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Menu Tracker: New items from Arby’s, Del Taco, and Dunkin’Menu Tracker: New items from Arby’s, Del Taco, and Dunkin’

Plus innovation at BurgerFi, Burgerville, Condado Tacos, Cousins Subs, Golden Chick, Johnny Rockets, Krispy Kreme, Lion’s Choice, McAlister’s Deli, Miller’s Ale House, Native Foods, Pancheros, Red Robin Gourmet Burgers & Brews, Roy Rogers Restaurants, Scooter’s Coffee, Smashburger, Sonic Drive-In, Tacos 4 Life, Tim Hortons, Urban Plates, Velvet Taco, Whataburger, and Zoup! Eatery

Bret Thorn, Senior Food Editor

February 24, 2023

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Lent started this week, and that means chains are rolling out seafood offerings for the tens of millions of Americans who refrain from eating meat on Fridays.

Among those chains are Arby’s, Burgerville, Condado Tacos, Cousins Subs, Del Taco, Golden Chick, Lion’s Choice, Pancheros, Roy Rogers, Smashburger, Tacos 4 Life, and Whataburger.

Other chains have other fish to fry, so to speak, or they introduced their seafood dishes in recent weeks, or maybe they will in the weeks to come.

Miller’s Ale House is jumping straight in to St. Patrick’s Day with its Irish-themed offerings, and Dunkin has Irish cream flavored coffee, but others are just marching to the beat of their own drums. BurgerFi decided this was a good week to introduce a barbecue burger, and Sonic Drive-In decided to expand its line of tots by sprinkling some with barbecue potato chip seasoning.

Zoup! Is going all in on Buffalo chicken, Johnny Rockets has chicken & waffles, Krispy Kreme is continuing its partnership with Hershey, this time with a focus on Reese’s, and McAlister’s Deli, for reasons of its own, is offering items made with the Spanish red pepper sauce romesco.

Native Foods doesn’t have to worry about offering meatless options, because it’s a vegan concept.

Red Robin is indulging in a little luxury with truffle flavor, Tim Hortons is bringing back its cinnamon sugar oat milk drinks (now including cold brew coffee!), and Scooter’s Coffee is celebrating its anniversary in March.

Related:Menu Tracker: New items from Sweetgreen, Chipotle, and Just Salad

Urban Plates’ seasonal menu includes ossobuco, and Velvet Taco’s Weekly Taco Feature is Steak Milanese.

Contact Bret Thorn at [email protected] 

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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