This week in gluttony

Gingerbread, decadent chocolate and wine aplenty: The best food and booze eventsin Dallas

The 29th annual Beaujolais & Beyond Wine Festival on November 30 features winesfrom France, Texas, California and the Pacific Northwest.
Chocolate Secrets' Kate Weiser leads a chocolate-and-wine pairing at People'sLast Stand November 27.
Chocolate Secrets/Facebook
Gingertown Dallas kicks off November 27 as teams create their houses to beauctioned off. The village is on display through December 1 outside of Nordstromat NorthPark.
Photo courtesy of Gingertown Dallas
The Irving Convention Center hosts the 29th annual Beaujolais & Beyond WineFestival November 30.
Irving Convention Center / Facebook

You should finally be done eating leftover turkey sandwiches by now, so we found some food and drink events that have absolutely no turkey in them.

There’s more Beaujolais to be had, a chocolate session with one of our own and plenty of holiday seasoning now that it’s okay to play Christmas music.

Tuesday, November 27

Nosh Duckhorn Wine Dinner
The Plano location of NOSH is throwing a wine dinner beginning at 6:30 pm. For $105 per person, you can enjoy a four-course meal featuring seared scallops, duck confit, medallions of beef and lamb, and a dark chocolate tart to finish. Duckhorn Vineyards out of Napa brings the featured wines. Reservations required. Call 972-612-3200.

Cook for a Cause Guest Chef at The People's Last Stand
The People’s Last Stand has teamed up with Kate Weiser of Chocolate Secrets for the Cook for a Cause event from 7:30-9:30 pm. Guests sample a selection of chocolates prepared by Weiser and wine pairings picked by TPLS. You also get tips on wine and chocolate pairings and a gift bag. Tickets are $15, and all proceeds go to Naomi’s Village, which supports orphans in Africa. If that’s not enough to get you off the couch, our own Teresa Gubbins is the host.

Gingertown Live Build
You can eat gingerbread houses, right? Regardless, the Dallas Gingertown Live Build and Competition takes place from 5-9 pm in front of Nordstrom at NorthPark. The town stays on display through Saturday, when the silent auction goes from 11 am-8 pm. Now that we think about it, you probably shouldn’t eat the houses — homeless gingerbread families are a sad sight for the holidays.

Friday, November 30

Beaujolais & Beyond Wine Festival
The French American Chamber of Commerce is hosting the 29th annual Beaujolais & Beyond Wine Festival at the Irving Convention Center from 7-9:30 pm, with wines from all over France and the United States and some craft beers to boot. Throw in small bites, a silent auction, dancers and Miss Texas 2012 Danae Couch, and you’ve got a party. General admission is $65 before or $70 at the door.

Saturday, December 1

British Emporium Christmas Open House
The British Emporium in Grapevine is hosting a Christmas open house from noon-4 pm. There is a British Father Christmas to greet children and take their requests for monocles and tins of biscuits. But the big draw is Darren McGrady, who was Princess Diana’s personal chef. A Dallas regular, McGrady is signing his book, Eating Royally, from noon-2 pm.

Dave & Buster's Grand Opening
Dave & Buster's is moving across Walnut Hill to the space where Glen Lakes AMC used to be. Get complimentary bites and drinks at the unveiling and VIP grand opening from 7-11 pm. It's important to RSVP at Dallas_Party@daveandbusters.com so you can unleash your inner kid.

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This week's hot headlines

DFW's dismal ranking among best places to live leads this week's 5 most-read headlines

Courtesy photo

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Editor's note: A lot happened this week, so here's your chance to get caught up. Read on for the week's most popular headlines. Looking for the best things to do this weekend? Find that list here.

1. Dallas-Fort Worth no longer a top 100 place to live, declares U.S. News & World Report. Dallas-Fort Worth has fallen from grace in a closely watched annual report of the best places to live in the U.S. The Metroplex appears at a dismal No. 113 (out of 150) in U.S. News & World Report's Best Places to Live ranking for 2023-2024. Last year, DFW landed at No. 32; it was No. 37 in 2021. Here's (sort of) why it plummeted in the rankings.

2. Sliders restaurant from Detroit shimmies onto Dallas' Greenville Ave. A slider concept from the Great Lakes State is expanding to Texas, and that includes a high-profile location in Dallas: Called Savvy Sliders, it's a young fast-casual concept founded in Flint, Michigan, and it will open its first Dallas restaurant at 4818 Greenville Ave., in the space recently vacated by vegan chicken restaurant Project Pollo.

3. New lagoon-waterpark with lazy river dives into Dallas-Fort Worth. A long-awaited waterpark in Cedar Hill is debuting Memorial Day weekend with two of Texas' favorite splashy attractions: a lagoon and lazy river. The Lagoon at Virginia Weaver Park will open Saturday, May 27 after more than a year in development.

4. Happy Hippie Brewing to bring peace, love, and beer to new HQ in Richardson. A craft beer brewery is opening a splendid new facility in Richardson: Happy Hippie Brewing Company, a small brewery specializing in Belgian-style beers, is opening an an 11,000-square-foot brewery and taproom at 500 Lockwood Dr., in the Lockwood area within the city's evolving CORE District.

5. Asian restaurant Howard Wang's shutters location in Uptown Dallas. A Chinese restaurant in Uptown Dallas closed: Howard Wang's Uptown Grill, one in a family-owned chain, closed its location at 3223 Lemmon Ave. #103, with the final day of service on May 21. The restaurant had been at that location for 12 years.