| By Neil Johnson, anchor/reporter, Big Radio |

The deep winter weeks of January aren’t usually the best days for Wisconsin restaurants. A new event aims to change that.

Lia Pennacchi works at Lark, a downtown Janesville restaurant. She’s spearheading the first-ever Janesville Restaurant Week. It’s a five-day event January 23rd through the 27th that aims to help downtown restaurants sail past the winter doldrums.

Pennacchi says the five-day event this year will focus on downtown restaurants as a way to showcase what she size is a diverse range of restaurants where people can get everything from Hawaiian food to Thai fusion, tapas and classic Italian.

The idea is to present dining options that won’t break the bank for folks in what’s typically a frugal time of year.

In the coming days, check out janesvillerestaurantweek.com or the event’s Facebook and Instagram pages for more details on the event — including which restaurants are joining in and what’s special that they plan for the menu that week.