will be "Tools of the Global Kitchen," not, um, risotto as, um, I reported earlier here. Ms. Simmons is going to show how to use the stovetop smoker, cataplana, cocotte, paella pan and mandoline.

A stovetop smoker is pretty much what it says; I have one, and I love the way foods come out. A cataplana is a special Portuguese copper cooking vessel; it's also the name of the dish. A cocotte is like a Dutch oven. A paella pan should be self-explanatory, and a mandoline is a slicer that yields all kinds of wonderful, thin shapes, like julienne veggies and wafer-thin slices.

The menu includes Prosciutto Wrapped Shrimp, Clam Pork Sausage and Bacon Stew, Chicken with Preserved Lemon and Moroccan Spices, Chicken Shrimp and Chorizo Paella, and Jicama and Carrot Slaw with Fresh Pineapple and Cilantro. It's $59, starts at 6:30 p.m. and you can sign up here.

I went to a wine tasting and buffet dinner last night with premier Italian winemaker Riccardo Cotarella (who had flown in the day before from Russia) and was knocked out by the food, an Italian menu devised to accompany his wonderful wines, including a sassy Italian merlot.

It was all good, but the lasagna bolognese showed why lasagna gained such a huge following in the U.S. the same way pommes frites inspired American French fries. The pasta was thin and delicate, layered with richly meaty sauce but not drowned in it, and the final crowning cheese was just enough to complete the dish, an exercise in extravagant restraint. And a Homer-donut moment, to be sure.

The menu points up why the Food Company is often the catering company of choice for the Park Cities, and why Nonna (reviewed here), its sister restaurant, is so popular with fans of authentic Italian. Here's hoping this dish shows up on the restaurant menu, if it hasn't already.

Marie Simmons wrote Things Cooks Love (Andrew McMeel), Sur La Table's first cookbook, which is fresh off the press. Not only that, she'll be here May 2 for a book-signing and cooking class.

The class, which starts at 6:30 p.m., is a hands-on risotto workshop, with recipes (gadgets, too, no doubt) that include Roasted Butternut Squash and Dried Currant Risotto and Risotto With Spicy Italian Sausage. It's $69, and you can sign up here.

The book signing is the hour before the class, from 5 to 6 p.m. It's free, of course. If you purchase a book before May 31, it's $24.95. After May 31, it's $35. Check it out here. Sur La Table is at 4527 Travis.

The annual festival kicks off tonight with Gourmet Cinema -- the gourmet part being a dinner by chef Richard Chamberlain, and the cinema being Sideways. But let's talk about that dinner for a minute. The chef promises goose-fat fries with Parmigiano-Reggiano. Other food too, but it's those fries that tempt.

On Friday, Texas Salute will serve up local and regional foods and wines. Austin-based Treaty Oak Platinum Rum will pour samples of their rum as well as mojitos. You can also sample the latest from Fall Creek Vineyards, McPherson Cellars, Inwood Estates Vineyards and Saint Arnold Brewery, among others. Make a meal out of nibbles from Aurelia's Chorizo, shrimp cocktail from Big Shucks, brisket tacos from Blue Goose, tamales from Texas Tamale, guacamole from Two Chihuahuas, plus hot sauces, desserts and more. Wiseman House from Hico, Texas, will serve truffles, toffee and its decadent sipping chocolate. And yes, I'm "hosting" this one, which merely means I will get up and say HI at some point during the evening.

Saturday is given over to Entertaining With Style, a series of seminars spread out along McKinney just south of Knox. Milestone Culinary Arts Center is ground zero; stop in at 12:30 to taste along with the Taste wine panel. We'll be pairing wines with a killer mac-and-cheese. Also look for a demo by chef John Tesar of the Rosewood Mansion on Turtle Creek, along with other chefs from around town.

Sunday is reserved for Taste of the World, with samples from Dallas restaurants paired with award-winning wines. Check the menu here.

Full disclosure: The Dallas Morning News is, once again, a sponsor of the festival.

Whether you're a maid of honor needing a few good tips or just want to check out D'Vine Wine of Plano, lots of luscious hors d'oeuvres and desserts and prizes from Bed, Bath & Beyond and Ghiradelli Chocolate, you're invited to the Made of Honor 411 Survival Party Friday from 5 to 9 p.m. at D'Vine Wine of Plano at 8600 Preston Road Suite 100. Sponsored by Columbia Pictures, Circle Park Bridal and D'Vine Wine, the idea is to promote the new Patrick Dempsey Made of Honor movie opening May 2. But we recommend that participants interested in a successful wedding don't do as Dr. McDreamy does in the film, mainly everything he can break to break up the couple so he can marry the bride himself. Register here .

Running out of ideas for Passover meals as the eight days stretch on and on and on? Relief is in sight for Thursday, at least. The Jewish Community Center of Dallas is offering a Passover Restaurant Thursday from 6 to 8 p.m. with a complete meal and activities for the kids for $15 per adult and $10 per kid ages 2-12 at the Aaron Family JCC's Zale Auditorium at 7900 Northaven Road. But you'll have to act fast. The deadline to reserve a spot for Thursday is TODAY at 5 p.m. Contact Laura Seymour at lseymour@jccdallas.org or call 214-239-7110.