Food and Wine

Beginner *

For the amateur gourmand, the best way to expand your palate is to let the chef make the choices for you as to what you’ll be eating and drinking for the evening. There are few better places to do that than the opulent Castle Hill Inn in Newport. On January 21, the restaurant presents a Trappist Ale Dinner, during which five courses are presented with appropriately matched ales. (Trappist ales are made by a select few monasteries in Belgium using open air fermentation; think of them like the champagnes of beer. No, not that champagne of beer.) Menu selections include smoked wild boar with grillades and grits, paired with Trappistes Rochefort 8.

On the first Wednesday of every month, the Ocean House in Watch Hill offers a Farm to Vine Dinner, during which a renowned local guest chef provides his interpretation of farm to table cuisine. The January 4 dinner pairs Darius Salko, chef at Providence’s Tini, with Allen Farms from Westport and Hugel Wines from France. On February 2, Benjamin Sukle, chef at new Providence hotspot The Dorrance, cooks with food from Blackbird Farms in Smithfield.

Get the basics on feeding your family well at Family Mealtimes Made Easy, presented by the Tower Street School Community Center in Westerly. The one-hour session goes over the basics of putting together nutritious meals and the importance of eating together as a family. There are three of these free sessions happening in February and March.