Charlotte restaurants: Feb. 13-19

Lots of sweets on tap for Valentine Week. Wind it up at the Sweet Tooth Festival next Sunday, Feb. 19, before Charlotte restaurants make the switch to an emphasis on beer, coming up later in the month.

Monday, Feb. 13:

• With all those chocolates and lavish Valentine meals coming up, do something nice for your health at Meatless Monday, a 3-course menu featuring local market ingredients, priced at $20 at Zink American Kitchen in SouthPark. 704-909-5500.  

Tuesday, Feb. 14:

• It's Valentine's Day. See our suggestions for Big Spurge meals, plus some great deals and specialty menus.
     
• RiRa hosts a Valentines Day Sweetwater "Sweetheart" Beer Dinner, a 5-course meal paired with beers from the Sweetwater Brewery. $45 per person/$80 per couple. 704-333-5554.

• The Pizza Peel in Cotswold holds a Beer Goddess Women's Beer Education Class to help women get up to speed on the latest trends in brewing before Charlotte Craft Beer Week. Take your beer palate a step beyond "lite" and lo-carb. Every Wednesday in February, 6:30-8 pm. Free. 704-714-8808.

• Halcyon in the new Mint Museum uptown hosts a Bitter Beer Dinner featuring a variety of meats paired with beer. The 5-course menu includes Lamb Heart Ramen, mussels steamed in beer, pimento cheese fondue, BBQ lamb, and, for "dessert," chicken and waffles (sweet potato waffles topped with chicken skins and beef short rib "marmalade") paired with a firkin of Midnight Madness from the NoDa Brewing Company. $55 per person. 7 pm. 704-910-0865.
   
• Dine out for books today at Zink American Kitchen. A portion of Zink's sales on the third Thursday of every month go to the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library. 704-909-5500.
   
• Cutter's Cigar Lounge at the Marriott Center City is the site of the Charlotte release of Rocky's Winter Blend, a specialty cigar from Rocky Patel Cigars, hosted by Kimber Bell, Cutter's regular and regional rep for Rocky Patel. The $15 admission includes Cutters Signature Appetizers, plus two cigars: Rocky's Winter Blend and a XEN by Nish Patel. 5:30-8 pm. 704-358-6556.
   
• Take the elevator to the 15th floor of the Ritz-Carlton for a Wine Evening featuring Napa Valley’s Cardinale Estate in the hotel's Urban Sip Wine and Scotch Bar. The tapas and tasting event is hosted by Cardinale winemaker Chris Carpenter, head of Cardinale’s wine program for more than a decade. 6:30-8 pm. $85 per person fee, includes tapas and wine tasting as well as tax, gratuity and valet parking. 704-547-2244.

• Valentine's is over. Time to rev up for St. Patrick's Day. Join the gang at RiRa Irish Pub for the Great Guinness Toast, Friday at 11 pm. This is officially "St. Practice Day" so Guinness is half-price at RiRa all day. 704-333-5554.
   
• Join winemakers Rick Mirer and Rob Lawson of the Mirror Wine Company for a Vintner dinner at Zebra. Chef Jim Alexander's 5-course menu for the event includes poached Scottish salmon, Ricotta Agnolotti with braised pork shoulder, a Duet of Beef and Lamb Tenderloins, and Frangipan Pear Tart with goat cheese ice cream and rosemary-caramel sauce; all paired with Pavi, Fisticuffs and Mirror wines. $75/person. 704-442-9525.

• The Riz-Carlton's Cocoa Lab hosts a Cake Workshop, where you'll learn to create Double Fudge Chocolate Cake, N.Y. Cheesecake, Molten Chocolate Cake, and Red Velvet Cake. Two sessions, 9 am-noon and 2-5 pm. $75 fee includes parking and a keepsake apron. 704-547-2244. 
   
• Passion8 Bistro, just over the South Carolina border on Hwy 51, conducts a Tapas Essentials class, featuring a feast of authentic small plates using cooking methods derived from a traditional Spanish kitchen including la plancha (the griddle). $38. 11-1 pm. 803-802-7455

• Indulge yourself at the inaugural Sweet Tooth Festival, where nearly two dozen of the area's top bakeries, chocolatiers, pastry artisans, and home-based businesses specializing in sweet stuff seek to wow your mouth. Cupcrazed Cakery, which won on the Food Network's Cupcake Wars with its Sweet Tea cupcake; The Secret Chocolatier; The Southern Gourmet; and numerous other bakeries and sweet shops will be handing out samples. But it's not all candy and cake. Vin Master Wine Shop, Yoforia, Front Porch Ice Cream, Caribou Coffee, and the Savory Spice Shop are also participating. The event, held at Black Lion in South Charlotte, benefits the Joe Martin ALS Foundation, dedicated to improving the lives of people living with ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig's Disease. The $25 per person admission includes lots of samples from all the vendors, plus a swag bag packed with a Sweet Tooth Tasting Passport, to-go containers, and goodies from event sponsors Yelp Charlotte and Charlotte Magazine. 2-6 pm. Sunday, Feb. 19.