Chains offer up childhood favoritesChains offer up childhood favorites

Maybe it’s the stress of lingering economic concerns, or perhaps it’s the natural impulse of an aging population. Whatever the cause, legions of diners appear to be regressing happily to their childhoods, and they’re being aided and abetted by chefs who are busily dishing up menus full of kid stuff.

From the midway. Carnival foods have been on the comeback trail for several years, and they’ve hit their stride recently. Krispy Kreme Doughnuts’ county-fair-inspired treats included a Cotton Candy Doughnut dipped in pale blue cotton-candy sugar and a Caramel Apple Cake Doughnut that was covered with caramel icing. The Mimi’s Cafe chain, meanwhile, took a savory approach to fair food with fried pickles, a crunchy and addictive appetizer that the chain served with Thousand Island and ranch dressings. Casual-dining chain Yard House recently launched a late-night menu available from 10 p.m. to closing that taps into well-loved amusement-park traditions. The Pastrami Dog, for example, is a hot dog topped with thinly sliced pastrami, horseradish mustard and fried green cabbage.

Finger foods. Chains also are tapping into that childhood desire to eat with the hands and even play with food a bit. Take Denny’s, which offered two handheld items in its most recent Baconalia promotion: BBQ Bacon Mac ‘n Cheese Bites, served with a side of warm pepper-Jack cheese, and Strawberry Pancake Puppies — bite-sized spherical pancakes made with strawberries and white-chocolate chips. Lots of diners eschew knives and forks when they eat pizza, but Pizza Hut raised the ante with Crazy Cheesy Crust Pizza, in which the crust is surrounded by 16 pockets of cheese that can be plucked off the pie and popped into one’s mouth.

On a stick. Corn dogs, tasty fixtures of the state-fair circuit, have roared back into vogue. Some have a distinctly uptown vibe, like the Shrimp Corndog at Oakley’s Bistro in Indianapolis, while others are more plain than fancy, like Sonic, America’s Drive-In’s version, which is covered in a sweet-corn batter and positioned as simple food at its finest. Hot dogs aren’t the only foods on a stick. My Sweet Lil Cakes, a food truck in Seattle, raises skewering to an art form with a menu that includes both sweet items like Red Velvet Buttermilk cake and savory items like Free Range Chicken & Waffle. Vegetarians can chow down on a Cornbread, Cheddar, Jalapeno & Cilantro option. And late-night diners at Yard House can brandish the new Monte Cristo Pops, miniature sandwiches that are finished with powdered sugar and jalapeño-peach syrup and served on a stick.

Contemporary remakes. Many chefs are playfully giving childhood classics an unexpected twist. Everyone loves a birthday party, and revelers have lots to celebrate with Cold Stone Creamery’s Birthday Cake Remix, which is made from Cake Batter Ice Cream and topped with rainbow sprinkles, brownie and fudge. Milk shakes have become the carriers of choice for a range of retro ingredients. Zaxby’s, an Athens, Ga.-based, fast-casual chicken specialist, created a Birthday Cake Milkshake to celebrate its 20th anniversary last year and came back this year with a Banana Pudding Milkshake, a Southern classic topped with whipped cream and vanilla wafer crumbles. Salty pretzels, another childhood snack food, are popping up in a variety of dishes, as well. They make an appearance in The Cheesecake Factory’s line of decidedly adult Spiked Milkshakes in the Twisted Salted Caramel Pretzel milk shake, made with pretzels, caramel and vodka. Pretzels and caramel are a popular salty-sweet combination, and both appeared in Baskin-Robbins’ 3-Point Chocolate ice cream with caramel-pretzel balls, which debuted last year in time for the NCAA basketball tournament. Dairy Queen tapped into a similar vein with its Choco Covered Pretzel with Peanut Butter Blizzard, a combination of chocolate-covered pretzel pieces, chocolate chunks and peanut butter with vanilla soft serve.

When it comes to retro, arguably no one does it better than Hearty Restaurant, an independent on Chicago’s north side, where the menu puts childhood on a plate with specials like Root Beer BBQ Brisket Sandwich or Rabbit Sausage Corn Dog. Perhaps saving the best for last, desserts have included Tang Sorbet with Champagne syrup and PB&J Wonder Bread Pudding. Millennial diners may find such unexpected treatments odd and amusing, but for baby boomers they’re a welcome culinary step back in time. 

Nancy Kruse, president of the Kruse Company, is a menu trends analyst based in Atlanta. As one of LinkedIn’s Top 100 Influencers in the U.S., she blogs regularly about food-related subjects on the website.