Featuring selections from some of the shoreline’s best restaurants and libations from its best breweries and wineries, the Madison Exchange Club will welcome residents to celebrate another edition of Culinary Arts Night on Thursday, Sept. 19.

The all-outdoor, block-party style event is in its 16th year, filling the courtyard near Key Bank and Ashley’s Ice Cream for an evening of music, mingling, and most important, delicious selections of the shoreline’s best hors d’oeuvres.

“I like nice food,” said the event’s co-chair Bob Dunlop. “And I lived in France for five years. And I wouldn’t say I’m a foodie necessarily...[but] the restaurants in Madison compare very favorably” to those in France.

The Exchange Club is a branch of a national volunteer network of organizations whose stated goals are to promote programs of service in Americanism, community service, youth activities, and the prevention of child abuse. Culinary Arts Night is one of the organization’s biggest annual events, attracting a couple hundred people on average, Dunlop said.

Around 35 restaurants will be donating food and providing service, according to Dunlop, with beer and wine provided by local distributors. Over the years, the event has become sort of a proving grounds for Madison and shoreline kitchens—almost a mandatory way to make your mark on the local food scene, he said.

“I was talking to one [restaurant],” said Dunlop, “and they said, ‘Well, we just have to do this because the other restaurants are doing this.’

“They seem to come back year after year,” he added.

The benefit for anyone attending, of course, is being able to sample the best effort put forward by some of the area’s most talented and accomplished chefs.

Another unique aspect of Culinary Night is its open-air nature. Dunlop said being able to congregate out of doors in late summer, with tables stretching from the edge of Boston Post Road all the back along close to Samson Rock Drive gives the event a relaxed, communal atmosphere.

“You walk around, you get some [food] from one place, and then from another place...it’s sort of a grazing thing,” said Dunlop.

Also taking place on Culinary Arts Night is a silent auction. Dunlop said auction items include tickets to Goodspeed theatre, a stay at Homestead Inn, and a free brunch at Madison Beach Hotel, among many others.

It is the “competitive aspect,” thorough, that Dunlop said really helps make the event unique, with new venues out to prove their worth to local residents, and long-tenured shoreline establishments always looking to top the previous year and maintain their reputations for excellent food.

Tickets are $40; the event’s raindate is Thursday, Sept. 26. Proceeds from Culinary Arts Night go to fund the Exchange Club’s local programs, including awards for high school students, MADE in Madison, Safe Rides, and five shoreline organizations that work to prevent child abuse.

For more information on Culinary Arts Night, visit www.madisonexchange.org/arts-night.