Dinner and a movie takes a new twist at the a/k/a a bistro in St. Helena, California. The movie "Where the Wild Things Are" will be screened at the local Cameo Cinema and the bistro has created a dedicated WIld Things menu. The movie inspired menu includes freshly pulled made to order warm mozzarella with pickled wild mushrooms, roasted pearl onions, smoked paprika vinaigrette; a second course of penne with wild boar ragout and warm wild huckleberry clafoutis with lemon verbena sorbet in a wild rice tuile for dessert. This menu costs $35 and will continue every Tuesday until the end of 2009.

The restaurant also offers the Tasty Tuesdays series. Winemakers or winery principals circulate through the dining room chatting with guests, who can sample a flight of three or more of the winemaker's wines for $9 alongside any items from the menu. "The idea is to meet and get to know wine people you may not have met yet," explains owner Robert Simon, "and taste their wares at the same time and spend only a fraction of the published price for that opportunity." In October and November the wineries include Bourassa, Bravante, Turnbull, Broman, Cakebread, Luna and Swanson. The Tasty Tuesday series runs from 6:30 until 8:00 p.m. every Tuesday evening.

The restaurant also offers customers specialties on specific nights: Wednesday is handmade pasta night; Thursday is 'slow food;' Friday is fish and Saturday is coq au vin, although the menu offers a wide range of small and large plates across a modern reading of California bistro cuisine. The restaurant offers unlimited free corkage Sunday – Thursday. The complete menu can be found at www.akabistro.com.