Mon. March 12

We're a little partial to Brookline's Coolidge Corner because, well, we live here now. But even from afar - most recently Quincy, before that Newton - we loved its city amenities but town-like ambience. It is a town, after all. The Coolidge Corner merchants like doing things together and some have hooked up for the "Friends, Food, Film" benefit for the Brookline Community Mental Health Center Monday March 12. You can go upscale or downscale. Pay $100 and you may dine at Khao Sarn Cuisine at 5:30 and then take in "Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont" at the Coolidge Corner Theatre. Or you can go directly to the theater, pay $25 for beer and burriots, and also see the film. (Lineage Restaurant is also involved in this, but they're sold out.) At the film, screenwriter/philanthropist Ruth Sacks Caplin will be honored. It's her first screenplay. She is 85. The film - about a May-December relationship, set in London, has been called "an endearing deceptively simple story" by Variety it stars Dame Joan Plowright, widow of Laurence Olivier.

KS: 250 Harvard St. CC: 290 Harvard St., Brookline, 617-277-8107