Gentle Reader, a day may come when our appetites diminish, when our desire for food and wine in staggering abundance no longer tugs at our bellies. Our hunger sated, our thirst at long last slaked, we may forsake our annual festivals and content ourselves with the two for $20 menu at Applebee's. But it is not this day! This day we sup! We sip! We pack antacids! Once more, dear friends, the Capital Food & Wine Festival draws nigh - so by all that you hold dear in our fair home, men and women of Olympia, I bid you stand, raise your glasses, and enjoy another cup of clam chowder!

The Capital Food & Wine Festival in Lacey is an annual 501(c)(3) fundraiser for Saint Martin's University Alumni Association and its academic scholarship fund. It features more than 100 Washington wines, beer from regional breweries, food from a baker's dozen vendors, and music performed live on three stages. This year's featured event is a "People's Choice Casino Challenge" that tosses chefs from Lucky Eagle and Red Wind casinos into the culinary Octagon. Whose cuisine shall reign supreme? In the grammatically incorrect exhortation of Iron Chef's Chairman Kaga, "Allez cuisine!"

Perhaps you feel that sounds overheated, no kitchen pun intended. Au contraire, fellow skeptics. The elbow-to-elbow crowd each year pays tribute to a cornucopia of savory delights. We get stoked for an afternoon that promises good eats from Falls Terrace Restaurant, Ricardo's, Southbay Dickerson's BBQ and 10 other points in between.

This event is open to everyone (no strollers, please). Each adult receives a beer mug or wine glass with his or her ticket, then buys scrip for food and beverages. These can also be purchased in advance at CapitalFoodAndWineFestival.com.

Al Eckroth, director of the first and second festivals, describes the event as "a huge annual block party, where neighbors and friends unite in a spirit of community."

Vintners on hand include Hoodsport, Scatter Creek and Walter Dacon Wines. For connoisseurs, the festival offers "RJ's Premium Cellar" in memory of Randi Johnson, a Saint Martin's alumna who helped initiate the festival in 1989. If you're dying to get your lips around that plummy, voluptuous cabernet sauvignon bottled by Va Piano at its DuBrul Vineyard, now's your chance - though you may wish to purchase a bottle instead. The 2012 reaches its full potential next year. Look how classy you are!

O'Blarney's Irish Pub presents guitar rockers Pumphouse and a "sports bar" tent loaded with big screen TVs. The Worthington Center offers guitarist and songwriter Marty Beagle. The main stage hosts Off Boulevard at 2:30 p.m., Hook Me Up Band at 4:30, and the bluegrass of Oly Mountain Boys at 6:30. When they leave the stage at 8:30, we should be just finishing our last order of Beau Legs' bread pudding with bourbon sauce.

Don't you judge us!

CAPITAL FOOD & WINE FESTIVAL, noon to 8:30 p.m., Saturday, March 19, Marcus Pavilion, Saint Martin's University, 5300 Pacific Ave. SE, Lacey, admission $10-$15, 360.943.3323