Helfrich’s bio says she “is descended from a long line of Alsatians.” What the bio doesn’t mention — perhaps because it is a discreet bio that prefers not to state the obvious — is that she’s a young 23 and beautiful.

“It can’t be a lot of fun to go out to dinner with a bunch of old people,” said Vicki Briley-White, one of six attendees, along with her husband and Savor Dallas co-founder Jim White and Helfrich publicist Linsa Klinck-Shea.

The dinner’s other special-making factor was the fact that Aurora will close at the end of the month. Chef Avner Samuel came by to recommend the truffles, which a waiter displayed, enclosed in a clear acrylic box as if they were jewels. “You’re not gonna get them soon,” Avner warned.

July was a smart time for Anne-Laure to visit because her family makes white wines, popular during the summer: gewurztraminer, riesling, and pinot gris. Helfrich is in Alsace, in northeastern France, right up next to Germany. She brought two “lines”: one for $14.99 with screw caps; and a second “cru” line that sells for $24.99, whose cru status requires traditional corks. Anne-Laure said she likes screw caps even though there is still resistance to them in France.

“French people like to hear the ‘pop’ when you open the wine,” she said.

She was visiting to introduce the 2009 vintage, in stores and restaurants including Whole Foods Markets. Last year’s temperatures — cool at night, hot during the day — produced what’s being called a banner year for the wines, and one that follows a pattern of greatness with years ending in 9.

“Every vintage ending in 9 — ’79, ’89 was beautiful, ’99 very good, and now ’09, great,” she said.

Most of the table loved the pinot gris, which has a slight pink color and a warm creaminess. The Gewurztraminer got praise for its beautiful floral, perfumey notes.

To maximize the food-and-wine potential, she ordered a seared foie gras appetizer with candied butternut squash and duck fig sauce, which she deemed ideal with Helfrich’s pinot gris. A few folks at the table ordered the Dover sole entree, with Dover sole wrapped around a Diver scallop on truffled pomme puree.

Other dishes ordered butter-poached lobster claw, grass-fed beef tenderloin, black bass, and a butternut squash dessert with butternut squash ice cream on nutella and granola.

Although the title is a bit of a cheat, The Kids Are All Right is a sweet film about an atypical family by director Lisa Cholodenko, of lauded films such as High Art and Laurel Canyon, that’s elevated by her exceptional rendering of the film’s two lesbian moms, played by Annette Benning and Julianne Moore.

Cholodenko’s insight into their psyche is self-aware and humorous, and provides some of the film’s brightest moments. She also shows a sensitivity to the anguish of life as a teen, as embodied by the couple’s two teen children, Joni and Laser (Mia Wasikowska and Josh Hutcherson).

Where the movie stumbles is in plot, particularly the role of Paul, the sperm donor who fathered the two children. Played with casual grace by Mark Ruffalo, Paul functions as a convenient device to send the family through an emotional tumble, so they can emerge with a renewed appreciation for each other and a feel-good ending.

But the dismissive way he’s treated and the non-credible emotional leaps he’s expected to make erode the warm fuzzies Cholodenko works so hard to create. Once the moms and the kids have satisfied their curiosity and used him to help solve their own various quandaries, the film tosses him aside with a harshness that’s cold and unsympathetic.

That’s a big flaw, but not a tragic one; it makes the film fun to think about. And it remains a satisfying viewing thanks not only to its quirky characters, but to its California milieu and indie tone. In classic indie style, the film’s actions and words are sometimes left nebulous and unresolved, giving the viewer plenty of space to interpret and connect.

The plight of teenage son Laser is especially moving. His desperate desire for a proper male role model is nearly heart-breaking, and is the driving force behind getting the family to re-connect with Paul. The first meeting between the two men is touchingly painful when it becomes apparent that, temperamentally, they are not alike. The awkwardness is the kind of thing you see in real life and it’s a gift that the film refuses to candy-coat it.

Annette Bening’s portrayal of Type A surgeon-breadwinner Nic is remarkable and complex. The dynamic between her and the rest of the family is loaded with completely understandable emotional baggage, and she does a fierce job conveying every nuance. It also establishes the film’s central theme — that, despite the fact that there are two moms, the family is as normal as any other. When she makes a disturbing discovery about Paul during a festive dinner, instead of going ballistic, she turns quiet, and it’s an intensely vivid piece of filmmaking: Nearly all of the sound is eliminated, save tiny gestures such as Bening’s sip of her wine. How artful of Cholodenko to make a sound vacuum such a powerful thing; it’s like watching a tornado inside a person.

But the funniest parts are when she depicts the day-to-day uber-neurosis of Bening and Moore, such as the scene that can be seen in the film’s trailer when Laser walks by and the two women, sitting together on the couch, both cry out, “Hugs! Hugs!” The scene where they clearly expect him to reveal that he’s gay, and he doesn’t, is great.

But the title, a glib appropriation of the Who song, comes off as facile. What really matters to the filmmakers is how the parents are, not the kids.

DALLAS — Tei An, the restaurant in Dallas’ One Arts Plaza that’s best known for having soba noodles that are handmade by chef-owner Teiichi “Teach” Sakurai, is offering a new noodle dish that brings to Dallas a uniquely authentic slice of Japanese cuisine.

Called “hiyashi chuka-soba” or “hiyashi chuka” for short — or better yet, cold ramen noodles — it’s a refreshing item that’s a summer favorite in Japan.

The dish starts with squiggly ramen noodles, which are cooked until soft but with a tiny bit of chew. They’re tossed in a thin soy and vinegar dressing, then topped with a variety of ingredients.

Two things make this dish distinctive:

1. The toppings are arranged in neatly-defined compartments, like an Asian version of a Cobb salad.

2. The dish is served cold. (Needs revenge joke here.)

To make the presentation more eye-catching, Japanese chefs deliberately choose different colorful ingredients and cut them into thin slivers.

At Tei An, Teach tops the noodles with tender sliced pork plus julienned carrot, cucumber, wakame seaweed, red pepper, and “kinshiran” — golden thread egg.

Some people mix all the ingredients together before they eat, but you don’t have to and it’s a lot prettier if you don’t. Are you the kind of person who has to cut your pancakes into bite-size pieces before starting, or are you the kind of person who leaves your pancake as is and breaks off the bites as you eat them?

The interplay of ingredients and textures serves as an appetite stimulant during the hot months, says Teach.

“This is what people eat in Japan during the summer,” he says. “The noodles are supposed to be cold — it feels lighter, and it’s refreshing.”

It goes into the same category as watermelon or shaved ice, not only because it’s a cooling dish but also because it’s distinctly summer. Once summer is over, Japanese chefs stop serving it — bring the same kind of wistfulness you feel when school has started again, articulated nicely by blogger Peter Payne:

Tei An introduced cold ramen noodles on Monday. The dish is $11, and they’ll continue to serve it for the rest of the summer — just like in Japan.

White bean bruschetta had a weirdly hammy flavor, and so did the servers. (Zing!) But the scene picks up right where it left off, with long waits for the patio, newly reconfigured to make the most of the dynamic L-shaped space that wraps around this prime McKinney Avenue spot—right across the street from where the old Sfuzzi was.