Sponsored By
Menu Tracker

Menu Tracker

Menu Tracker: New items from Chick-fil-A, Dunkin’ and Starbucks ReserveMenu Tracker: New items from Chick-fil-A, Dunkin’ and Starbucks Reserve

Plus innovation from Baskin-Robbins, BJ’s Restaurant and Brewhouse, Bob Evans Restaurants, Cava, Cracker Barrel Old Country Store, Del Taco, Donatos, Flame Broiler, Freddy’s Frozen Custard & Steakburgers, Krispy Kreme, Nathan’s Famous, Portillo’s, Red Robin Gourmet Burgers and Brews, Rutter’s, Salata Salad Kitchen, Stan’s Donuts & Coffee, Velvet Taco and Voodoo Doughnut

Bret Thorn, Senior Food Editor

April 30, 2021

21 Slides
menu tracker april 30

Already have an account?

It is strawberry season, and you can tell with offerings featuring the fruit at Baskin-Robbins, BJ’s Restaurant & Brewhouse, Bob Evans, Dunkin’, Krispy Kreme and Voodoo Doughnut. Baskin-Robbins’ strawberry special is also dairy free — made with oat milk — and sister brand Dunkin’ is rolling out coconut milk, which is kind of a big deal.

Also kind of a big deal is the fact that Chick-fil-A has a brand new entrée salad. Donatos has a new one, too. Salata Salad Kitchen has several new ones.

Starbucks, meanwhile, has devised new cocktails and espresso-fruit combinations, which would be a very big deal except they’re only available at its three Starbucks Reserve and Starbucks Reserve Roastery locations.

Cracker Barrel Old Country Store has several new items, including beignets made out of biscuit dough, Cava has a new lamb entrée.

Red Robin Gourmet Burgers & Brews has some new items with bacon that are being promoted on TikTok with a dance challenge from celebrity dancer Derek Hough.

Del Taco has expanded its Crunchtada line, Stan’s Donuts has new milkshakes and a cold brew float and Nathan’s Famous is rolling out a meatless hot dog (and it also has a very meaty, and lobster-y Surf ’N Turf hero at its Coney Island location.)

Freddy’s Frozen Custard & Steakburgers has a new spicy burger, Flame Broiler has a spicy chicken bowl and Portillo’s is rolling out a spicy chicken sandwich.

Rutter’s the convenience store chain, has a new line of SPAM-based products, and Velvet Taco’s Weekly Taco Feature is Chicken Bacon Ranch.

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

Subscribe Nation's Restaurant News Newsletters
Get the latest breaking news in the industry, analysis, research, recipes, consumer trends, the latest products and more.