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Menu Tracker: New items from Chick-fil-A, Domino’s, Carl’s Jr., and Hardee’sMenu Tracker: New items from Chick-fil-A, Domino’s, Carl’s Jr., and Hardee’s

Plus innovation at Beyond Juicery & Eatery, Bojangles, Bonefish Grill, Bruster’s Real Ice Cream, Chicken Salad Chick, The Counter, Fazoli’s, Frank Pepe’s Pizzeria Napoletana, Fresh & Co., Frutta Bowls, La Madeleine, Macaroni Grill, Next Level Burger, Norms, Nothing Bundt Cakes, On the Border, Original ChopShop, Outback Steakhouse, Potbelly, Qdoba, Rutter’s, Saladworks, 16 Handles, Sarpino’s USA, Shake Shack, Smokey Bones, Sweet Chick, Taco Bell, Taco Cabana, Tropical Smoothie Cafe, Velvet Taco, Vitality Bowls, Voodoo Doughnut, White Castle, and Wingstop

Bret Thorn, Senior Food Editor

February 10, 2023

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Valentine’s Day is upon us, and that means that restaurants are adding pink or red and chocolate things to their menus. Cases-in-point are new items from Bruster’s Real Ice Cream, Fazoli’s, La Madeleine, Potbelly, Rutter’s, 16 Handles, Smokey Bones, Tropical Smoothie Café, Vitality Bowls, and Voodoo Doughnut.

That last item is one of many heart-shaped items currently available. Pretty much every pizza chain will make a heart-shaped pie for you, so they’re not listed here because it’s obvious, and biscuit specialists including Bojangles and Hardee’s are offering heart-shaped biscuits.

Hardee’s and sister chain Carl’s Jr. are also reprising their Philly cheesesteak-themed items, which were first offered in 2010 if not sooner.

Next Level Burger has a pink-shake flavored with cinnamon that’s clearly a Valentine’s Day special, albeit an unusual one.

Why are strawberries and cherries associated with the holiday but cinnamon isn’t? That’s a mystery.

Lent also starts the week after next, and so seafood dishes are arriving on menus at chains including Macaroni Grill, On the Border, Qdoba, Taco Cabana, and White Castle.

Bonefish Grill has a new crab frittata, but that seems to have more to do with an enhanced Sunday brunch than Lent, and similarly Outback Steakhouse has crab-topped barramundi, but it’s part of an Australia themed promotion that includes “chook” ribs. Chook is Australian slang for chicken, and the “ribs” are actually chicken thighs.

Related:Taco Bell launches another Mexican Pizza in Arizona for the Super Bowl

In big chain news, Domino’s has rolled out a line of loaded potato tots, Chick-fil-A is testing a fried cauliflower sandwich, and Taco Bell has introduced a Crispy Melt Taco nationally after testing it in Alabama.

Die-hard Taco Bell fans in Arizona also have a chance to score a giant Mexican Pizza for the Super Bowl.

Wingstop has brought back its Hot Honey Dry Rub, Norms has brought back its quesabirria, and Shake Shack has more truffle items.

Shake Shack also has some very culinary-forward, as does Original ChopShop.

The Counter has a new Moroccan-themed burger and fries to go with it, Chicken Salad Chick has a Thai-themed chicken salad, and Saladworks has grilled cheese sandwiches.

There’s warm oatmeal at Frutta Bowls, Oreo cakes at Nothing Bundt Cakes, and mushroom items, among other new things, at Fresh & Co.

Sarpino’s USA has a pizza with pesto on it, and Frank Pepe’s Pizzeria Napoletana has one with spicy chicken.

Beyond Juicery & Eatery has a new energy supplement, Sweet Chick has carrot-cake pancakes and waffles, and Velvet Taco’s Weekly Taco Feature is a surf & turf.

Related:How Chick-fil-A’s Cauliflower Sandwich came to life

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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