This wine cost nine bucks. How do the Italians do it? Their economy is in shambles and the euro is killing the dollar. If this was French wine, it would cost $15 or $18. I’m not complaining, of course. I’m just continually and pleasantly surprised by the quality and value so many Italian wines offer.

The Farnese (purchased, available at Jimmy’s) was exactly what I was hoping for when I bought it. There is soft white fruit in the middle (an English critic described it as “gently fragrant,” which is why Engish wine writing is so much fun), low alcohol (12 percent), not a lot of acid, and a kind of stony finish. In this, it’s a wonderful antidote to all the mass-produced, turpentine-like pinot grigio that we’re told we’re supposed to like and that everyone seems to be making these days. Right, Drew B.?

Pair this not only with seafood, but spicy food. That’s what I did (chicken tamales with green sauce), and it worked wonderfully. And, for those of you keeping track of grape varieties, there is apparently a difference between the trebbiano grape and the grape that is called trebbiano in the Abruzzo region of Italy. The former is more or less ugni blanc, one of my old pals, while the latter is something called bombino bianco. Maybe I can get the Italian Wine Guy to explain the difference.

Only 50 tickets are being sold for Promise of Peace Community Garden’s farm-to-table brunch March 4 at Sundown at Granada.

Chefs Rolo Cantu, Marc Cassel, Billy Cooper, Suzanne Fries and Patrick Stark will prepare a five-course meal. A silent auction starts at 10:30 a.m., and brunch is from 11 a.m.-2 p.m. Greenling is donating local produce.

Tickets are still available. They cost $60 each and include brunch, a cocktail and gratuity.

Promise of Peace, at 7446 East Grand, invites students from Mata Elementary and other neighborhood schools to learn about gardening, cooking and healthy eating.

Here’s something free to do this week. Artists Michael Cross and Samantha McCurdy will show their work from 6-8 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 23 at The Lofts at Mockingbird Station.

Pioneer Wine will offer tastings, and Cafe Momentum will provide snacks. Wine blogger Melanie Ofenloch is sponsoring the event.

Mockingbird Station also has announced a third-Thursday concert series beginning next month. A kick-off concert is planned for March 1, but a performer hasn’t been announced yet. The concerts are from 6-9 p.m. They’re free and open to the public.

Here is the rest of the line-up:

March 15: Devin Leigh

April 5: Greg Reichel

April 19: The O’s

May 3: Aaron Woods Band

May 17: Mockingbyrd Station

June 7: SouthWestern Playboys

June 21: Achachay!

July 5: The Carters

Fat Tuesday and Ash Wednesday specials are aplenty at Aw Shucks (3601 Greenville) and Big Shucks (6232 Mockingbird).

Get $1 off a 1/2 pound crawfish (normally $6.99) and drink $2 Tecate beer and margaritas 11 a.m.-10 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday.

The last chance to eat at Matt’s Rancho Martinez in Lakewood is Monday, Feb. 27, its last day of business in that space. The restaurant is moving to Skillman and La Vista. A reopening date hasn’t been announced, but it is expected to be sometime this spring.

Photo by Mark Davis

Mi Cocina is taking the Matt’s space, and we hear the plan is to enclose the patio to make the restaurant bigger. A lot of neighbors are sad to see Matt’s leaving the space, but now we get Matt’s and Mi Cocina in the neighborhood.

If you can’t wait until the indeterminate reopening date, how about trekking to the suburbs? The nearest outlying Matt’s is almost 11 miles away in Garland. No offense to Garlanders, but I tend to avoid that fair burg as I have known its reputation for overly sensitive traffic cops to be accurate. Twenty-two miles away, in Cedar Hill, there is a Matt’s in a shopping development called Uptown Village. That shopping center also has Dillard’s, Dick’s Sporting Goods and Barnes & Noble. And on the other side of Plano, there is a Matt’s in Allen, which is almost 24 miles from here.

Wednesday is National Margarita Day. It’s a fine excuse to take off early, no? Especially when you consider this: The Blue Goose Cantina will celebrate, all day long (11 a.m.-4 p.m.), with $4 house margaritas.

How did the margarita come to be? Here’s how the Blue Goose folks tell it:

“There are many historical claims surrounding the tequila infused cocktail, but our favorite originates in 1948 when the Dallas socialite, Margarita Sames, hosted a pool side holiday party at her vacation home in Acapulco, Mexico. Margarita decided to entertain her guests by getting behind the bar and mixing spirits and then asking her party guests test and rate the results. That evening she mixed tequila with Cointreau and lime juice — the concoction was a complete success and it soon made its way to Dallas and rest is history.”

Now that the Timber Creek Chick-fil-A is officially open for business, it’s just a matter of weeks before the grand opening at DelTaco. Crews have been working feverishly inside and out at the Mexican fast food restaurant, delicately tiptoeing around the campers waiting in the parking lot for Chick-fil-A’s First 100 event last Thursday.

After that will be the new Cici’s Pizza, though inside installation of kitchen fixtures and furniture doesn’t yet appear to have begun. Shouldn’t take long, though, since the building’s shell is finished.

Green chile pork taco from Torchy's

Prescott Realty Group has signed leases with the Nodding Donkey, Torchy’s Tacos and World Beer Co. at its four-story residential-over-retail project on SMU Boulevard at Greenville.

BLVD is under construction and is leasing apartments ahead of an expected May 1 opening. A 494-square-foot studio apartment is leasing for $1,055, and a 1,134-square-foot two-bedroom leases for $2,145.

The Nodding Donkey has a location in Uptown, and its website describes it as a “Texas sports saloon.” The bar and restaurant has leased the 4,600-square-foot ground-floor space closest to Greenville.

Torchy’s, which started several years ago in a trailer in Austin and has since expanded to Preston and Forest, will take a space on SMU Boulevard, closer to Twisted Root. World Beer Co., which Prescott’s managing director of retail, Mark Henderson, says is not related to the Bottle Shop on Lower Greenville, will be at the corner of Worcola and SMU.

Henderson says he expects work to begin on the restaurants in April, and they should be open by the end of the year.

The grand opening of Sissy’s Southern Kitchen, Garden & Bar is Monday, Feb. 27. The restaurant, from Next Food Network Star contestant Lisa Garza, is reported to be specializing in fried chicken and short ribs.

Sissy’s is taking the space formerly occupied by Hector’s on Henderson. Hector’s closed in August. Speaking of which, Hector Garcia of Hector’s followed us on Twitter the other day, and besides the fact he’s always Foursquare checking in at enviable places in Dallas, we noticed his bio says “I am a working actor…” Did you know? I didn’t know. IMDB tells us it’s true.

When Alligator Cafe announced back in July it would open a second location in Casa Linda Plaza, the plan was to keep the Alligator Cafe on Live Oak open as well. That plan has changed, however, as the Alligator Cafe on Live Oak will close after Mardi Gras (Tuesday, Feb. 21), according to an employee who answered the phone there today.

The new Alligator Cafe is in the old Frankie’s Lil Europe space.

In other restaurant news, Horne & Dekker on North Henderson closed last week. A reader brought it to our attention, and we found the story on NBCDFW.