Here are a few upcoming wine and beer dinners across the Triangle:

Tuscan wine dinner at Washington Duke
The Fairview Dining Room at the Washington Duke Inn & Golf Club is hosting a Tuscan wine dinner at 7 p.m. April 16.
The menu includes five courses: house made coppa ham with black truffle on a crostini with tomato gelee, volcanic salt-crusted pike with roasted green peppers, capers, tomato confit and rosemary; herb-roasted rabbit loin with farro risotto, grilled baby squash and fig gastrique; braised veal and English pea stratta with sautéed arugula and a black garlic veal reduction; and for dessert, a selection of sweets and coffee.
All wine pairings are being chosen by Sarah Pedrali of Terra Moretti Wines.
The dinner costs $59 per person. For reservations, call 919-493-6699.

18 Seaboard chef hosts fundraising dinner
Jason Smith and his wife, Lauren, are hosting a fundraising dinner to benefit SAFEchild, a child abuse prevention agency.
At 7 p.m. April 26, the couple will host 40 guests at their home for a five-course dinner with wine pairings. The meal costs $100 per person. For more information or to make a reservation, please email events@18seaboard.com or call 919-861-4318.
The Smiths are longtime supporters of SAFEchild. The couple served as community chairs for the 2012 Believe in SAFEchild campaign. Jason's stepmother, Rachel Smith, was a founding supporter and later served as SAFEchild board president. Info: safechildnc.org.

Carolina Brewing Co. beer dinner
As part of the month long N.C. Beer Month, 42nd Street Oyster Bar is hosting a five-course beer dinner at 6 p.m. April 21.
The menu includes a braised pork brisket with a Cheerwine barbecue sauce paired with a Nut Brown Ale; a green tomato gazpacho with Cajun-fried oysters paired with a Spring Bock; an applewood-smoked duck breast with mesculin greens and a blackberry vinaigrette paired with a Pale Ale; blackened rockfish and shrimp and grits with roasted asparagus and wild mushroom jus paired with an India Pale Ale; and for dessert, an espresso flan garnished with dark chocolate and served with an Imperial Stout. Tickets cost $59. To make a reservation, call 919-831-2811.
To see other N.C. Beer Month events, go to ncbeermonth.com.

There are two amazing events happening on Oct. 14 and I pit anyone who has to choose between the two.

Raleigh's The Wine Feed is partnering with Dock to Door Seafood to host a wine and seafood celebration starting at 4 p.m. Oct. 14.

The Hook + Vine event will feature five tastes of North Carolina seafood made by these restaurants and caterers: Battistella's, PoshNosh Catering, Sarah Cecilia Good Food Co. and Mandolin. The chefs will be serving up tastes of shrimp and flounder, as well as more sustainable ocean species, like sheepshead and grunts. Each seafood dish will be paired with a wine from The Wine Feed's offerings.

The event will be held at The Wine Feed's location at 18 Glenwood Ave. Tickets cost $30 or $25 when two or more tickets are ordered. To purchase tickets or for more information, go to thewinefeed.com/hook-vine/.

The second event is  the 5th Annual Pittsboro Pepper Festival from 3-7 p.m. Oct. 14 at Briar Chapel Community Park

If you are a pepper fan, this is a not-to-be-missed event. Eight local farms will be providing mild and hot peppers for more than 30 chefs, caterers and other food artisans who will be serving samples. The list of restaurants includes Raleigh's 18 Seaboard, Herons at the Umstead Hotel and Spa in Cary and La Residence in Chapel Hill. There also will be live music and children's activities.

The event is from 3-7 p.m. Tickets cost $30 until Saturday and $35 on the day of the event. To purchase tickets and for more information, go HERE.

The event benefits the Abundance Foundation, a nonprofit that aims to educate the public about sustainable agriculture, renewable energy and the local economy.
 

Go HERE to read Fred Thompson's column about the grilled meatloaf at Raleigh's 18 Seaboard and his effort to come up with a recipe.

Photo by Staff photographer Juli Leonard

David Fowle, 48, will be a familiar face to many longtime downtown Raleigh office workers who used to frequent his coffee shop at the Sheraton. All told, Fowle sold coffee in downtown Raleigh for nine years from the mid-1990s to the early 2000s.

After several years away, Fowle has opened the Wilmoore Cafe at 223 S. Wilmington St., next door to the Busy Bee Cafe. They opened six weeks ago. So I checked in with Fowle to learn about his life in the coffee business and return to downtown.

Click READ MORE to see the entire post.

REMINDER: Triangle Modernist Houses's Appetite for Architecture dinners  are still ongoing at Raleigh's 18 Seaboard. You get to have dinner with prominent members of the Triangle design community.

Here is the remaining schedule:

• Feb. 8: Frank Harmon, David Crawford, executive vice president of the American Institute of Architects North Carolina, and Steve Schuster, who led financing of the new building for the American Institute of Architects North Carolina.
• March 8: Ellen Cassilly and her husband, Frank Konhaus, with builder Leon Meyers and artist-in-residence Ann Ehringhaus. NOTE: This event is at the Cassilly-Konhaus home in Chapel Hill.
• March 22: Turan Duda, Mike Rantilla and Art Lin, who have designed and/or built their own homes.

The cost includes three courses from a pre-selected menu, coffee, water or tea, tax and tip. All the dinners cost $49 except the March 8 dinner, which costs $59.

All proceeds, except for the Feb. 8 dinner, benefit the nonprofit's "ongoing documentation, promotion and house tour program to preserve and celebrate modernist residential design."

The Feb. 8 dinner will benefit the AIA NC's building fund.

For tickets, go to www.trianglemodernisthouses.com/a4a.htm

Just a reminder: Triangle Modernist Houses has announced the schedule for the 2nd annual Appetite for Architecture dinners.

Here's how it works: You pay for a three-course meal at Raleigh's 18 Seaboard and get to have dinner with prominent members of the Triangle design community.

Here is the schedule:

• Jan. 11: Vinny Petrarca, Randy Lanou and Will Alphin
• Jan. 25: Recent Kamphoefner Prize winners Phil Szostak and Jeffrey Lee with NCSU College of Design Dean Marvin Malecha.
• Feb. 8: Frank Harmon, David Crawford, executive vice president of the American Institute of Architects North Carolina, and Steve Schuster, who led financing of the new building for the American Institute of Architects North Carolina.
• March 8: Ellen Cassilly and her husband, Frank Konhaus, with builder Leon Meyers and artist-in-residence Ann Ehringhaus. NOTE: This event is at the Cassilly-Konhaus home in Chapel Hill.
• March 22: Turan Duda, Mike Rantilla and Art Lin, who have designed and/or built their own homes.

The cost includes three courses from a pre-selected menu, coffee, water or tea, tax and tip. All the dinners cost $49 except the March 8 dinner, which costs $59.

All proceeds, except for the Feb. 8 dinner, benefit the nonprofit's "ongoing documentation, promotion and house tour program to preserve and celebrate modernist residential design."

The Feb. 8 dinner will benefit the AIA NC's building fund.

For tickets, go to www.trianglemodernisthouses.com/a4a.htm

Triangle Modernist Houses announced the schedule for the 2nd annual Appetite for Architecture.

Here's how it works: You pay for a three-course meal at Raleigh's 18 Seaboard and get to have dinner with prominent members of the Triangle design community.

Here is the schedule:

• Jan. 11: Vinny Petrarca, Randy Lanou and Will Alphin
• Jan. 25: Recent Kamphoefner Prize winners Phil Szostak and Jeffrey Lee with NCSU College of Design Dean Marvin Malecha.
• Feb. 8: Frank Harmon, David Crawford, executive vice president of the American Institute of Architects North Carolina, and Steve Schuster, who led financing of the new building for the American Institute of Architects North Carolina.
• March 8: Ellen Cassilly and her husband, Frank Konhaus, with builder Leon Meyers and artist-in-residence Ann Ehringhaus. This event is at the Cassilly-Konhaus home in Chapel Hill.
• March 22: Turan Duda, Mike Rantilla and Art Lin, who have designed and/or built their own homes.

The cost includes three courses from a pre-selected menu, coffee, water or tea, tax and tip. All the dinners cost $49 except the March 8 dinner, which costs $59.

All proceeds, except for the Feb. 8 dinner, benefit the nonprofit's "ongoing documentation, promotion and house tour program to preserve and celebrate modernist residential design."

The Feb. 8 dinner will benefit the AIA NC's building fund.

For tickets, go to www.trianglemodernisthouses.com/a4a.htm

If you heard Kitty Kinnin and I chatting this morning on The River 100.7 about the Triangle Signature Chefs Auction at Prestonwood Country Club this Sunday, Nov. 21, go HERE for details and to purchase tickets. The event benefits the March of Dimes.

A bunch of restaurants are making food for the event from 18 Seaboard to Solas.

Raleigh's 18 Seaboard is offering a fall harvest dinner at 4 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 6.

The meal will be served family style and will feature ingredients from Perry Lowe Orchards and Captain John S. Pope Farms. The three-course dinner with wine cost $34 per person.

• The first course is port-poached Gala apples with pecans, Honey Crisp apples with brown sugar-cured sockeye salmon and roasted Fuji apples with bacon, goat cheese and sage.
• The second course is braised Pope Farm lamb ragout with gemelli pasta, roasted pumpkin with pumpkin seeds and pomegranate and pancetta-braised brussels sprouts.
• Dessert is roasted seckel pears with walnut-rum ice cream.

You have to call 861-4318 to make a reservation.

Update: There is a waiting list for this dinner.

This week, Greg Cox reviews Cantina 18, the latest restaurant from Chef Jason Smith who also owns 18 Seaboard. Click HERE to read the 3-star review.