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Menu Tracker: New items from Arby’s, Shake Shack and Starbucks Reserve RoasteryMenu Tracker: New items from Arby’s, Shake Shack and Starbucks Reserve Roastery

Plus innovation at Baskin-Robbins, Cava, Dutch Bros, El Torito, Eureka!, Fired Pie, Freddy’s Frozen Custard and Steakburgers, Garbanzo Mediterranean Fresh, Gordon Biersch, Insomnia Cookies, Krispy Kreme, Kung Fu Tea, Moe’s Southwest Grill, Newk’s Eatery, Pie Five, Smokey Bones, Studio Movie Grill, Tim Hortons, Velvet Taco, Voodoo Doughnut and Whataburger

Bret Thorn, Senior Food Editor

July 1, 2021

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For the first time, Arby’s has chicken nuggets, which is available as part of its new kids meal as well as on its own.

Elsewhere in chicken, Shake Shack is celebrating the summer by adding hot honey to its chicken and also selling cocktail-inspired soft drinks, Smokey Bones has introduce fried chicken sandwiches to its two virtual brands, Whataburger has a new chicken sandwich with pico de gallo, Newk’s Eatery is dressing chicken in its signature white barbecue sauce and Cava has a new preserved lemon vinaigrette that it’s showcasing in a chicken bowl.

Krispy Kreme and Tim Hortons are celebrating Independence day with festive doughnuts, Insomnia Cookies is doing it with a special cookie, and Eureka! has a red, white and blue cocktail.

It’s a big week for new drinks, which are also available at Dutch Bros, El Torito, Freddy’s Frozen Custard and Steakburgers, Gordon Biersch and Studio Movie Grill, as well as the nation’s three Starbucks Reserve Roastery locations, which are offering a new lineup of spritzes.

Kung Fu Tea is experimenting with a soft serve-boba combination at its flaghsip location, and Baskin-Robbins is expanding its line of Creature Creations that were launched last summer. Fired Pie is bringing back its Elote Pizza, Pie Five has a new stuffed crust coated with baked Parmesan cheese and Garbanzo Mediterranean Fresh is continuing to introduce new flavored falafel.

Moe’s Southwest Grill has a brand new type of handheld item made with a taco shell wrapped in a tortilla with its new Buffalo queso sandwiched in between.

Voodoo Doughnut has a seasonal horchata-flavored treat, and the Weekly Taco Feature at Velvet Taco has fried green tomatoes.

Contact Bret Thorn at [email protected] 

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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