Wine dinners, new menu, new hours

Aria and the Wine Vault host a five-course, seven-wine Pio Cesare wine dinner Oct. 11, with Cesare Benvenuto of the winery. Among the courses: pan-seared scampi with 2007 Pio Cesare L'Altro Chardonnay; and braised short rib with 1993 Il Bricco Barbaresco. $75; reservations: The Wine Vault, 704-548-9463; dinner at Aria, in Founders Hall uptown.

Foskoskies hosts an Australian dinner Nov. 1 featuring Penfolds Winery. On the menu: scallops rumaki with 2008 Thomas Hyland "Adelaide" Riesling; herb-roasted lamb chops with grain mustard spaetzle and 2006 "Bin 2" Shiraz-Mourvedre; and more. $40; 2121 Shamrock Drive; 704-535-2220; www.foskoskies.com.

On the new fall menus at Gallery Restaurant: at lunch, fried green tomato grilled cheese sandwich and buckwheat noodle and charred vegetable stir-fry; at dinner, roasted local squash soup and braised rabbit cannelloni, and entrees such as horseradish-crusted cod, Block Island swordfish, smoked duck breast and seared veal tenderloin. 10000 Ballantyne Commons Parkway; 704-248-4100.

Artisan, the teaching restaurant of the International Culinary School at The Art Institute of Charlotte, will open for dinners only during the fall quarter. Hours will be 6-8 p.m. Monday-Wednesday from Oct. 11-Dec. 8, except for Thanksgiving week, during which it will be open only Monday. Three-course dinners will cost $15.95 plus tax and tip; tips go into a scholarship fund for culinary students. Reservations: 704-357-5900.