Coming up: tastings and dinners

Zebra offers a South African wine dinner Oct. 14: four courses and wines for $75. 4521 Sharon Road; 704-442-9525.
Also coming up: The new autumn dinner menu begins Oct. 16.

Blue does a "Taste of the Northwest" with wines and food pairings Oct. 24, with a dozen wines offered in a tasting, then a five-course paired dinner. Among the menu items: peekytoe crab salad with Asian pear slaw and 2013 Boedecker Willamette Valley Oregon Pinot Gris; and N.C. heritage pork in a Pinot-braised shank with crisp pomegranate-glazed belly, and roasted tenderloin with a sweet potato and bacon puree, with 2012 Ken Wright Cellars Willamette Valley Pinot Noir. $75; Hearst Tower at College and 5th streets; 704-927-2583.

Also Oct. 24: A Woodford Reserve dinner in the Carolina Room at Ballantyne Hotel & Lodge. The dinner will officially unveil The Ballantyne Bourbon, the place's "personal selection bourbon" from Woodford Reserve, and there'll be a pairing menu with specialty cocktails and other Woodford Reserve selections. $150; 704-248-4100; 10000 Ballantyne Commons Parkway.

Bits and crumbs: wine at Palm, tofu at Chipotle

Chipotle adds the new vegan Sofritas to North and South Carolina stores starting Oct. 13: the dish uses organic shredded tofu braised with chipotle chiles, roasted poblano peppers, tomatoes and spices. Price is $6.50 -- same as chicken, which will doubtless irritate some vegetarians.

The Palm hosts a Ceretto Italian wine dinner called "Barolo, Truffles & Best of The Alps" on Oct. 24, with four courses and pairings for $175. Among the lineup: choice of espresso-rubbed carpaccio of beef tenderloin or Tuscan kale Caesar salad with 2013 Ceretto Arneis Blange; Nova Scotia lobster pasta with 2011 Ceretto Barbaresco; choice of black-pepper-crusted Prime New York strip or seared jumbo sea scallops with 2008 Ceretto Barolo Brunate; and chocolate nut torta with 2013 Ceretto Moscato d'Asti. 6705-B Phillips Place Court; RSVP to Leigh Whicker at 704-552-7450 or lwhicker@thepalm.com.

New at Bonterra

Bonterra has a new menu, from new chef Blake Hartwick (above), who's especially excited about oysters (below; wood-grilled Rappahannocks from Virginia with candied orange mignonette and bacon foam), and plans to change the menu weekly. Look for fare like the fried green tomato BLT with pimento cheese coulis, pickled onion and bacon jam, and the N.C. monkfish osso buco with saffron risotto. 1829 Cleveland Ave.; 704-333-9463.

New at D'Vine

The new fall menu at D'Vine Wine Cafe is out. Among the goods: kale and quinoa salad with goat cheese; shrimp fra diavolo pasta (with veal sausage and a not-too-spicy tomato sauce over fusilli) and a return of a past signature dish: Rack of boar with sweet potato puree, roasted Brussels sprouts and mushrooms.

Coming up: a wine dinner with Ramey Wine Cellars on Oct. 22.

Also new: valet parking (in front of Rush espresso), with a $5 voucher from the complex owners, matched by a $5-off coupon from D'Vine.

14815 John J. Delaney Drive; reservations: 704-369-5050.

Fire in the City wraps; Fortes gets 2nd win

Mimosa Grill chef Jon Fortes repeated last year's victory in the Got to Be NC Competition Dining Series regional final in Charlotte, dubbed Fire in the City, on Sept. 29, defeating Mama Ricotta's Tom Dyrness. The competition began with 16 chefs in head-to-head matchups that involved the last-minute announcement of ingredients they had to use in preparing three courses. Their dishes were then judged by both food professionals and diners who paid to attend.

The last dinner's surprise ingredients were sweet potatoes from Scott Farms, and Pepsi. Fortes and his team won, and also had the night's highest-scoring course, with a Pepsi-braised pork belly, sweet potato bread pie, Brussels chips and bacon and Pepsi-pomegranate glaze. Fortes got a $2,000 cash prize and handmade chef's knife from Ironman Forge, and advances to what's called the Final Fire in November, pitting winners from the Wilmington, Asheville, Greensboro and Raleigh areas.

That series begins Nov. 19; details are at www.competitiondining.com.

Dine out, do good: Feast of the Hunter's Moon

A five-course antebellum-style dinner is the signature annual fundraiser for Historic Rosedale, and an interesting one it is: candle-lit, with a cocktail hour in the gardens (and "butlered hors d'oeuvres"!), and wine pairings for each course from CPCC chef Rob Marillo and others. This year's is Oct. 27 and aims to, as Rosedale executive director Deborah Hunter puts it, "recapture an entire era of elegant dining experiences." (And, since it's a historic site, its people share other tidbits, like this: The Hunter's Moon is the Native American name for the full moon closest to the Harvest Moon, while for ancient Celtic tribes, this moon was called the Moon of Ivy, the plant which in Scotland is said to harbor dancing fairies.)

On the menu: Shaved N.C. country ham with muscadine preserves, hearth-baked bread and pickled onions; acorn squash bisque with citrus and chive; baby greens with fall gourd slaw, pork belly lardons and smoked heirloom tomato jam; roasted chicken with sweet potato and freekeh (that's a grain) pilaf and glazed baby vegetables; and poached apple with brown sugar crumble and apple sorbet.

Prepaid reservations are required and non-refundable; the dinner is $155, with $70 tax-deductible: the link is here.

Next artisan dinner at Heirloom

Heirloom's next artisan dinner will be Oct. 15, with five courses paired with N.C. beverages. Specifics are still being pondered, but chef Clark Barlowe invites the people who raise or grow the foods featured to be on hand to talk with guests.

$75; 8470 Bellhaven Blvd.; 704-595-7710.