A LITTLE BIT DOMINICAN 809 Sangria Bar & Grill (112 Dyckman St., between Nagle and Post avenues, 212-304-3800), opened quietly in Inwood at the end of August. Named for the area code of the Dominican Republic, the restaurant’s owner, Cirilo Moronta, is serving somewhat Dominican food from a menu developed by consulting chef Ricardo Cardona, a Salvadoran, and chef de cuisine Jorge Adriazola, who is from Peru.

That menu includes Italian-influenced items like seafood linguine Bolognese (translated into Spanish as Linguini en Salsa Boloñesa de Mariscos), Spanish paella, and Brazilian-Argentine churrascos, or grilled meats, as well as a daily ceviche, and Mexican guacamole and tamales.

It is slated to open for lunch next week.

EARLY OKTOBERFEST Germans, for reasons of their own, celebrate Oktoberfest mostly in September: It lasts for 16 days and ends in the first Sunday in October. This year it starts on the 17th, but the restaurant August (359 Bleecker St., between West 10th and Charles streets, 212-929-4774) is celebrating it for just a week, and it is doing it early. Between September 11 and 17, the restaurant is offering a Bavarian sausage supper for two, including sauerkraut and housemade pretzels, for $28. German beers also are being highlighted during the week, as is a $9 piece of Black Forest cake.

FOOTBALL & FASHION Monday Night Football begins this Monday, and Obivia (20l Lafayette St., between Kenmare and Broome streets, 212-226-4904) is showing a game every Monday on four flat screen televisions. The bar also is handing out free food — ham, chili, and chips and dip — during halftime as well as offering draft beer for $3.50 and mixed drinks and wine for $5.

If you don’t want to watch football, episodes of “Sex and the City” are being shown in the private lounge, where cosmopolitans, for women only, are free.

MEXICAN VACATION Rosa Mexicano at Union Square (9 E. 18th St., between Fifth Avenue and Broadway, 212-397-0666) is hosting guest chef Luis Fitch for a dinner tomorrow featuring the food of Puerto Vallarta. Mr. Fitch is chef of Los Xitomates restaurant in the Mexican resort. His dinner, which is $65 a person and includes wine and tequila, will feature items such as raw shaved scallops in shallot aguachile, and pan-seared tuna medallions with chayote-seaweed salad and lemon basil-chipotle vinaigrette.

The dinner kicks off a 10-day festival, ending on Mexican Independence Day, September 16. During that time, all guests can enter to win a three-day trip to Puerto Vallarta.

Mr. Thorn is food editor of Nation’s Restaurant News. He maintains nrnfoodwriter.blogspot.com