A free summer festival, matcha pop-up and more food events this week

This week’s food events include Grant Park’s Summer Shade Festival, a matcha pop-up at Bella Cucina and a special dinner series in Madison featuring Atlanta chefs.

Summer Shade Festival

The Grant Park Conservancy’s Summer Shade Festival returns this weekend to the historic Atlanta park.

On Saturday and Sunday, the free festival will welcome more than 140 artists and makers selling their handmade goods, artwork, jewelry, vintage items, beer and specialty foods, according to a news release. There will be live music, entertainment and even wrestling matches from Deep South Wrestling.

The food market will feature a range of food trucks, including Williamson Bros. Bar-B-Que, Lisa’s Creperie, Dolce Tropical, Gyro Chef and El Ponce.

Proceeds from the weekendlong event help the conservancy continue expanding its programs and investments throughout Grant Park.

10 a.m.-10 p.m. Saturday. 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Sunday. 840 Cherokee Ave. SE, Atlanta. summershadefestival.org

The Grant Park Conservancy's Summer Shade Festival returns this weekend throughout the historic park. (Courtesy of the Grant Park Conservancy)

Dinner at the Dining Room

About an hour outside of Atlanta, the Dining Room in Madison will hold a special dinner series featuring Atlanta chef Shaun Doty and the Dining Room’s new chef de cuisine, Ted Lahey.

Lahey previously helped open Roswell’s Table & Main and Osteria Mattone; he also worked in Athens at Five & Ten and helped to launch Preacher Green’s.

The dinner series will include a collaboration with Mad Hospitality’s summer chef-in-residence Daniel Chance, the Patisserie on Main executive pastry chef Edouard Fenouil and Georgia-based master sommelier Michael McNeill.

All four chefs have created the weekend’s menu, and McNeill, who consults on Mad Hospitality’s wine program, will curate the wine pairings.

Expect dishes like a watermelon salad with feta, watercress, pickled watermelon rind, fermented chili honey and pistachio dukka; butter poached trout with collard greens and curried lentils; filet mignon; and a chocolate Napoleon with hazelnut, sable and dark chocolate ice cream.

5:30-8:30 p.m. Thursday-Saturday. 146 E. Washington St., Madison. 706-478-7893, mad-hospitality.com/the-dining-room

Muracha matcha pop-up

Head to Bella Cucina in Buckhead for a matcha pop-up with Muracha — a tea brand company based in Atlanta and Nashville, Tennessee, from sisters Megan Lore and Katie Roth, who work with a family-run farm in Yame, Japan, to source the matcha.