Tomato season is almost over. Ugh. But, why not enjoy it now in the comfort of one of downtown's most electric restaurants, Fifth Floor. Tonight they offer a prix-fixe Early Girl 7-course tomato celebration, a feast perfect for bidding the fruit adieu.

Such as? Such as a Deconstructed Manhattan Clam Chowder (caviar, granita, geoduck, cocktail sauce, pommes souffle), tomato flan (Parmesan espuma, cubeb pepper, basil seeds), Maine Lobster - (sauce choron, chorizo, piperade, haricots vert), Bellwether Farms Ricotta Raviolo (Fallon hills egg, black olive croutons, garden herbs, saffron-tomato Sugo), and Assiette of Lamb (Provencal style vegetables, dried tomato, cranberry beans).

But an end-of-summer meal like this doesn't come cheap. It'll run you $95 for the prix fixe ($68 for wine pairing). Mere pennies for David Bazirgan's fare! Restaurant opens at 5:30. Call to make a reservation (or possibly stop by as they have "plenty of room," or so we've been told.)

Fifth Floor: 12 Fourth Street (at Market, located in Hotel Palomar), S.F., 415-348-1555

This week marks the 22nd annual Festival of the Tomato at Oakland's long-running Italian spot Oliveto, and as usual, the menu looks pretty killer. If you ever wondered how you could create a sizable menu that incorporates tomatoes into every dish, including dessert, feast your eyes on this wonder. A few items that caught our eye included appetizers of fried green tomatoes with lobster remoulade and tomato and tomatillo terrine with tomato-water gelee, and pastas like pomodoro tortelli with garlic cream and lasagnette with housemade ricotta and tomato conserva. For entrees, diners have options like spit-roasted tomato-glazed hen and cioppino with local rock cod and San Marzanos. They've even managed to make tomato dessert sound weirdly appealing (remember, they're a fruit), with options like a walnut and spiced tomato ice cream bombe with brandied caramel glaze, and a Valrhona chocolate, tomato, and caramel tart with fleur de sel. Oh, and did we mention the warm tomato jelly doughnuts?

Oliveto traditionally holds its tomato dinners in August, but due to a slightly weird growing season with a late spike in hot weather, they've pushed the dinners back to September, in order to coincide with the greatest level of tomato availability. Apparently, chef Jonah Rhodehamel and his team taste every tomato and judge them on their size, flavor, color, and acidity before assigning them to a dish-- they even opened their tomato tasting to the public this year, though we didn't get to attend.

Reservations for the tomato dinners are available on OpenTable or via phone at (510) 547-5356. They haven't posted prices for the tomato meals yet, but the regular menu runs $9-16 for appetizers, $16-17 for pastas, and $24-31 for entrees. If you've never been, it's right around the corner from the Rockridge BART station, making it a snap to take the train and subsequently overdo it on the wine.

Similar to the annual tomato hurling that happens in Buñol, Spain, a Seattle-based company plans on bringing the rouge fruit fight to the Alameda County Fairgrounds on October 1. The Contra Costa Times reports, "Max Kraner and Clint Nelson both left finance jobs to start Tomato Battle, a daylong event at which revelers pay a fee to enjoy beer, music and to pelt other fans with thousands of pounds of tomatoes in an hourlong battle."

All tomatoes will be expired and purchased from a local food bank, so no potential nourishment will go to wast. (Expired means extra squashy, so don't worry about being pelted by a tough green tomato!) The tomato fight will also boast a battle of the bands-like music competition.

Tickets are $59.99. For more details on Tomato Battle, check out their site.

Here's a scene of this year's Tomato Battle in Colorado. (Not nearly as messy as Buñol's, but looks just as fun.)

Do you get the summertime blues? We sure do. And word is there ain't no cure for them. Which is why tomato season is one of the few things we look forward to during these warm summer months. (And the evening fog. We do enjoy our nightly blanket of cooling fog.) Local James Beard Award-winning chef and celebrity Joanne Weir just revealed her top 10 tomato recipes for the upcoming barrage of glorious tomatoes heading our way. They are:

10. Tomato Bruschetta
9. Pizza with Gorgonzola and Tomatoes
8. Heirloom Tomato Bisque
7. Peak-Season Tomato Sauce
6. Spiced Tomato Upside-Down Cake
5. Tomato and Corn Chowder
4. Cheddar-Crusted Corn and Tomato Tart
3. Spaghetti alla Norma
2. Moroccan Chicken with Tomato Marmalade
1. Love-Apple Chocolate Cake

And seeing as how tomatoes are rather delicate, Weir recommends storing them at room temperature "with the stem end up to prevent bruised shoulders." And, of course, "never refrigerate your tomatoes." Ever. Don't Why do people do this? It's bad. Real bad.

You know what time it is? It's the height of tomato season. Or, for some, it's approaching the height of tomato season -- depending on your area and climate. Anyway, with that we'd like to share with you a perfect sauce to use for this glorious time of year, local chef Joanne Weir's aptly-titled Peak Season Tomato Sauce. It's very simply and delicious, period; and doesn't involve superfluous paste, bay leaves, carrots, celery or other filler. It's all tomato taste. Also, while it calls for you to use (preferably organic) tomatoes at their peak, good canned tomatoes (like San Marzano, but be wary, or Bella Terra) will do in a pinch.

Peak Season Tomato Sauce

Serve this sauce with creamy polenta and grilled sausages or your favorite pasta.

4 pounds ripe plum tomatoes, cored and halved
1 small red onion
6 garlic cloves, halved
3 sprigs fresh basil
Coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper

Place the tomatoes, onion, garlic, basil, and 1/2 teaspoon salt in a large pot and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce the heat to medium-high and cook, stirring occasionally , until the tomatoes collapse, about 15 minutes. Reduce the heat to low and simmer until the sauce is thick, 1 to 1 1/2 hours.

Ever since a few cry babies got the sniffles over a few bad tomatoes last week -- fine, it was salmonella food poisoning, but tomatoes are the most awesome thing to eat in the entire universe, so we don't much care for the bad press they've been receiving -- McDonald's has decided to nix all sliced tomatoes on its sandwiches. (Wait, what sandwiches at McDonald's use tomatoes? One of those swank new chicken-ish items this now serve?)

So far 23 people have been hospitalized for eating bad, uncooked tomatoes. In addition to the golden arches, Taco Bell and Chipotle Mexican Grill have stopped using tomatoes n their gastronomic delights. Ralphs, Vons, and Albertsons have also put the kibosh on red plum, red Roma, and round red tomatoes. Poor little fellas.

We hope the FDA pinpoints where these salmonella-infused veggies are coming from. Tomatoes really don't deserve this kind of reputation. They just don't. A sad day, indeed.