Treat yourself to a sumptuous dinner featuring truffles in dishes paired with German wines at 1500 Ocean at the Hotel Del Coronado on November 12. Chef Brian Sinnott and the boutique wine merchant, Truly Fine Wine created a five course menu that includes veal cheeks, halibut and more along with a reception.  Among the wines there is a  Barth Spatburgunder Rose, Brut from the Reingau and a yes, there are fabulous dry German wines, that, contrary to what you might think, are quite dry…not sweet.  The cost of the dinner is $130 and includes tax and gratuity. For reservations and menu information:  Call 619-522-8490.

The San Diego Bay Wine & Food Festival has events, tastings, and enough food and wine to satiate a novice or gourmand.  It’s all happening November 12 to 16.

Celebrate the end of a long election year and support Taste of Little Italy on Wednesday, November 5.

Some of the best value wine dinners happen at Wine Vault & Bistro.  Get on their mailing list and learn about upcoming dinners and events.

In Bankers HIll, Hexagone French Cuisine now occupies the corner of Fifth and Laurel in the old Gemelli spot.  Hexagone is the newest addition to French Market Grille up in Rancho Bernardo.  The new place  features everything from salad niçoise ($13.75) and onion soup grantinée ($6.50) to traditional coq au vin ($17.50) and sea bass with corn risotto and fennel-vanilla sauce ($22.50).  I haven’t eaten at either spot yet.  And if you’re wondering (as I did) what a hexagon has to do with French cuisine, it’s the term the French use  when talking about the shape of their country.  Hexagone French Cuisine, 495 Laurel Street, Bankers Hill, 619-236-0467.  Open daily from 11am.

For fabulous and very French desserts and chocolates,  Mille Feuille is your place at the corner of University and Fifth.   Executive pastry chef Thomas Gèrard,  comes from  La Valencia in La Jolla, and being French knows his pastries.  I’ve tasted a few:  Opera (light coffee sponge cake, chocolate ganache and coffee butter cream, $6.50), apricot summer (coconut-pineapple and carrot sponge cake layered with orange-apricot cream cheese filling, $5.50) and lots more including a caramelized onion and cheese quiche ($5.50) and  macaroons almost as ethereal as those found in Pierre Hermé’s Paris shop.  For lunch there are sandwiches and from 2 pm to 4pm there’s high tea for $20.  Mille Feuille, 3896 Fifth Ave., Hillcrest, 619-295-5232.

Barely two years old, Rannoosh the Middle Eastern restaurant next door to Mille Feuille, is closed.

Tough economic times (and perhaps even a bit of lousy management) have downtown’s Jade Theater now with disconnected phones and, we can only figure, a closed sign on the door.

Up in Hillcrest, those rumors of Wine Encounter closing are true as there is a “for lease” sign on their door.  Apparently the partners decided to dissolve this venture and then possibly open another wine bar when the economy becomes more favorable.

On a sad note, Julian Velovan, who managed among others, Wine Encounter and Wine Lover,  died unexpectedly a few weeks ago.