Wine dinner at Oceanaire
The Oceanaire Seafood Room (50 S. 6th St., Mpls., theoceanaire.com) is holding a four-course dinner featuring wines from Rombauer Vineyards of Napa Valley on June 10 at 6:30 p.m.
The menu includes chilled cauliflower vichyssoise with Maine lobster salad and caviar; wild Alaska sockeye salmon with prosciutto, blueberries and mint; wagyu with chimichurri, blistered tomatoes and smoked sea salt; and cheese plate with fruits and nuts for dessert. A Rombauer representative will guide guests through the dinner.
Tickets are $175 each; buy them online at theoceanaire.com.
Celebrate all things German
Deutsche Tag (German Days) is returning to the Germanic-American Institute (301 Summit Av., St. Paul) this weekend with plenty of food, beer and entertainment.
Food vendors include Black Forest Inn, RJ's Meats, Burbach's European Pancakes and pretzels from Aki's BreadHaus, and the GAI Damen will serve home-baked cakes and tortes. Drinks? Paulaner German beers will be on tap, and there also will be German wines, schnapps, nonalcoholic beer and soft drinks.
The festival is June 11 from noon-9 p.m. and June 12 from 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Admission is free, with food, drink and merchandise available for purchase. Those 21 and older can buy $5 wristbands to buy German beer and wine at the bar.
The institute has been holding Deutsche Tag since 1959. Festival proceeds benefit programming such as German language classes, a German immersion preschool and other cultural programming. For more information on the festival or the Germanic-American Institute, go to gaimn.org.
Light bites and whiskey flights
The Hewing Hotel is hosting the indulgent Smoke Show, with whiskeys from Angel's Envy, cigar advice from Perfect Ash, jazz from Minneapolis String Project and bites from Tullibee, the hotel's restaurant.
The event is June 16 at 6:30 p.m. at the hotel, 300 Washington Av. N., Mpls. Tickets are $50; reserve at hewinghotel.com/events. Some caveats: cigars are not included in ticket price; the event is outdoors, so dress accordingly; and if it's raining, refunds will be issued.
Run, Spot, run to the brewery
As a way to raise money for the Animal Humane Society, Sidewalk Dog has compiled a Minneapolis-St. Paul Dog-Friendly Brewery Pass for $30.
That will get you 47 free beers at 33 breweries throughout the Twin Cities — and 14 in greater Minnesota. The Sidewalk Dog website has a map to help you chart your course; find both the map and the brewery pass at sidewalkdog.com.
Twin Cities-based Sidewalk Dog is touting the pass as a great Father's Day gift — get $5 off with the code DOGDAD from June 10-19 — but it's great for any beer lover. And since it is all about the dogs, the pass includes a bag of dog treats, and 5% of sales will go to the Animal Humane Society, with an option to make an additional donation.
Do you have the best sweet potato pie?
Sweet Potato Comfort Pie is holding its second annual sweet potato pie baking contest as part of the group's Juneteenth festivities.
Bakers should drop off pie entries on June 18 between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. at ARTS-Us (1221 Marshall Av., St. Paul). Judging will be held that afternoon, and the top three bakers will share their stories virtually on June 22 at 6:30 p.m., as part of the group's monthly virtual healing tree circle. From there, winners will be selected.
Sweet Potato Comfort Pie, a local organization, was founded in 2014 by Rose McGee after the shooting death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo. McGee found that through the process of baking pies with others, delivering them and gathering for reflection, the pies became a catalyst for change. For more information, go to sweetpotatocomfortpie.org.
