Monday, April 13 happens to be the traditional Thai New Year and Khun Kay Thai Café, 1209 Montrose, is planning a feasting celebration all week long. From April 13 to 19, the restaurant will offer a complete chalkboard menu of Thai New Year specials, all symbolizing good luck. Feast on specials like the Good Fortune Curry -- a delicious red curry dish made with rice noodles, vegetables, lots of spices and a choice of meat or mock duck ($11.95); the Lucky 8 -- an eight-item appetizer featuring two rounds of fried chicken skewers, two Thai chicken wings, two Thai kisses and two Thai dumplings ($7.95); and more.
The 6th annual Galveston Island Food & Wine Festival begins Thursday, April 16 and runs through Sunday, April 19. Head to the Island to enjoy wines from around the world paired with delicious local food while you learn first-rate tips from renowned winemakers and local chefs, including chefs Lance Fegen, Randy Evans, Paul Miller and more. Events include the Premium Wine Tasting and Pairing on Friday ($90 tickets) and Saturday's Grand Tasting ($60 general admission, $150 VIP), among others.
On Friday, April 17, get a glimpse into the culinary future of Houston at the Sixth Dinner in the Contenders Dinner Series, hosted by The Kipper Club Test Kitchen, 4400 Yale. For each dinner, a handful of up-and-coming chefs and sous chefs from around town are assigned a course and a very loose theme from which they are to create their vision of what it means to be a chef today. The chef lineup for this dinner is TBD, but you can expect it to be fully inspirational. Kipper Club will be providing complimentary beer with BYOB welcome as well. Dinner seatings are at 6:30 and 9 p.m. and tickets are $65 per person.
Enjoy a Yellow Rose Whiskey Dinner at Lowbrow, 1601 West Main, on Monday, April 20 at 7 p.m. The four-course, whiskey-paired meal includes dishes like venison-stuffed quail with Yellow Rose Blended Whiskey and charred beef short rib paired with Yellow Rose Outlaw and an 8th Wonder draft. Tickets are $65 per person (plus tax and gratuity).
Holley's Seafood Restaurant & Oyster Bar, 3201 Louisiana, will be hosting a Bourbon Dinner on Tuesday, April 21. Chef Mark Holley -- who named a bourbon-centric room in his restaurant after his Kentucky-born grandfather Lancelot -- is going to highlight his homage to bourbon with a special five-course dinner using seven outstanding bourbons, five from Kentucky and two from Texas. Among the bourbons to be paired during the evening will be Basil Hayden's Kentucky Straight Bourbon with whole-roasted striped bass and Whitmeyer's Texas Single Barrel Cask Strength Straight Bourbon with pan-fried quail. The dinner, which begins at 7 p.m., is by reservation only, and the cost is $95 per person plus tax and gratuity. Seating is limited.
