Zoup!, the soup-focused chain based in Farmington Hills, Mich., with around 60 units, has a Mexican Street Corn Grain Bowl inspired by the spiced corn-on-the-cob snack that is becoming increasingly popular in the United States. Available through August, it’s made of warm brown rice, roasted corn, shredded chicken, salad greens, cheddar cheese, cilantro, a squeeze of lime, chipotle mayonnaise and Cholula hot sauce.

Brian Whalen, executive chef of Pioneer, a new restaurant in Cleveland, uses Mexican street corn as the inspiration for his Elote Puppies, for which he makes a cornbread batter spiced with garlic powder, onion powder, dark chili powder and smoked paprika. He chars corn on the cob on the restaurant’s wood-fired grill and mixes the kernels into the batter. He fries the batter into fritters and dresses them in mayonnaise mixed with Sriracha sauce and apple cider vinegar, crumbled cotija cheese and a spoonful of chimichurri.

The doughnut chain started offering pumpkin spice items on Aug. 8, a month earlier than last year, with a lineup that includes the following:  

Pumpkin Spice Latte Swirl Doughnut: A pumpkin spice doughnut dipped in a blend of autumn spices and sugar topped with a swirl of vanilla and coffee buttercream

Pumpkin Spice Original Glazed Doughnut: A classic Original Glazed doughnut with a pumpkin spice glaze

Pumpkin Spice Original Filled Cheesecake Doughnut: A Pumpkin Spice Original Glazed doughnut with cheesecake filing decorated with cheesecake icing

Pumpkin Spice Cake Doughnut: Spiced cake doughnut in classic glaze

Pumpkin Spice Latte: Espresso and milk with pumpkin pie sauce topped with whipped cream and pumpkin spice seasoning, available hot, iced or frozen

Pumpkin Spice Iced Coffee: Iced coffee with pumpkin pie sauce

The casual-dining chain also launched its pumpkin-spice special early, on Aug. 8. Its Pumpkin Spice & Everything Nice Milkshake is made with Vanilla soft serve blended with autumn spices, caramel and milk, topped with whipped cream, caramel sauce and more autumn spices. Guests can add a shot of Fireball Cinnamon Whisky for an additional charge

Papa Johns has launched three new menu items that include all the fixin’s for pizza, minus the crust. 

The Italian Meats Trio Papa Bowl is a bowl of pepperoni, sausage, meatballs, green peppers, onions and tomatoes layered with pizza sauce and Alfredo sauce and topped with the chain’s pizza cheese plus Parmesan and Romano cheese.

The Chicken Alfredo Papa Bowl is a bowl of grilled chicken, Alfredo sauce and vegetables including spinach, mushrooms, onions and tomatoes topped with the chain’s pizza cheese plus Parmesan and Romano cheese, and the Garden Veggie Papa Bowl is spinach, mushrooms, onions, green peppers, tomatoes and banana peppers with pizza sauce and garlic Parmesan cheese topped with the chain’s pizza cheese plus Parmesan and Romano cheese

They’re all permanent additions to the menu.

For this cocktail at Hawksmoor NYC in Manhattan’s Gramercy Park neighborhood, bar manager Adam Montgomerie blends Teeling Small Batch Irish Whiskey with white miso paste — miso being a trendy ingredient to add to cocktails these days. He then uses the older but still trendy process of fat washing: He pours the whiskey and miso into melted unrefined coconut oil, lets that cool to room temperature and then freezes it overnight. The solids are strained off and then the liquid is strained through a coffee filter, resulting in a whiskey with a rich mouth feel and flavors of miso and coconut. He stirs two ounces of that on ice with half a teaspoon of Suze Aperitif, ¾ ounce of blanc verjus and ¼ ounce of syrup made by mixing two parts sugar to one part Sauvignon Blanc wine. That’s strained into a rocks glass over one large ice cube and garnished with a citrus lace.

Pommes Anna is a classic French preparation of thinly sliced potatoes layered with lots of butter. Chaat is a category of flavorful, saucy, chopped snacks from India. Chef Lijo George, who was raised in the Indian state of Kerala and who, with fellow chef Max Boonthanakit, runs the kitchen at Camphor restaurant in downtown Los Angeles, combines the two with this dish, for which he thinly slices potatoes and celeriac and layers them in a pan, brushing each layer with brown butter and a garam masala, or spice mix, that includes fennel, star anise, cinnamon and cardamom. That is steamed and then left to chill overnight. 

The next day he slices them ¾ of an inch thick, fries them to order and serves them with three sauces: Mint-parsley purée, garlicky yogurt and tamarind chutney.