Davidson Chocolate Co. is giving back to the community this summer with a series of monthly sale days on behalf of local nonprofit organizations, beginning next Wednesday, June 16, with Davidson Housing Coalition. Also today, we introduce you to Heather and John Lin, who recently bought Bonsai Grill in Davidson. And we have news of a new lunch menu at Prosciutto’s Pizzeria, Pub & Restaurant in Cornelius, and a new pizza place on South Main Street, Cornelius.

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The 2010 Taste of Charlotte festival comes to downtown Charlotte this weekend, with more than 30 restaurants serving everything from tiramisu and BBQ sliders to “dragon puffs” and reuben bites. Read the full story

Updated Friday, June 4, 3:45 p.m.
The owner of The Creole House on Main, at 20517 N. Main St. in Cornelius, says he is working with town officials and the county health and building code enforcement departments to address issues that closed the restaurant in late May.  Read the full story

Construction has begun on the planned Rusher Market gas station and convenience store at the Davidson Gateway roundabout, off Exit 30, and its owners are promising tasty fare not usually found in a shop of this kind. Meanwhile, we also have news about Creole House on Main, and a couple of new businesses in Cornelius, and word of an autism fund-raiser at Healthy Home Markets in Davidson and Charlotte.
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By SHELLEY RIGGER
DavidsonNews.net

One of my fondest childhood memories is from summer 1979, when the 17-year locusts made their appearance in northern Maryland. The locusts (technically cicadas) were such easy pickings that for one glorious season, the big songbirds – cowbirds, catbirds, robins and mockingbirds – left our pie cherry tree alone, and I was able to harvest bucket after bucket of heavy crimson fruit.

Not that you’d want to eat pie cherries right off the tree. The pie cherry is very tart – sour, really. It’s beautiful to look at – bright red skin, golden flesh – and has a distinctive flavor, nothing like the “eating cherries” with their purple-black skin and burgundy pulp. But in a pie, flavored with plenty of sugar and a few drops of almond extract, tart cherries are sublime. Read the full story

Here’s a kitchen dilemma: The oven is broken at our house and that means baked dishes are off limits until it’s repaired or replaced. Or are they? As they say, necessity is the mother of invention.

The other day, we had fresh strawberries from Davidson Farmers Market, and the lure of shortcake was irresistible. Likewise, on Friday afternoons we often bake our own home-made pizza. We needed a solution, and there it was right out back: The Grill. Read the full story