Apparently, the Bath House is the place to be this weekend. Numerous events are taking place there as part of the White Rock Lake Centennial‘s grand finale weekend, and so many are happening that we had a hard time keeping them straight. Here’s a rundown:

• The Beach Party of the Century is exactly as it sounds — pin the tail on the donkey, bobbing for apples, cake walks, food concessions, “very kid friendly,” says Amity Thomas, who is coordinating the Sunday Chef’s Picnic (we’ll get to that soon). The party lasts from 10 a.m.-10 p.m. Saturday and 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Sunday, with $5 tickets for children and $15 for adults — and tickets are good for both days. The best time to attend might be Saturday night at 9 .m., when fireworks will be set off from the historical Bath House swimming island “ for the first time since 1987,” Thomas says.

• On Saturday, the Bath House balcony will be transformed into the “Veranda Lounge”. (Just for Saturday. It’s not a long-term venue.) Five different dining events — that’s right, five — are taking place at the lounge, each priced separately from each other and the Beach Party (stay with us): 1. brunch and cocktails with the ladies from Good 2 Go Tacos, 10-11:30 a.m. ($35); 2. a four-course lunch with wine from private chef Hollie Dorethy, noon-1:30 ($45); 3. an afternoon tea showcasing Lone Star Teas, 2-4 p.m. ($25); 4. an afternoon cocktail party with wine, beer and Mozzarella Company cheeses; 5. a four-course celebrity chef dinner with wine pairings featuring Marc Cassel of the soon-to-come Peavy Road restaurant, 7 p.m. ($100).

• Sunday morning is the 9-11 a.m. Sunset Inn breakfast on the balcony, a $5 old-fashioned meal of biscuits and gravy, scrambled eggs and sausage with gospel music setting the tone. The breakfast is a separate ticket than the Beach Party, as is the Sunday noon-3 p.m. Chef’s Picnic, $55. Editor Rachel Stone wrote about a couple of the neighborhood chefs involved; another fairly recognizable name in the list is Graham Dodds of Bolsa, and two that are lesser-known, but you should get acquainted, are Diane and Justin Fourton of Pecan Lodge. Full Custom Gospel BBQ gives it rave reviews, and the pulled-pork sandwich my husband brought home from the Farmers Market Sunday was smoky perfection. Perhaps the most important thing to note about the Chef’s Picnic, Thomas says, is that valet parking at the Bath House is included in the ticket price. All other beach partygoers will have to park at Norbuck, Flag Pole Hill or the White Rock Dart station and catch a shuttle to the Bath House.

So to be clear, eight different events are taking place at the Bath House this weekend, each one with a separate ticket price. The good news is that all tickets are available for purchase on one website: highlandparkcafeteria.com. (The Casa Linda restaurant’s special events coordinator is helping to organize some of the events, so that’s the connection.)

And that’s just at the Bath House. The White Rock Centennial grand finale also includes the free, noon-4 p.m. sailing clubs’ open house and wooden boat show on Saturday, and of course the 7 p.m. “100 and Rockin‘” Sunday night concert with Hard Night’s Day at the Dallas Arboretum.

It’s a big weekend, folks. Make sure you head to the lake — a party of this sort only happens once every hundred years.

I read one of those expert prognostications last week, reassuring the wine business that all would be soon be well with the world again. Which, for the wine business, means that consumers will stop buying cheap wine, the world oversupply of grapes will go away, and prices will go up.

To which I offer the House White ($10, purchased, available at Kroger) as the wine of the week, from the always reliable Magnificent Wine Company. Note that it was $10, a couple of bucks less than its suggested retail price. Note, too, that it was a 2008 vintage, even though there is a 2009 vintage available. Why does that happen? Because there is so much 2008 left that retailers aren’t stocking the 2009. Yes, the wine business may be improving, but there is still such a glut of wine in warehouses and on shelves that we won’t see pre-recession pricing for a very, very long time.

Despite its age — and $10 white wines don’t often last this long — the House White is sturdy and worthwhile. It’s a blend of mostly chardonnay from Washington state, so look for a lot of stoniness, and though there isn’t a lot of fruit left (maybe a little peach), that’s not a problem. There are no off flavors, again something to look for in older cheap wines. Drink this chilled at almost any summer white wine opportunity.

Dot's Cafe is apparently temporarily (hopefully) closed.

Saturday morning, I was dying for an omelet and coffee, but when I arrived at tried-and-true Dot’s Cafe, 10870 Plano, the OPEN sign was dark.

A sign on the door reads something to the effect of “Under new management; closed for remodeling”.

I had to go to Chubby’s instead, where the coffee and service was good. The pancakes were super and the omelet was just a step down from Dot’s.

A reader suggested that I try this Spanish red, so I bought it and brought it home. It was only then that I noticed the alcohol level: 15 percent. Gulp.

But because I firmly believe in tasting a wine before I judge it, I did just that. And I can report that the Evodia ($10, purchased, available at Whole Foods) handles the high alcohol well. Save for touch of alcohol-inspired heat at the front, that 15 percent wasn’t an issue.

Having said that, the Evodia is not a subtle wine, and it does need food like beef, sausage or something else with enough fat to offset its oomph. Father’s day barbecue, perhaps? It’s not a summer porch sipper by any stretch of the imagination; this is a New World-style garnacha with lots of sweet fruit (blackberries and cherries?). It doesn’t have much more than that, but what’s there is excellent, and it’s a candidate for the 2012 $10 Hall of Fame.

I needed two wines to go with paella that I was making (and which didn’t turn out well at all, but which is a story for another time). I knew the red I wanted, and which will show up here one of these days. I wasn’t sure about the white; all I knew was that I wanted something that I had not tried before and that it should cost $10.

Which is how the Paso ($10, purchased, available at Central Market) ended up in my shopping cart. I didn’t know the producer, Bodegas Volver, but I knew the importer, Jorge Ordonez, who was one of the first to being quality Spanish wine to the U.S. The price was right, and the Paso was made with verdejo, which makes seafood-friendly wines that are usually more expensive.

Call it wine-buying roulette, and yet another example of why wine is so much fun. I took a chance and won. The Paso was everything I hoped it would be and a little more — fresh and lively with lots of citrus-style acid and stone fruit flavors. It wasn’t as complex as a pricier verdejo, but it wasn’t supposed to be.

This is exactly the kind of wine that I wish more California producers appreciated: Well-priced and well-made, and just the thing to drink with dinner when you want wine but don’t want to spend a lot of money or endure wine-pairing hell.

According to a Sunday editorial in the Dallas Morning News, “North Texas is a tourism gem.”  Although the Dallas Convention and Visitor’s Bureau found that 58.5 percent of Super Bowl visitors this past year had “no impression of Dallas whatsoever,” the editorial admonishes us to stand up straight and tall when we talk about all our city has to offer — “everything from Six Flags Over Texas to the Dallas Arboretum and Botanical Garden to the Sixth Floor Museum.”

My husband asked me why I was laughing.  Well, Six Flags is pretty much a franchise all over the country, and as much as I love the Arboretum, most large cities have their version of beloved gardens.  And — is it just me?  I find those two venues too hot in June, July, August, and September.

The one place that no other city has is the Sixth Floor Museum — and to its credit, despite our emotional pain involved with the venue, Dallas has done a good job improving the museum in recent years.  Unfortunately, the surrounding areas at West End and Deep Ellum aren’t as interesting as they used to be.

I applaud improvements at the Farmer’s Market, the Arts District, and the Trinity Riverfront (can we call it that yet?)  Also, our (slow) improvements to DART rail will help eventually.  But my real question is — if those of us who live here don’t know what to do in Dallas, then how can we expect visitors to fare any better?  Especially in the summer.  If you have visitors this summer, where will you take them?

OK, I’ll start.  I continue to love the Dallas Museum of Art, an air conditioned venue that is worth the visit, although if you aren’t a member you are made to feel like day-old fish.  Once you get past the parking fees (for non-members) and a few other affronts, and are finally inside, it is a lovely place to visit.  My point is, if that’s how I feel when I know what to expect, then it’s pretty much the same with the visitors I bring along with me.

The revolving restaurant atop Reunion Tower (powered by chef Wolfgang Puck) is a place I recommend, because the food is so good, it is worth the price.  The problem is, the prices can be shocking, which tends to dampen some of the joy of the visit, and probably forces many to cross it off their list.  There used to be an observation level, but that is closed.  You can, however, try to pop in for drinks, to enjoy the ambiance.

If you have any other tips, especially for the summer months, please let me know.

(The Dallas Morning News editorial can be read at http://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/editorials/20110527-editorial-tourism-is-one-of-north-texas-hidden-secrets.ece , behind the pay-wall),

Matt Tobin, East Dallas resident and owner of Vickery Park, hopes to open his latest concept, Goodfriend, later this summer.

Located next door to Good 2 Go Taco on Peavy, Goodfriend will bridge the gap between family-friendly restaurant and bar — it will even have high chairs. “My wife and I live in the area, and we kept saying that we wished there was a kid-friendly neighborhood place where we could have some food and drinks and not have to go to a Chili’s or Applebees,” says Tobin. So he’s opening one.

Goodfriend’s menu will have 10 signature burgers, each paired with a draft beer, plus a reuben and other artisan sandwiches. The atmosphere will take a tip from Tobin’s good friends — pun intended — at The Old Monk and feature wood paneling, old church pews made into banquettes and other pieces made from reclaimed wood.

Tobin hopes that Goodfriend and Chef Marc Cassel’s recently announced new restaurant nearby will start a chain reaction in the area. “I can’t name names, but I know of at least six to seven restaurateurs looking at the Casa Linda area right now,” says Tobin.

Our fingers are crossed.

This Friday — and every Friday evening in June — The Shops at Park Lane presents the “Movies Under The Moon” free, family movie series.

This week, June 10 from 7–10 p.m., pack a picnic basket, grab a blanket or chair and watch “Despicable Me.” Before the show, Whole Foods Market will have arts and crafts giveaways for the kids.

If summertime has left you with little time to pack a family meal, Gordon Biersch will have hot dogs, pork sliders, soft drinks and more available for purchase. For mom and dad, they will also have wine and beer.

“Movies Under The Moon” takes place in The Park near Bailey’s Prime Plus and Fresh Berry. The movie for June 17 is “E.T.,” and June 24 is “Shrek.”

One of the most difficult aspects of any political campaign these days is that it’s virtually impossible to actually talk with a candidate at length. Everything tends to be broken down into “sound bites”, so you have 15 seconds of Candidate A talking about something, and then 15 seconds of Candidate B responding. No matter that you really can’t express yourself in 15 seconds about much of anything.

That’s why we thought it would be interesting to invite both Dallas mayoral runoff candidates, David Kunkle and Mike Rawlings, to our studio for a discussion about city issues. Thanks to the web, we can present the entire discussion free of charge and in the comfort of your home, office or even car or favorite restaurant, if you’re using a smart phone or pad.

True, you will have to invest about 40 minutes to watch all five segments (the discussion is in five segments because YouTube limits the length of individual videos, and we use YouTube because it’s free and because it’s a video format people are comfortable with online). And just to tip our hands here, there’s no fisticuffs, shoving or otherwise “Jersey Shore” displays of mildly entertaining idiocy.

Instead, we have two reasonable, intelligent guys talking about what’s important to them as it relates to city politics, city budgeting and even their favorite restaurants. One of them will be elected, and whoever winds up with the job will have a lot to say about our lives here the next four years.

If you are truly undecided about who to support in this election, this is a great chance to hear the candidates speak for themselves, unedited, and then make your decision. All five parts of the discussion are linked here; please let us know what you think if you take the time to watch any or all of them. Special thanks go to editor Emily Toman for producing the videos, webmaster Luke Shertzer for operating the camera and Jeff Siegel for development many of the questions.

Part 1 – Calatrava bridge, World-Class City & the AAC

Part 2 – Neighborhood development

Part 3 – Budget specifics, police and Farmers Market

Part 4 – Public libraries, art and economic development

Part 5 – Favorite restaurants, robo-calls and “what if you lose?”