Feel Like a Bite on the Town? Sink Your Teeth Into Taste of Newport

Taste of Newport will feature sampling of cuisines from 35 area restaurants this weekend.

McCormick and Schmick’s, for instance, offers Dungeness crab cakes with smoked chili aioli, bay scallop ceviche with three-colored tortilla chips or chocolate truffle cake with raspberry sauce, at $1 each; Marrakesh offers salad, bastilla and a lamb brochette for $4. Don’t overdo it, or you might end up taking your cue from the names of two of the eight bands providing entertainment--Jack Mack & the Heart Attack and (if you really overdo it) Three Dog Night.

Admission, $6; food coupons, $1 to $5. Friday, 5 to 11 p.m.; Saturday, 3 to 11 p.m., and Sunday, noon to 8 p.m.

Outside, on Newport Center Drive (between Santa Rosa and Santa Cruz), Newport Beach. (714) 548-4942.

*

Benefits at restaurants on Sunday sound almost cinematic in scope: “Rebel With a Cause” (for Laguna Art Museum) and “La Dolce Vita!” (for Cystic Fibrosis Foundation) will take place at Ruby’s Auto Diner and Antonello Ristorante, respectively. Tickets to Ruby’s Harley hop in Laguna Beach are $30, and it runs from 3 to 8 p.m.; phone (714) 494-8971. Antonello is offering Northern Italian cuisine and dancing under the stars at South Coast Village in Santa Ana for $85, from 5 to 11 p.m.; phone (714) 938-1393.

*

Classic wine and food pairings are one thing, food matchups with 10 beers from around the world entirely another. Some of the combos chef Lasse Sorensen has brewing for an informal dinner at John Dominis on Friday are obvious: Asahi with sushi, Bass Ale with fish and chips, Dos Equis with fajitas. Others, such as nonalcoholic Buckler with smoked halibut toast and Kiwi Lager with blackened chicken and peanut sauce, can’t yet be called classics.

The tasting is from 7 to 10 p.m.; $35 per person includes tax and gratuity.

2901 W. Coast Highway, Newport Beach. (714) 650-5112.

*

What’s this? A five-course winemaker dinner called “The Wines of Chalone” at Sfuzzi Bistro featuring only one wine of Chalone? Yes and no. Chalone is, of course, a celebrated Northern California Chardonnay and Pinot Noir producer. But the Chalone Wine Group operates that winery as well as Acacia and Carmenet. The Chalone wine called Chalone will accompany lobster and spinach manicotti with toasted lemon hazelnut sauce; other courses will be paired with Acacia and Carmenet wines.

The cost is $45 per person without tax or tip, and it starts at 7 p.m.

Triangle Square, Costa Mesa. (714) 548-9500.