The idea of creating a wine dinner feature has been percolating at Beat-central for more than two years. While we're not claiming any sort of ground-breaking editorial invention here, we were nevertheless determined to make this a classic Beat-style story… fun, breezy, lively, and all about food, wine, and company: a portrait in pairings just for our readers. Where luxury rag versions of these exclusive soirees generally boast a guest list of the who's who of the foodie, winey, and wealthy, The Beat invited our working stiffs, the dedicated columnists, chief cooks, and bottle washers, who, together, bring a surfeit of unpretentious knowledge and an abundance of pure and simple joy to their food and wine stories and to The Beat as an entity.