DOMANI IS now offering the deal of all deals: a nightly three-course prix fixe of chef Rene Michelena's best for $35. This is no super-cheap-y menu; it's everything you like to eat -- organic green salad, grilled tuna loin, steak, barbecued salmon, rigatoni with chicken meatballs, tiramisu, chocolate cake. Across town, another Italian prix fixe: Jerome Watkins is now the executive chef at Eclano in the North End, and he's introducing Neighborhood Nights on Mondays and Tuesdays, at which the tab for a three-course meal is $25 a pop. "We want to give the folks who live nearby a chance to eat locally without having moved their car, or spending too much for a casual weeknight dinner," Watkins says. And you don't have to prove residency to get the deal - it's open to all, neighbors or not. >> Also in the North End, 30-year-old Ristorante Villa Francesca has had a birthday makeover. If you haven't been there, it's an elegant place, more country inn than city bistro, with crisp, white linens, comfy leather chairs, granite-topped bar, and a glass-enclosed wine room. There's a new menu too: less red sauce, more Mediterranean cuisine and flavors of Northern Italy. >> Another sure sign of nesting in the cooler seasons: the Chocolate Bar is open at the Langham Hotel. >> Kudos to Marjorie Druker and Clara Silverstein on the publication of their New England Soup Factory Cookbook: More Than 100 Recipes from the Nation's Best Purveyor of Fine Soup. (Thomas Nelson, 2007; $24.99) >> On September 28, Boston joins 20 cities in hosting the James Beard Foundation's Taste America, a benefit dinner celebrating the world-renowned culinary organization's 20th anniversary and the legacy of James Beard. Local Beard winners Ana Sortun of Oleana and Frank McClelland of L'Espalier will be on hand for the event, joined by the "Next Generation of James Beard Award Winners" - Marc Orfaly (Pigalle and Marco), Dante de Magistris (Dante), and Tom Berry (Temple Bar). The event is held at Veronique in Brookline, and tickets are $125. For information, visit www.jbftasteamerica.com.
