DINING NEWS, NIBBLES AND BITS >>>

Happy Hour: Cork! A Wine Bar on Sixth Avenue hosts an all-night happy hour tonight.

Tightwad Tuesday: Every Tuesday Hell's Kitchen serves $2 tacos, $2 wells and $2 beers. Too cool.

Rock Star Beer: Michael "Whip" Wilton, guitarist for Queensryche, makes beer, and sells it, too.

Future Things Are Coming: This weekend's Pacific Northwest Mushroom Festival will be a trip.

Booze Matters: Brewery conjures booze from 9K-year-old recipe. Here's to partying like Neolithic China!

LINK: South Sound happy hours

LINK: Where to grocery shop

LINK: South Sound Restaurant Guide

PAUL SCHRAG: THE HEDGE >>>

Dr. S. Aaron Hegde has a redream. What the hell is a redream? Well, you remember the American dream? It's the one where everyone in the world was invited to take advantage of the opportunities presented by the land of the free - mostly the freedom to pursue dreams.

But a crippled economy has changed the game for many.

Hedge will share how this economic nosedive is affecting the dreams of undocumented workers - who contribute billions of dollars every year to our economy.

[Saint Martin's University Harned Hall 110, Friday, Nov. 6, 4 p.m., free, 5300 Pacific Ave. SE, Lacey, 360.438.4332]

LINK: More details here

JAKE DE PAUL: FRIDAY FOOD LINKS >>>

French wine from the Loire tasting with Jesse Hufsteder at Water to Wine in Gig Harbor and a couple more wine-tasting events here.

TNT Diner has the scoop on Minoela opening next month.

Under a Senate proposal, Congress would raise the federal excise tax on beer by 145 percent to more than $3 a case.

Today's South Sound Specials

Sushi Train just opened at 8765 Tallon Lane in Lacey. It's another conveyor belt concept similar to Sushi Revolution by the Tacoma Mall.

The Schooner Exact gang arrives at The Red Hot tonight at 7 p.m. with a firkin of Dry-Hopped 3 Grid IPA. The Red Hot will be selling $3.50 pints of 3 Grid until the firkin gives up the ghost.

LINK:South Sound Restaurant Guide

JENNIFER JOHNSON: COUNTRY-WESTERN JOINT REINVENTED AS DUELING PIANO BAR >>>

Red Bike Restaurant, home of the only dueling piano bar in Lacey, was until recently Ramblin' Jack's Lone Star Kitchen, a country-western establishment. In the creative and inventive hands of experienced food and beverage director Brandon Escovedo, the restaurant saw a complete overhaul that seems to have gone rather seamlessly. Red Bike is now owned by the same group that's behind Jazzbones and Station 56 in Tacoma. Read my full report here.

Is it just the weekly Volcano or is Taco Del Mar taking over the world?  Everywhere the Weekly Volcano looks, a new franchise is popping up ready to kick the ass of that dame Taco Time cactus.  Opening soon in the Home Depot plaza in Hawks Prairie, this Taco Del Mar looks exactly like the hundreds of others in strip malls everywhere.  - Jason de Paul