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Menu Tracker: New items from Burger King, Starbucks, and PaneraMenu Tracker: New items from Burger King, Starbucks, and Panera

Plus innovation at Andy’s Frozen Custard, Bar Louie, Black Rock Coffee Bar, Bruster’s Real Ice Cream, Chicken Salad Chick, Duck Donuts, Dutch Bros, Grimaldi’s Pizzeria, The Halal Guys, Handel’s Homemade Ice cream, Hardee’s, Jamba, Kung Fu Tea, Mellow Mushroom, Naf Naf Grill, Next Level Grill, Nothing Bundt Cakes, PJ’s Coffee, Playa Bowls, Sprinkles, Starbucks , Tim Hortons, Velvet Taco, Voodoo Doughnut, Wayback Burgers, Wings and Rings, Yogurtland

Bret Thorn, Senior Food Editor

March 8, 2024

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Panera has announced what it has called its “biggest menu transformation in history,” which it is launching in April while also removing some items and backing away from some of its promises in terms of sourcing and other factors.

Will the measures apparently intended to improve efficiency help the chain or alienate its customers? That’s for the customers to decide.

It’s March, which, among other things, means that St. Patrick’s Day is around the corner and that means the introduction of many green items, often mint flavored. 

Fun fact: Although green is often associated with Ireland, aka “the Emerald Isle,” azure blue is what appears on many of the country’s symbols and is also the official color of the Anglo-Irish Order of St. Patrick.

Coincidentally, probably, Bruster’s Real Ice Cream is using its blue vanilla ice cream in a monthly special.

Not coincidentally at all, there are seasonal green menu items from Duck Donuts, Handel’s Homemade Ice cream, Next Level Grill, and Yogurtland.

Bar Louie and Black Rock Coffee Bar have Irish themed specials that are not green.

Tim Hortons is jumping right into Easter, which is on March 31.

Two chains, Burger King and Kung Fu Tea, are doing cross-promotions with the film Kung Fu Panda 4, and zero are doing anything with Dune, even though spice worms are such an obvious option. 

Speaking of films, sort of, Sprinkles has a new cupcake celebrating the 65th anniversary of the Barbie doll.

Starbucks has rolled out its first lavender drinks and Dutch Bros has several beverages with popping boba.

Hardee’s has new breakfast wraps, Naf Naf Grill has rolled out kids meals, and Mellow Mushroom has a pizza and sandwich based on the classic Cubano.

PJ’s Coffee has some new drinks with honey, and Wings and Rings has a new hot honey sauce made in-house rather than purchased from you-know-who.

Jamba has a fruity new smoothie, Playa Bowls has a new mango base, and Chicken Salad Chick has launched gluten-free wraps as a limited-time offer.

Andy’s Frozen Custard has a collab with championship race car driver Cole Custer, Voodoo Doughnut has four weekly specials this month, and Wayback Burgers has some cheese-and-bacon specials. 

Grimaldi’s Pizzeria has a new spring lineup, The Halal Guys have some barbecue specials Nothing Bundt Cakes has a chocolate turtle dessert (no actual turtles are involved, of course), and Velvet Taco’s Weekly Taco Feature has crab cakes, but no tortilla.

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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