In the summer, Arby’s expanded on its successful line of sliders with the Pizza Slider, a miniature sandwich priced at $1.29 and filled with pepperoni, salami, melted provolone cheese and roasted garlic marinara sauce. Although the sandwich was originally slated to run only in the month of June, it stayed on the menu through August.

Starbucks generated a remarkable amount of buzz with the April launch of its color-changing Unicorn Frappuccino, and Arby's responded in June with the Liger Shake.  Commenting at the time that “overly colorful beverages named after mythical creatures are all the rage right now,” Arby’s named the beverage — a chocolate shake made with Ghirardelli chocolate, combined with an orange cream shake, after the mythical lion-tiger hybrid popularized in the movie “Napoleon Dynamite.” The suggested price was $2.39 for 16 ounces and $2.99 for 24 ounces. 

July was bacon month for Arby’s, which introduced Triple Thick Brown Sugar Bacon. At nearly a quarter-inch thick and glazed with brown sugar, the bacon was available in four sandwiches. For $5.49, customers could have the bacon with sliced roast beef or turkey and melted Swiss cheese, lettuce, tomato and Dijon spread on a toasted brioche roll. For the same price, diners could get a BLT, and for $6.99 they could get the Triple Thick Brown Sugar Bacon Club: roast turkey, smoked ham and milted Swiss, Triple Thick Brown Sugar Bacon, lettuce, tomato and Dijon spread on a toasted brioche roll.

For the month of August, Arby’s introduced a new meat preparation: porchetta. Made of pork loin wrapped in pork belly and smoked for eight hours, the item was supplied by Sadler’s Smokehouse of Henderson, Texas, which also supplies Arby’s smoked brisket. During that month, porchetta was available in two sandwiches. The Smoked Italian Porchetta Sandwich, priced at $5.49, featured the meat thinly sliced and topped with melted provolone cheese, lettuce, tomato, red onion, banana peppers, red wine vinaigrette and garlic aïoli on a toasted sub roll. The Mount Italy Sandwich, priced at $6.99, included porchetta, thinly sliced smoked ham, salami and pepperoni with Italian seasoning, melted provolone, lettuce, tomato, red onion, banana peppers, red wine vinaigrette and garlic aïoli on a toasted star top roll.

Arby’s continued to seek pop-culture relevance while also creating buzz with super-short and isolated LTOs. On Aug. 27, the chain introduced a smoked turkey leg seasoned with salt and brown sugar in celebration of the season finale of the HBO series “Game of Thrones.” Promoted with a play on House Stark’s motto, “Winter is coming,” it was available for $5.99 at only nine locations representing the seven kingdoms of Westeros, as well as the Riverlands and King’s Landing. Several hundred legs were available at each location, and they all sold out, according to an Arby’s spokesman. For “Game of Thrones” geeks, a location in Fargo, N.D., represented the North; a Los Angeles unit was the Westerlands; Redmond, Wash., was the Stormlands; Norfolk, Va., was the Iron Islands; Pittsburgh was the Riverlands; Phoenix was Dorne; Denver was the Vale of Arryn; Omaha, Neb., was the Reach; and Atlanta, where Arby’s is headquartered, was King’s Landing.

In the fall, Arby’s went out of its way to avoid jumping on the pumpkin spice wagon and instead turned to another trend, cookie butter. Long a popular treat in Belgium, Arby’s added cookie butter syrup to its vanilla shake base, garnished it with whipped topping and Biscoff cookie crumbles, and sold it for $2.39 for a small and $2.99 for a large during October.

Also in October, Arby’s offered an LTO based on the buttermilk breaded chicken breast sandwich introduced in 2017. The Chicken Pepperoni Parm, priced at $4.99, topped the chicken breast with mozzarella, roasted garlic, marinara sauce and pepperoni on a star top bun. It was available throughout the month.

Arby’s rounded out October with a nationwide launch of its venison sandwich. The sandwich, comprised of marinated deer meat, juniper-infused Cabernet steak sauce and fried onions on a toasted specialty roll, was first introduced in 2016, but only for one day and only at 17 locations. This time, it was introduced systemwide, priced at $7. On the same day, it also introduced an elk sandwich with a similar build, but only at three units, one each in Thornton, Colo.; Cheyenne, Wyo.; and Billings, Mont. An Arby’s spokesman said 90 percent of the venison sold out on Oct. 21.

Finally, in December, Arby’s had an extremely limited LTO in defense of Iowa State University student Chris Jorgensen, who tweeted a photo of a Pop-Tart-and-cheese sandwich and the comment, “You ain’t from Iowa if you never had one of these.” It went viral and the backlash from Iowans wasn’t super positive. So Arby’s flew Jorgensen to Atlanta, where brand executive chef Neville Craw helped him build the Big Iowa sandwich. It’s warm, thinly sliced smoked ham, roast turkey, smoked brisket, melted cheddar cheese, red onions, pepper bacon, three mozzarella sticks and Parmesan peppercorn ranch on a toasted onion roll. The sandwich, priced at $6.99, was only available on Dec. 14, and only at one location in Ames, Iowa.