While you are jamming your head with Pronto Pup this Fresh Forkin’ Friday (jealous), I will be flying into the breach, heading to NYC to move a kid into NYU. I had really been looking forward to this weekend as a little bonding time to show him all my favorite food haunts, his dorm is in SoHo (again, jealous) and just around the corner from places such as Balthazar and Osteria Morini. Not that he will be able to afford more than a bite at the bar, maybe some frites, but I had also intended on walking him by Lombardi’s for some opinionated coal fired pizza and showing him the path to Kelley & Ping, a comforting noodle-swathed home for me. And I thought we should get on a train and leave the island so he could begin to understand how Brooklyn has become a culinary country unto itself. And yet. Irene. She’s looking to cause some serious winds and rain, which as a hearty girl from Minny I rather poo poo unless it’s tornadic, but she might shut down the trains and possibly flood the Battery. I have to go, he has to matriculate, we have to eat, I just hope that this kills the lines at Shake Shack.

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NEW/OPEN

Come on, nobody in their right mind would open a restaurant during the Fair.

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And speaking of the Fair . . . Did you know you can sample some Alexis Bailly wines at the French Creperie? Did you know that the Summit stand has the Silver Anniversary Ale, until it runs out? And did you know that the Minnesota Cooks day, which used to be a Tuesday, has been moved to this Sunday? Seriously go cop a squat on the benches and get some samples of great cheffy food. But get there early.

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Muffuletta’s chef Jason Schellin is hosting a Harvest Moon dinner and pulling in some company friends, namely Jim Christiansen and Tim McKee of Il Gatto, Tuan Nguyen of Chino, and Adrienne Odom the pastry goddess. On September 13, the group will serve a five-course dinner for $75 that celebrates the summer bounty with dishes such as heirloom tomato tartare with mangalitsa lardo and grilled Star Prairie trout with warm baby beets. The season is fleeting my friends, go eat.

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Speaking of trying to check things off the summer list, if you still need to go to Valley Fair, starting Monday you can get $10 off the entrance ticket if you bring a non-perishable food donation (or money donation) to benefit Second Harvest.

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Wise Acre Eatery is throwing a decadent dinner on its Tangletown Gardens Farm in Plato on September 18. It’s a fine dining farm event, tickets run $190, and space is very limited to keep it as intimate as possible. So if you’re interested in a multi-course dinner with wine pairings in a sustainable pastoral setting that includes an afternoon reception, a grand tour of the farm, and some swag on departure, get your tix soon.