Local food abounds in this week's Ithaca Times

We just picked up the newest edition of The Ithaca Times (Jan. 20-26 issue) and it's filled with some great local food updates.

Start on page 13, where Rob Montana writes an overview of new business developments in the City of Ithaca, including:

• A restaurant space on the ground floor of the proposed Hotel Ithaca, located where the Rothschild Building stands now at the edge of the Commons at Aurora Street. We presume this might interfere with the space currently occupied by Madeline's, which could bring interesting changes.
• A new restaurant from Lex Chutinaround, owner of ZaZa's Cucina, opening in the former Plantations on Ithaca Commons.
• A large restaurant opening in the beautiful glassed in space on the first floor of the Cayuga Place apartments off of Green Street, behind the soon-to-open Palmer Pharmacy and the new Gimme! Coffee. The local restauranteur is unnamed, but we hope they do that space justice. Given the right talent and the right menu, it could be the new destination restaurant of the year.
• The Finger Lakes Wine Center could open as soon as this spring.
• Panera Bread and the Olive Garden are still on track for opening in Southwest Ithaca, as we reported earlier, though we'd be surprised to see anything open before this summer.

The article also hints at the possibility of another food franchise opening in the Southwest neighborhood once the old Salvation Army store is demolished. Montana did a nice reporting job and covers a lot in this well-written piece.

There is also a Winter Times supplement in this latest edition, which includes an extensive preview of the upcoming 12th Annual Downtown Ithaca Chili Cook-Off & Winterfest, written by Taryn Thompson. That event has always offered plenty of fantastic cold-weather eating and we're looking forward to this year's event.

Finally, for all you home cooks, don't miss Henry Stark's interviews with chefs from four local restaurants offering their favorite soup and stew recipes. It includes Moosewood's Spicy Carrot Peanut Soup from Melissa Bergman, a Hearty Sausage and Tortellini Soup from Tim Gaffney at Ithaca Ale House, the hearty Arizona Pumpkin and Vegetable Stew from Liz Van Every at Greenstar Coop, and - our personal favorite - an amazing Hungarian Beef Goulash recipe from Dano Hutnik himself, of Dano's Heuriger in Lodi.

The best part about all this is The Ithaca Times is FREE! Most of these articles aren't yet available on the Ithaca Times website, so pick up a copy today, because next week they'll all be gone.