Unusual dining opportunities await in coming weeks

Several opportunities for excellent and unusual dinners present themselves in coming weeks.

The Fire and Ice Dinner celebrating ice wine on Jan 24 is sold out, but maybe I’ll see you there as we’re served in the greenhouse at Lake Metroparks Farmpark in Kirtland.

A five-course wine dinner Feb. 7 at StoneWater in Highland Heights provides the opportunity to drink rare and pricey red wines ranging in cost from a $90 Brunello, beginning the meal with an appetizer of escargot, to a $180 Far Niente Cabernet Sauvignon, poured with a poached lobster with smoked pork belly.

“We have carefully created a unique dining experience” said StoneWater Chef Kathryn Neidus, who is known for her thoughtful menu creations, inspired by seasonal and locally sourced ingredients. curated the dishes and their pairings. Wine expert Cory Deibel, from Vintage Wine Distributors, will talk about the wines as they are poured.

The elegant 7-to-9:30 p.m. dinner will include a chestnut soup with celery root and crispy Brussels sprouts paired with Caymus Special Selection Cabernet Sauvignon, which retails for $210 a bottle.

An herbed mushroom beef Wellington with tarbais beans, baby arugula and salsify salad will be paired with Nickel & Nickel Cabernet Sauvignon Vaca Vista Vineyard Oak Knoll District, which typically retails for $120 per bottle.

The dinner will conclude with and apricot and blue cheese cremeux, with white chocolate roasted cherry pecan brittle and dark chocolate curls paired with a 40-year-old Dows Very Old Tawny Port ($180)

Neidus, who curated the dishes and their wine pairings, trained at New England Culinary Institute in Montpelier, Vermont, and spent a year at Apicius International School of Hospitality at Florence University in Italy.

She and her two sisters grew up in Gates Mills and now own and operate StoneWater, a golf club built in 1997 with a 4,000-square-foot clubhouse framed around a floor-to-ceiling stone fireplace. That will be the dinner’s venue, and space is limited.

It’s priced at $125 per person. Reservations are being accepted at 440-4614653, ext. 232 or by emailing Whitney Neidus at wneidus@stonewatergolf.com.

Culinary students from Cuyahoga Community College will stage a Chinese New Year celebration from 6 to 9 p.m. Feb. 13 to benefit Stone Soup CLE, which stocks local soup kitchens with excess food from restaurants, grocery stores and vendors. The organization has “rescued” 250,000 pounds of food since forming in 2015.

The Year of the Rat Lunar New Year Celebration will take place at the College’s Jerry Sue Thornton Center, 2500 E. 22nd St., Cleveland, where guests will feast on an extravagant Chinese buffet served from stations around the center. Food will be prepared and served by TriC students in the culinary program’s banquet class.

Music by the Cleveland Chinese Music Ensemble and a demonstration by Sifu Mark Lee Pringle of Coiling Dragon Chinese Kung Fu Studio and his grandson, 9-year-old lion dance performer Tyler Pringle, will serve as entertainment.

The culinary and cultural celebration comes during a special year for Cleveland’s Chinese settlement, which celebrates its 150th anniversary in 2020.

Tickets, $50 each or $90 for two, can be purchased at tri-c.edu/stonesoupcle. A group rate of $350 for eight also is available. The cost includes dinner and a cocktail. A cash bar offering beer and wine selections also will be available.

The Lake Effect Ball, a dinner to benefit the Lake County History Center, will be at 6 p.m. Feb. 8 at LaMalfa Party Center, 5783 Heisley Road, Mentor. The Dan Zola Orchestra will play music for dancing.

The evening will include hors d’oeuvres, followed by a buffet dinner, a dessert buffet and an open bar. Several salads will be offered, and the main dish buffet will include roast beef, sugar cured ham, roast turkey, smoked kielbasa, roast cod topped with crabmeat, au gratin potatoes and pasta with marinara and meatballs.

Tickets are $75 per person or $130 per couple, with reservations due by Feb. 1. Purchase tickets at bit.ly/lakeeffect2020.