That’s right, vodka, whiskey, gin… belly up to the bar and get you some while you’re waiting for Michael and David’s wine dinner,.

Some things go together — like, say, bacon and tomato. Others don’t — like chocolate and fish. This is the theme for this week’s Amuse Bouche column, because things are so slow not only do I have space for a theme, I could probably create characters and a subplot as well.

Scheduled guests include 3 Doors Down, Josh Kelley, Gavin DeGraw, Vanessa Carlton, the Bravery, Ben Folds, Jason Mraz and Matisyahu..

Fortunately, you don’t have to spend a lot of dough to eat well in the North Carolina Triad. In season right now: green beans, butter beans, blueberries, cabbage, cantaloupe, corn, cucumbers, eggplant, okra, peaches, field peas, peppers, potatoes, squash, tomatoes.

The drink, the aguacate mescal contains Cointreau, tequila, agave nectar, honey, lime juice and Agwa, a liqueur made from the coca leaf. Yeah, that coca leaf..

Usually these three-day weekend holidays sap all the juice from the news cycle, but we’ve had bank robberies, celebrity divorce scandals and the death of Jesse Helms to contend with.

The Fourth of July crept up pretty quickly this year, but sure enough by the weekend the air will be filled with fireworks and the heady whiff of lighter fluid as its sprayed over the coals in preparation for a big meat feast. Tell me you're not going to eat at least some charred animal remains this Fourth, and I'll tell you you're helping the terrorists.

Some people get phone calls asking, "What are you wearing right now?" I'll spare you those details and tell you what I'm eating right now - a few samples from Poblano's new lunch menu: A Mexican pizza on flatbread with seasoned, grilled chicken, enchilada sauce and tons of that melty Mexican cheese. Also on the plate is a Buffalo shrimp wrap, made with real nice shrimp and carrying a decent degree of heat. And what I'm thinking about is the coming storm. Food prices are rising and family budgets are shrinking tighter and tighter in the current economic climate, which is bad news for independently owned sit-down restaurants. Revival Grill in Greensboro has closed. So has Crush in High Point. And a reader tells me his newest favorite Greensboro restaurant, Sahari, which focuses on Sudanese cuisine, is on short time as well. "Go eat fast," he writes. "It will soon be gone."

Got way too much to wrote about this week and not much space in which to do it, so here's a barrage of short-burst tidbits designed to get your intellectual salivary glands flowing. Brew Nerds, the Winston-Salem coffee house which manages to boost the status of both jittery caffeine junkies and pocket protectors, has opened its second outpost in downtown Winston-Salem on West 4th Street, in the location that was once SIN Coffee Bar.

It's Father's Day on Sunday, which means that at the very least you should give your dad a call. But if you want to go the extra mile, a box of cigars, a bottle of scotch or a couple hours over a nice, hot meal (your treat) would definitely be appropriate. Father's Day generally gets short shrift against Mother's Day - which is fair, I guess. After all, it's the mothers who take on all the heavy labor (pun intended) when it comes to childbirth. And even in these modern times, when many if not most mothers hold jobs outside the home, they still take on the lion's share of household duties.

The seasonal wheel turned another notch this past week as temperatures hunkered down on the high end of the thermometer. That extra burst of heat and humidity in North Carolina means that the green beans, cucumbers, peaches and watermelon are ready to start coming in at area farmers markets and produce aisles. You've got to love the North Carolina Triad if you love fresh, local produce. But recently I was reminded of another seasonal agricultural product that I've been neglecting for years.

I'm still reeling from my little French adventure, not the least because of the food... the bread, the meet, the cocktails, the sandwiches, the pizzas, the salads, the coffee... oh, god, the coffee... and even the little roadside stands sold high-quality wares made from fresh ingredients. No street meat there. Maybe we do things a little differently here, but the culinary scene in the Triad is not exactly a vast wasteland.

Morning show host Skip Sher of 98.7 FM and his wife, Melissa, reportedly opened a franchise of Hungry Howie's Pizza earlier this month at 1609 Friendly Ave. in Greensboro. They'll open a second location in Adams Farm Shopping Center in July, according to Lindsey Burke, a publicist with Sanderson & Associates of Chicago. Looking forward to the weekend, Triad residents can conserve gas and indulge their foodie habits close to home in Greensboro or hit Interstate 40 for some diversion in Durham.

There's much afoot in the Triad culinary community, so if you don't mind, I'll dispatch with the cheap one-liner opening and get right down to business. Believe it or not, even though hailstones and tornadoes have been pelting the region like snowballs thrown at the school bus, it is actually full-on spring. This means that the patios of all our beloved area restaurants are open for business. Bert's Seafood Grille in Greensboro and Finnegan's Wake in Winston-Salem are but two of the many, many fine Triad restaurants with outdoor eating space - and they're the only two that bothered to mention to me that their patios were up and running for the season.

Here's what's in season in North Carolina for the month of May: blueberries, cabbage, corn, leafy greens, white potatoes, squash and... almost... watermelon. But for most fresh produce lovers, this time if year belongs to the noble strawberry. Here's a few strawberry tidbits courtesy of our friends at Wikipedia: During the French Revolution, Our Lady of Thermidor took strawberry baths to maintain youthful skin. Their name likely comes from the practice of packing the fragile berries in straw. They were considered poisonous in Argentina until the mid-19th century. And, of course, they're delicious.

I was at Costco over the weekend, and though sales of rice were brisk there didn't seem to be any hoarding or rationing. However, if you're planning on making a rice pudding, pilaf or spring rice salad in the coming month you better get your big bag of grains now. But here in this agricultural cradle we have plenty of food. And tobacco. Coffee at the Summit, on Summit Avenue in Greensboro's Aycock Historic District, has reopened, peddling bean juice and jazz anew in those classy digs.

Is everybody else noticing that there's a huge glut of events this time of year? Must be the weather; makes us want to get out and do something. Fair-weather fiends will appreciate the slew of culinary events this week, many of which take advantage of the great outdoors. Like the open house at the Goat Lady Dairy in Climax on Sunday at 1 p.m.. I've long been a fan of the Goat Lady (AKA Ginny Tate) and her brother Steve - the farm, the ethic, but mostly their cheeses. The Gray's Chapel is just incredible. The event - free and open to the public, but no pets please - includes a tour of the grounds, some demos and surely some samples of their fine goat-milk products.

So it's springtime in Greensboro and the water tastes like your socks have been soaking in it. That's the word from Donnell LaVell, water education program coordinator for the city's department of water resources. Not to worry - it's just a bit of sediment stirred up by recent rains, according to the city's press release, and is a temporary condition. Also, it's chock-full of vitamins. Okay, I'm making that part up. Despite the funk, culinary activities abound in the Gate City.

Regular readers of this space know that in my mid-life efforts to get my gut under control I occasionally swear off fast food - McDonald's in particular - with the qualifier that hot dogs don't count. But last week the Golden Arches unveiled a new item, the Southern-style chicken sandwich, and I figured I should shoot over and check it out, because, you know, it's for work.