Food and Drink

👋 Alissa here. You still have today and tomorrow to enjoy Restaurant Week and all of its delicious offerings.

👋 Tyler here. Are the days when decent Italian food meant dimly-lit spaces with a picture of Joe DiMaggio on the wall gone forever?

• Perhaps so. A trip to Moretti's of Arlington shows an Italian dinner can mean brighter colors and a painting of hefty tomatoes above a fireplace.

👋 Alissa here. I snagged the last box of Wendy's Frosty cereal at Kroger last weekend and am here to offer my hot — well, I guess, chilly — takes.

Quick take: General Mills might want to have a word with Kellogg's. As a lifelong Ohioan, of course I'm a Wendy's fan, but this "limited edition" breakfast is just Cocoa Puffs sprinkled with quickly dissolving marshmallows.

Here's a suggestion to start next week: Skip the cooking and try out a new restaurant, or perhaps a unique dish at an old favorite.

What's happening: The popular biannual Restaurant Week kicks off Monday. Over 150 restaurants are participating with special menus at fixed prices, per the organizers at 614 Media Group.

Maybe you're an ice cream lover, a Dolly Parton lover or just someone who wants to help kids learn to read.

• Or maybe you're all three.

What's happening: You're in luck, because Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams is bringing back its Strawberry Pretzel Pie flavor, "specially made for Dolly Parton."

I wouldn't exactly say I'm on any official diet in 2022, but I have viewed the New Year as a bit of a health reset.

• In short, I'm just trying to make better choices.

What I ate: For my National Pizza Week taste-test, I tried out a modestly-sized pizza loaded with veggie toppings and a cauliflower crust from Joseppi's Pizza on West Broad Street.

Central Ohio's temporary teetotalers have more options than ever to cut back on alcohol but not necessarily the fun.

Why it matters: More Americans — as many as 15%, according to some polls — have been participating in "Dry January" in recent years to kick off the new year in a healthy way.

👋 Alissa here. Y'know, it's hard to be a fan of thick pizza crust in Columbus.

The intrigue: I moved here six years ago but only recently learned that apparently everyone serves "Columbus style pizza" — cracker thin, cut into squares, with edge-to-edge toppings.