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A Valentine Sweets and Wine Festival will be held from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Thursday at the Crystal Room Event Center, 3265 S. Church St. in Burlington.

The event, a benefit for the Exchange Club Family Center in Alamance, gives confectioners and bakers in the Triangle and Triad a chance to share their best creations and vie for the title of Best Baker in the Triangle and Triad.

Admission is $5 at the door. For information, call 227-5601 or send e-mail to sarah.black@exchangescan.org.

Valentine's treats

Speaking of Valentine's Day, you still have time to pick up a chocolate-themed Valentine's Day gift. What better place to shop than Loco for Coco (1420-D Westover Terrace; www.loco

forcocochocolate.com ), the family-owned truffle and specialty chocolate shop across the street from Lucky 32.

Owners Betsy Gauthier and her daughter, Amie , along with Betsy's husband, Peter , are sure to be busy this week filling orders of Belgian truffles and gift-box assortments and making last-minute gift suggestions that include titillating items such as chocolate-flavored massage oil, strip chocolate checkers, chocolate dusting powder and even chocolate body paint.

Call 333-0029 for information.

Bargain menu and wine dinner

Recently Steak Street (3915 Sedgebrook St., High Point) won a 2008 Best of High Point Award in the Bistros category from the Washington-based U.S. Local Business Association.

The USLBA "Best of Local Business" Award Program recognizes outstanding local businesses throughout the country.

Steak Street also was named Best Romantic Restaurant by the High Point Enterprise's 2008 Readers Choice Awards.

So what better time than February to take advantage of Steak Street's budget-conscious Easy Street Lunch? It's offered from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Friday. The $10 or less menu includes items such as Captain's Classic Tuna Salad, Canal Country Catfish Sandwich, Chicken Club Devonshire, Mystick Krewe Chicken Burger and Capital City Salmon Croquets. All items are served with bread or at least one side.

Steak Street is also holding a Toasted Head Wine Dinner at 6:30 p.m. Feb. 24.

The four-course dinner includes smoked bacon and mushroom wontons and a Moroccan grilled six-ounce filet with Harissa-style relish.

Cost is $59.

For reservations, call 841-0222.

Another bargain dinner

Bistro Sofia (616 Dolley Madison Road, Greensboro; www.bistrosofia.com) is doing its part to help the budget-strapped diner by offering a $25 three-course prix-fixe menu from 5 to 10 p.m. Tuesday through Friday during February.

However the special is not available for this Friday.

Call 855-1313 for reservations.

Another donut shop opens

Commuters traveling from points east into Greensboro via U.S. 70 are braking for Munchkins. Greensboro's second Dunkin Donuts (375-3356) has opened at 3602-D E. Wendover Ave. next to Exxon at Wendover and Old Burlington Road.

The location, across Wendover Avenue from the new Greensboro campus of GTCC, offers a drive-through.

The franchise is operated by Ricky Matani, who also opened a location (332-0987) at 337 W. Wendover Ave. late last summer. That location was the first to open after a five-year absence from the Greensboro market.

In addition to the chain's popular doughnuts and bite-size Munchkins, the East Wendover location offers breakfast sandwiches, muffins and Dunkin Donuts' signature coffee.

Menu items are available all day. Hours are 5 a.m. to 11 p.m. daily.

A second High Point location (884-4550), which also offers a drive-through, opened late last year at 2718 S. Main St.

Matani says work should begin soon on a third Greensboro location at Spring Garden Street and Holden Road. The 27,000-square-foot shop will also offer a drive-through.

Moonshine at Grammys

Catdaddy Carolina Moonshine, the spirit brewed in nearby Madison, was among the items in the gift bags for presenters and performers at the 51st annual Grammy Awards Sunday in Los Angeles.

The invitation to be included in the Grammy gift bag came as a surprise to Joe Michalek , founder and president of Piedmont Distillers, which produces Catdaddy and is the only legal spirits distiller in North Carolina.

"We're really proud that Catdaddy has been given this opportunity and that a North Carolina product has received such recognition," Michalek says.

Catdaddy is distilled in the same traditional way as legendary illegal spirits of the backwoods moonshiner.

For information, visit www.piedmontdistillers.com.

Pasta for the hungry

Papa John's locations in the Triad are granting "Pasta Amnesty."

Through March 1, anyone who donates a box of pasta will get a coupon for $1 off new family-style pastas offered by the take-out pizza shops.

All pasta collected will be donated to Greensboro Urban Ministry.

For Papa John's locations, visit www.papajohns.com . For more information on Greensboro Urban Ministry, visit www.greensborourbanministry.org.

New scoop flavors

Scoops (5605-A W. Friendly Ave., Greensboro; 299-8744), the little neighborhood ice cream and smoothie shop in Quaker Village Shopping Center near Guilford College, has Moose Tracks and Red Velvet Cake ice cream flavors for a limited time.

In addition to low-fat smoothies, the shop offers Nathan's Hot Dogs. Scoops is open daily.

Have restaurant news for Short Orders? Contact Carl Wilson at 373-7145 or cwilson@news-record.com.