On July 17, Mama Ricotta's in Midtown is hosting a wine dinner based on authentic southern Italian food to celebrate its winning of Wine Spectator's Award of Excellence. How better to celebrate a wine award with more wine? (Is there any other way?)

For $60 a ticket, you get an appetizer, three courses and a dessert, and each are paired with its own wine. All of the wines for the evening were chosen by the guest speaker Ashli Cohen of Charlotte's Vino Vino.

-Fausti Passerina Blanco 2012
-Villa Matilde Falanghina 2011
-Cocci Grifoni Pecorino ("Colle Vecchio") 2011
-Pentri Piedirosso ("Kerres") 2009
-Feudo DiSisa Syrah 2010

Chef Dan Davis has prepared a menu inspired by cuisine from south Italy, like pancetta-wrapped monkfish, grilled octopus and cavatelli pasta. For the full menu for the event check it out Mama Ricotta's Facebook page.

The event takes place Wednesday, July 17 at 6:30. To reserve a seat, call 704-343-0148. Mama Ricotta's is located at 601 S. Kings Drive.

Saturday is for party people and you know what that means? Crabs! A whole mess of them.

Join Craig Barbour, the guy behind the Roots food truck, for an authentic Maryland style crab boil at the Olde Mecklenburg Brewery this Saturday for a claw-cracking good time.

Your $40 ticket gets you a half dozen Maryland steamed crabs, a frosty glass of OMB beer and ace sides like cheddar jalapeno biscuits, cucumber salad, corn on the cob and more. What better way to enjoy a hot summery day than with a tray full of crabs, cold beer and friends.

The event takes place Saturday, June 15, from 12 p.m.-4 p.m. To purchase tickets, call 704-975-1691 or email rootsfarmfood@gmail.com.

With more than 30 restaurants each serving up three of its dishes, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to add up the amount of different food choices that will be available at Taste of Charlotte. Whatever your liking, from sushi to barbecue chicken to vegan cheesecake, this festival is the most efficient way to try as much of what the city's restaurants have to offer in the shortest amount of time.

• Priscilla Tsai
• Some of the samplings from a past Taste

Since the first Taste more than a decade ago, the event has added the MarketPlace, an area for vendors to sell homemade crafts and jewelry, and the Crossroads, an area for kids to participate in games and activities. The festival starts Friday at 11 a.m., and by that evening, judges will have tried nearly 100 food samples and will award the restaurant that has this year's Best of the Taste.

Admission is free, coins are available for purchase to get food and drink samples. June 7-8, 11 a.m.-11 p.m., June 9 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Festival located on Tryon Street, between Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard to 6th Street. www.tasteofcharlotte.com.

There are few things in the world as perfect as the first sip of a good, cold beer on a scorching summer day. It's only natural, then, that multiple beer-related events are coming to the area to make good of Charlotte's sweltering summer weather and quench our thirsts for malty, hoppy deliciousness.

Two upcoming events are the Charlotte Brewers Festival and the EpiCentre Charlotte Beer Festival. Both will feature craft beer rather than the swills commonly known as commercially-produced beers, and each will give fans of the beverage the opportunity to spend the day guzzling, I mean, critically experiencing, a diverse arrange of breweries and styles.

Fans of, as I love to say, cerveza buena, however, must prepare for a tough decision when it comes these events - in an unfortunate turn, a scheduling crisis has placed both on June 1. But fret not, my brewski-loving compatriots, as a quick overview of their differentiating characteristics will ease your decision-making process and help you soundly pick the one more fit for you.

• OMB Facebook
• The Olde Mecklenburg Brewery will be at the Charlotte Brewers Festival

It's that time of year again, when summer insists you pair food and music for a celebration of the warmer weather. The What the Truck festival at Amos' Southend does just that. The June 1 event will feature six local food trucks and a concert. Each food truck will be bringing its own flavor, from Root Down's soul, Southern and Creole food to Maki Taco's pan-Asian infusion. There's also Wingzza, serving pizza and wings - in case you didn't get the name - and Gourmet Goombahs, serving pizza on hoagies, cheese steaks, burgers and hot dogs. For entertainment, two '80s tribute bands, Trial by Fire and Sunset Strip, will be performing.

• Maki Taco Facebook
• Bang Bang Shrimp Tacos from Maki Taco

Get your free ticket at http://whatthetruck.eventbrite.com.

June 1, 7:30 p.m. Amos' Southend, 1423 S. Tryon St.

I knew it was only a matter of time before my dad and stepmother, both recent transplants to Charlotte from the Gulf, would drag me out to my first crawfish boil. I could already anticipate the scene - shells flying in the humid outdoor air, sweaty red plastic cups, rolls of paper towel littered about and people with savory debris all over their clothes and faces.

This month, e2 emeril's eatery is hosting all-you-can-eat crawfish boils every Friday for $5 a person. For those of you unaware of what a crawfish boil is, imagine the Southern version of a clam bake - a ton of people get together and boil a combination of heavily seasoned crawfish and other vittles, drink lots of cold beer, gab and enjoy gorging themselves in the Southern outdoors. It's a staple of Gulf and bayou culture.

• Funds to Farms

Funds to Farms, a grant program to fund local food programs that began last January in Durham, will hold its first event in Charlotte this Sunday.

Funds to Farms is the brainchild of Slow Money, a nonprofit that focuses on alternative financing for local food and agriculture projects. Organizations that focus on local food (like farms, restaurants and meal delivery services) are encouraged to apply for the grant to fund their "big idea." Judges then narrow down the eligible farms, ranking each "big idea" on the impact to the business (farm, restaurant, etc.), as well as their commitment to sustainability and sustainable agriculture.

"For $20, you get a great dinner, support these awesome farmers, and learn about all the innovative things they are doing in farming," says Amy Campbell of Slow Money. "We started this event series in conjunction with the Carolina Farm Steward Association, and it went so well that we started getting calls from people all over the state to know how they can get involved."

Three farms were selected to present their ideas at the May 12 event, which will be held at Triple C Brewing Company and catered by Roots Farm Food. These farms are:
- Birdsong Farms
- Cold Water Creek Farms
- Bountiful Harvest Farm

You can read more about the farms and their proposals here.

• Funds to Farms
• A farmer presents at the Durham Funds to Farm event held last January.

The farms' proposals are voted on by the event attendees and ranked first through third place. First place will receive the largest winnings. However, the winnings will be determined the night of the event based on the amount of money raised through ticket sales and donations. The first place winner of the Funds to Farm held in Durham last January took home $1,000 in winnings to purchase a a Komo small grain mill, seed cleaner, and seed sorting screens.

What: Funds to Farms Dinner
When: Sunday, May 12, 6:30 p.m. - 8:30 p.m.
Where: Triple C Brewing Company, 2900 Griffith St.
Cost: $20 for the public, $15 for farmers (limited amount)

*Editor's Note: This event was originally slated for April 27 but has been rescheduled to May 18.

The folks at JJ's Red Hots (located at 1514 East Blvd.) know what makes a good hotdog. During March and April, though, they let a few beer connoisseurs come up with their own creative takes on the classic dog. These creations have alternated being featured on JJ's menu for the past few weeks. On May 18, from 4 p.m.-8 p.m., JJ's customers will choose the best dog at their SpringFest 2013.

The top three selling hot dogs from the past two months will compete against two surprise hotdogs created by JJ's. Customers can purchase tickets to judge the hotdogs and will be granted as many samples as they like to make their choice for best dog.

So far, the three dogs in the lead are:

* The Chips On Your Shoulder Dog, created by Jason Glunt from Salud Beer Shop, featuring pulled pork, slaw, crumbled chips.

• Michael Newton Photography
• The Chips On Your Shoulder Dog

* The Put That in Your Pipe Dog, created by Daniel Hartis from Charlotte Beer , featuring smoked cheddar, bacon, chipotle ketchup and red onion.

• Michael Newton Photography
• The Put That in Your Pipe Dog

• Kelly Davis

Both experienced and aspiring home brewers as well as beer aficionados will gather at NoDa Brewing Company (2229 N. Davidson St.) on Saturday, April 27 for its inaugural Top of the Hop Pro-Am Competition.

(Sure, it's another NoDa Brewing event, but what can we say? They're doing good stuff over there.)

Happening from noon to 10 p.m., Top of the Hop is a home brewers competition. The Best in Show winning beer will be recreated with NoDa Brewing's brewery system and entered into the Great American Beer Festival Pro-Am Competition.

Other awards will be given to:
- King or Queen of Wort
- Steward's Choice
- Most Creative Recipe
- Most Creative Name
- Most Creative Ingredient

Members of Carolina Brewmasters, the Cabarrus Homebrewers Society (Cabrew), and the Iredell Brewers United (IBU) will act as judges and hosts for the event.

This is a great educational opportunity for both aspiring and seasoned homebrewers because of the wealth of homebrewing knowledge that will be shared during the event. Entrance into the competition is currently closed with over 90 brews entered, but the public is welcome to attend.

For more information, call 704-451-1394 or email Todd@NoDaBrewing.com.