Sharon Thompson

Bar Louie Restaurant opens Monday in The Mall at Lexington Green. Proceeds from the grand opening party help support the Makenna Foundation and the Natalie Wynn Carter Foundation.

Michael Paley, chef at Proof on Main in Louisville, will be guest executive chef for the Jan. 19 Kentucky Bluegrass Ball in Washington, D.C. The ball is a celebration of the presidential inauguration and the kickoff for the 2009 inaugural ball season for Kentucky celebrities, entertainment and foods. The Bluegrass Ball will be at the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel and is sponsored by the Kentucky Society of Washington (www.kentuckysociety.org).

When Time magazine writer Joel Stein learned that all 50 states make wine, he set out to "see if good wine can really be made anywhere." He looked for bottles that cost $15 to $20, and he rated each wine: excellent, good, bad or undrinkable.

Mac’s tomato-corn salsa is the latest product to join the dozens of quality Kentucky-made salsas on the market.

FatKats Pizzeria & Restaurant is the winner of Pizza Today's Best Pizza Midwest 2008. Last year, the Georgetown pizza makers won the title with a BBQ pizza called cowboy extreme. This time its traditional red sauce pizza is the winner. This entitles Kathy Lyons and her staff to participate in the international contest in the spring.

New Zion Day and Basket Meeting will celebrate 140 years of African-American history with a street fair ­featuring home-cooked foods at 2 p.m. Saturday.

Buy as much fresh produce as you can at the Lexington Farmers Market, but at day's end, much of what's left over is donated to The Hope Center.

Three Lexingtonians are part of the team of culinary students from Sullivan University that is traveling to Beijing to cook at the 2008 Summer Olympic Games.

Fresh blueberries at Reed Valley Orchard in Paris are ripe and ready to eat. Farm owners Dana and Trudie Reed will hold their ­annual Blueberry Jubilee and ­Pancake Day from 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m Saturday.

Two well-known Kentucky eateries are featured in the July issue of Saveur.

Annette's City Café & Events Catering is having an open house to show off its new digs.

Mia's is open in its new ­location, 127 North Limestone.

Wayne Masterman has done it again. He's pulled all the right people together to open another upscale restaurant.

If you need a reason to celebrate during the next few days, pick one of these: Derby on Saturday, University of Kentucky ­graduation on Sunday, and Cinco de Mayo on Monday. Then, next weekend, May 11 is Mother's Day.

Celebrity chef Bobby Flay, host of the Food Network's Boy Meets Grill, is the ­official host and spokesman for Kentucky Derby Party, a new program from Churchill Downs. It's designed to connect millions of Kentucky Derby fans worldwide who enjoy hosting parties on the first Saturday in May.

Sweet Potatoes has moved from small-town Versailles to the capital city.

Stanley Demos, former owner of The Coach House, was in town this week visiting family, and he dropped by the location on South Broadway to see what was happening at the restaurant he turned into a landmark.

When Vice President Dick Cheney visited Lexington Monday, he received a Kentucky breakfast at the home of Kelly and Judd Knight.

The first day of Keeneland and the blooming of cherry trees also bring patio openings and spring menus.

A growing population of consumers are joining community-supported agriculture, or CSA, farms.