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Menu Tracker: New items from Chick-fil-A, Chipotle Mexican Grill and Wendy’sMenu Tracker: New items from Chick-fil-A, Chipotle Mexican Grill and Wendy’s

Plus innovation at Bad Ass Coffee of Hawaii, BD’s Mongolian Grill, Cava, Chuck E. Cheese, Clean Juice, First Watch, Fosters Freeze, Grimaldi’s Pizzeria, La Madeleine, McAlister’s Deli, MOD Pizza, Orange Leaf , Peet’s Coffee, Pie Five, PJ’s Coffee, Potbelly, Red Mango, Sonic Drive-In Smokey Bones, Sweetgreen, Taco Cabana, Taco Del Mar, Velvet Taco, Walk-On’s Sports Bistreaux, Wayback Burgers, , Yogurtland, Your Pie and Ziggi’s Coffee

Bret Thorn, Senior Food Editor

June 10, 2022

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Chipotle, in its first-ever seasonal beverage (and possibly first-ever seasonal menu item; if you can think of others, let me know), has introduced a watermelon limeade.

It’s not the only chain to introduce a watermelon item this week; so have Clean Juice, First Watch, Orange Leaf and Red Mango.

Clean Juice is mixing some of its watermelon with strawberry, another seasonal fruit that’s also being featured at Grimaldi’s Pizzeria, La Madeleine (although it’s a permanent addition), Wendy’s and Yogurtland.

Peaches are also in play. Chick-fil-A has brought back its peach milkshake, and Sweetgreen and Your Pie are featuring the fruit, too.

Taco Cabana has a cherry Margarita, and McAlister’s Deli has sweet tea ice cream and it’s about time.

Walk-On’s has a slider flight.

Any season apparently is the right season for Red Bull, so Fosters Freeze and Ziggi’s coffee are featuring items using the energy drink. Meanwhile, Bad Ass Coffee of Hawaii, Peet’s Coffee (which also will be offering brown sugar jelly from now on) and Potbelly are using the grandfather of energy drinks — coffee.

But not PJ’s Coffee, which is focusing on tea and something called Cloud Drinks, which are coconut milk-based.

MOD Pizza has not forgotten that it’s Pride Month, and is offering a cake with rainbow sprinkles in celebration (and donating some proceeds to charity).

BD’s Mongolian Grill has some new Japanese- and Korean-influenced items, Chuck E. Cheese has sweet chile pizza, and Pie Five is honoring Maggie Fox, who has worked there for 12 years, with a pizza of her own.

Cava is bringing back its Lemon Chicken Bowl and Taco Del Mar is reprising its seasonal lobster tacos.

Smokey Bones has brunch bowls now, Wayback Burgers has a Sour Patch Kids shake and Velvet Taco is continuing its salad-themed taco series with one inspired by Cobb salad.

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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