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Menu Tracker: New items from IHOP, Panera, and Pizza HutMenu Tracker: New items from IHOP, Panera, and Pizza Hut

Plus innovation at Applebee’s Neighborhood Grill & Bar, BD’s Mongolian Grill, Carl’s Jr, Cava, Caribou Coffee, Cold Stone Creamery, First Watch, Flat Top Grill, Frisch’s Big Boy, Golden Chick, H&H Bagels, Honeygrow, Insomnia Cookies, Krispy Kreme, Miguel’s Jr., Native Grill & Wings, Smokey Bones, Sonic Drive-In, Tacodeli, Tacos 4 Life, Velvet Taco, and Wayback Burgers

Bret Thorn, Senior Food Editor

January 12, 2023

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Someone at Wayback Burgers seems to be deeply troubled by British Prince Harry divulging the secrets of the Royal Family. The chain has introduced a burger with three patties, explicitly to give people something to do rather than talk. The third patty is called a “spare,” which is also the title of the His Royal Highness’s recently published book.

“Like millions of people around the globe, we’ve been watching the royal drama unfold and wanted to create a burger that encourages everyone to use their mouths as intended,” the chain’s president, Patrick Conlin, said in a release. “More than just an incredible burger, we designed The Royal Silencer to fill mouths to capacity with every bite to discourage spilling sensitive family drama to the media and general public.”

In other celebrity burger news, Frisch’s Big Boy has a new item that’s being promoted with chef Anne Burrell

In another sign of the times, Native Grill & Wings has new wings, and the price listed is “market price.”

A number of chains are bringing back favorite items of the past. Pizza Hut is reprising the Big New Yorker, IHOP has rebooted the Rooty Tooty Fresh & Fruity breakfast, Carl’s Jr. has brought back its A.1. Double Cheeseburger, and Caribou Coffee’s vegan flatbread, which it ran as a limited-time offer last summer, has brought it back as a permanent menu item.

Related:Menu Tracker: New items from Burger King, Chipotle, and Jack in the Box

There is also a new vegan item at Flat Top Grill, and at Cava you can now use roasted sweet potatoes as a “protein” for you bowl.

Panera has new sandwiches on baguettes, Sonic Drive-In has little sundaes, and Cold Stone Creamery has a seasonally appropriate chocolate-and-strawberry ice cream.

Applebee’s has some seasonally appropriate cocktails, too. BD’s Mongolian Grill has a new cocktail made with guava, and Smokey Bones has expanded its meaty Bloody Mary from three Tampa locations to be a systemwide offering.

Honeygrow has new wheat noodles, which it’s using in a Buffalo chicken stir-fry, Tacos 4 Life has a Buffalo chicken taco, and Golden Chick has a spicy version of its chicken sandwich.

Tacodeli is putting mole on its tacos, Krispy Kreme is putting Biscoff cookie butter on its doughnuts, and Insomnia Cookies is offering a line of brownie-cookie hybrids called brookies.

H&H Bagels, normally a very traditional New York City shop, is now selling Asiago and jalapeño-cheddar bagels, which is their choice.

First Watch has its latest seasonal lineup, Miguel’s Jr., has pozole, and Velvet Taco’s Weekly Taco Feature is made with orange shrimp.

Contact Bret Thorn at [email protected] 

Related:Menu Tracker: The battle of the Italian sandwiches

About the Author

Bret Thorn

Senior Food Editor, Nation's Restaurant News

Senior Food & Beverage Editor

Bret Thorn is senior food & beverage editor for Nation’s Restaurant News and Restaurant Hospitality for Informa’s Restaurants and Food Group, with responsibility for spotting and reporting on food and beverage trends across the country for both publications as well as guiding overall F&B coverage. 

He is the host of a podcast, In the Kitchen with Bret Thorn, which features interviews with chefs, food & beverage authorities and other experts in foodservice operations.

From 2005 to 2008 he also wrote the Kitchen Dish column for The New York Sun, covering restaurant openings and chefs’ career moves in New York City.

He joined Nation’s Restaurant News in 1999 after spending about five years in Thailand, where he wrote articles about business, banking and finance as well as restaurant reviews and food columns for Manager magazine and Asia Times newspaper. He joined Restaurant Hospitality’s staff in 2016 while retaining his position at NRN. 

A magna cum laude graduate of Tufts University in Medford, Mass., with a bachelor’s degree in history, and a member of Phi Beta Kappa, Thorn also studied traditional French cooking at Le Cordon Bleu Ecole de Cuisine in Paris. He spent his junior year of college in China, studying Chinese language, history and culture for a semester each at Nanjing University and Beijing University. While in Beijing, he also worked for ABC News during the protests and ultimate crackdown in and around Tiananmen Square in 1989.

Thorn’s monthly column in Nation’s Restaurant News won the 2006 Jesse H. Neal National Business Journalism Award for best staff-written editorial or opinion column.

He served as president of the International Foodservice Editorial Council, or IFEC, in 2005.

Thorn wrote the entry on comfort food in the Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America, 2nd edition, published in 2012. He also wrote a history of plated desserts for the Oxford Companion to Sugar and Sweets, published in 2015.

He was inducted into the Disciples d’Escoffier in 2014.

A Colorado native originally from Denver, Thorn lives in Brooklyn, N.Y.

Bret Thorn’s areas of expertise include food and beverage trends in restaurants, French cuisine, the cuisines of Asia in general and Thailand in particular, restaurant operations and service trends. 

Bret Thorn’s Experience: 

Nation’s Restaurant News, food & beverage editor, 1999-Present
New York Sun, columnist, 2005-2008 
Asia Times, sub editor, 1995-1997
Manager magazine, senior editor and restaurant critic, 1992-1997
ABC News, runner, May-July, 1989

Education:
Tufts University, BA in history, 1990
Peking University, studied Chinese language, spring, 1989
Nanjing University, studied Chinese language and culture, fall, 1988 
Le Cordon Bleu Ecole de Cuisine, Cértificat Elémentaire, 1986

Email: [email protected]

Social Media:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bret-thorn-468b663/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bret.thorn.52
Twitter: @foodwriterdiary
Instagram: @foodwriterdiary

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