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Menu Tracker: New items from Arby’s, McDonald’s and Krispy KremeMenu Tracker: New items from Arby’s, McDonald’s and Krispy Kreme

Plus innovation from Applebee’s Neighborhood Grill & Bar, Baskin-Robbins, Buffalo Wild Wings, Condado Tacos, Creamistry, Crumbl Cookie, Dae Gee Korean BBQ, Dairy Queen, Dash In, Denny’s, Fuku, The Habit Burger Grill, Jollibee, La Madeleine, Ledo Pizza, Lucille’s Smokehouse Bar-B-Que, Nekter Juice Bar, Peet’s Coffee, Rush Bowls, Studio Movie Grill, Torchy’s Tacos, Veggie Grill, Velvet Taco, Voodoo Doughnut, Whataburger and World of Beer

Bret Thorn, Senior Food Editor

September 30, 2021

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It’s actually not true that McDonald’s has a new item, but it is bringing back its cult favorite McRib (although not until November), and for the second year in a row it’s rolling it out nationwide.

Arby’s is clearly not impressed. Although it doesn’t explicitly call out the Golden Arches in the launch of the Real Country Style Rib sandwich — it’s more the style of Wendy’s and Burger King to call out McDonald’s by name — the name of Arby’s sandwich makes the target obvious.

With October basically upon us, some chains are rolling out Halloween-themed items, including Applebee’s, Baskin-Robbins and Fuku.

Fuku’s is possibly the first Halloween-themed chicken fingers, which is kind of surprising considering that they’re called fingers.

Pumpkin spice season continues apace. Nekter Juice Bar rolled out several pumpkin items last month and we forgot to mention them, so their items are featured this week.

There are also new pumpkin-spice and related items from Denny’s, La Madeleine, Peet’s Coffee, Rush Bowls and Voodoo Doughnut.

Cinnamon, the most popular of the pumpkin spices, is on display on its own at Creamistry and Krispy Kreme, but other chains have other priorities. Chiles are being harvested now, so Whataburger is bringing back its green chile items, and a new James Bond movie is out which Studio Movie Grill is celebrating with a special cocktail. It’s not shaken, but you can’t have everything.

Related:Menu Tracker: New Items from Chipotle, Chick-fil-A, Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s

The music festival Austin City Limits is about to start, and Torchy’s Tacos has a special taco to celebrate in collaboration with the band Black Pumas.

The Habit Burger Grill is reprising its Chicken Caprese sandwich from last year, Velvet Taco’s Weekly Taco Feature is a perennial favorite, and Lucille’s Smokehouse Bar-B-Que is bringing back its Chicken Shack menu, sort of — it’s still called Chicken Shack but the menu items are different.

Jollibee is the 4 quadrillionth chain to introduce fried chicken sandwiches, Buffalo Wild Wings has a new sauce, Dae Gee Korean BBQ sells wings now and Veggie Grill has a whole new lineup of meatless items posing as meat.

Condado Tacos has a new taco, bean dip and Margarita.

World of Beer has several new permanent additions and Ledo Pizza has brought back what once were a limited-time sandwich and salad as permanent additions.

Crumbl Cookie, meanwhile, has a short LTO — just a week long — made with Golden Oreo cookies.

Dash In has a breakfast sandwich made with an inside-out doughnut and Dairy Queen has cheesy steak fingers, but only in Texas.

Contact Bret Thorn at [email protected] 

Related:Menu Tracker: New items from IHOP, Jack in the Box and Panera

Follow him on Twitter: @foodwriterdiary

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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