Brendan Mcdermid/ReutersThe Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest in 2010.Free tastes of wine from Italy’s Veneto region will be served on Friday from 2 to 4 p.m. at Enoteca Di Palo, 200 Grand Street (Mott Street), in Little Italy. From 6 to 8 p.m., sparkling wines from the region will be available at I Tre Merli, 463 West Broadway (Prince Street), in SoHo.
The Hester Street Fair, located at the corner of Hester and Essex Streets in the Lower East Side, throws an Independence Day Cookout on Saturday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. with more than 40 vendors, many selling food.
Dylan’s Candy Bar, 1011 Third Avenue (East 60th Street), partners with Hershey’s to throw a candy carnival on Saturday and Sunday from noon to 4 p.m. in honor of Independence Day. There will be free games and prizes.
The Village Pourhouse, 64 Third Avenue (11th Street), in the East Village, throws a crayfish boil Sunday from 6 to 8 p.m. A $40 ticket gets you two baskets of crayfish, unlimited chicken sliders, potato salad and corn on the cob. There will also be an open bar with Bud Light and Abit.
The annual Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest on Coney Island, Brooklyn, starts on Monday at 11:30 a.m. with the women’s competition followed by the men’s at noon. Takeru Kobayashi, a six-time champion, won’t be participating this year once again. However, he plans to compete via satellite from 230 Fifth’s rooftop bar, 230 Fifth Avenue (West 27th Street), in the Flatiron District. The doors open at 10:30 a.m. for the first 400 guests.
For the Fourth of July, Cookshop, 156 10th Avenue (20th Street), will sell fresh ice cream sandwiches from a cart for $5 each. The pastry chef Amanda Cook will create four varieties: red velvet wafers enclosing cheesecake ice cream, chocolate chip cookies sandwiching vanilla ice cream, graham cracker crust around banana ice cream and fudge brownies around salted caramel ice cream.
There are at least two spots to check out for fireworks on Monday night. The new Yotel, 570 10th Avenue (42nd Street), in Midtown, has a fourth-floor open-air lounge, the Terrace, with a partial view of the fireworks over the Hudson River. A party, costing $44 per person, runs from 8 to 11 p.m. with unlimited cocktails and Latin snacks. For $700, up to 10 people can book a table for the drink and food special. Call (646) 449-7790. At the Press Lounge, on the roof of the Ink48 Hotel, 653 11th Avenue (48th Street), there will be a buffet of hors d’oeuvres and dessert and an open bar from 6 to 10 p.m. for $300 a person or $225 for those who dine at Print Restaurant, which runs the lounge (dinner is extra). Press Lounge plans to limit the number of guests, so there’s plenty of room to view the fireworks. Call (212) 757-2224 for a reservation.
12:57 p.m. | Updated An earlier version of this posting incorrectly listed the Kings County Cookout. That event will take place on July 10.