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Menu Tracker: New items from Burger King, Pizza Hut, and WingstopMenu Tracker: New items from Burger King, Pizza Hut, and Wingstop

Plus Innovation at BD’s Mongolian Grill, Buddy’s Pizza, The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, Costa Vida Fresh Mexican Grill, Flat Top Grill, Friendly’s, Genghis Grill, Krispy Kreme, Miller’s Ale House, Naf Naf Middle Eastern Grill, Orange Leaf, P.F. Chang’s, Piada Italian Street Food, Pickleman’s Gourmet Café, Randy’s Donuts, Salata, 7-Eleven, Smalls Sliders, True Food Kitchen, Velvet Taco, Viva Chicken, and WaBa Grill

Bret Thorn, Senior Food Editor

July 21, 2023

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The burrito is one of the original handheld meals, probably invented by migrant workers from Mexico working in the Southwestern United States (food historians put its origins somewhere between Los Angeles and Tucson) who wrapped beans in tortillas to take with them into the fields. But at Costa Vida Fresh Mexican Grill, a 94-unit chain based in Lehi, Utah, the burritos are typically smothered in cheese and enchilada sauce, making them messy to eat with your hands. But they have worked out a solution with new non-smothered burritos that are now available. 

A piada is also a handheld item, and Piada Italian Street Food has a new one inspired by a Caprese salad.

Burger King is continuing to test variations of its Chicken Fries, this time in Boston with French fry-shaped versions of chicken & waffles and chicken Parm.

Elsewhere in chicken, Wingstop has a new spice rub developed in collaboration with hip-hop artist Latto, 7-Eleven has a new Korean barbecue sauce for its wings, True Food Kitchen has a grilled chicken sandwich, and Viva Chicken has its first taco.

Velvet Taco’s Weekly Taco Feature has fried chicken tenders.

WaBa Grill has a new hot sauce, and Genghis Grill has new sauces, too.

Pizza Hut has hopped on the hot honey bandwagon, and Pickleman’s Gourmet Café has changed suppliers and now only uses pork that has never been treated with antibiotics.

Related:Menu Tracker: New items from McDonald’s, Church’s Texas Chicken, and Firehouse Subs

Buddy’s Pizza has teamed up with neighbors Slow Bar BQ to put brisket on their pies.

Naf Naf Middle Eastern Grill has fries now, and Friendly’s and Miller’s Ale house have new sundaes.

Orange Leaf has gummy worms and sharks, Salata has watermelon, Randy’s Donuts has a new purple treat, and Krispy Kreme has a doughnut filled with M&M candies.

Smalls Sliders has its own version of floats, which are vanilla shakes with fruit juice (or root beer) added to them.

The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf has some new cold brew coffee and tea flavors, and P.F. Chang’s has a new happy hour menu.

BD’s Mongolian Grill has a new steak bowl and sister chain Flat Top Grill has a Greek bowl.

 

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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