Sponsored By
Menu Tracker

Menu Tracker

Menu Tracker: New items from Chipotle Mexican Grill, Taco Bell and Logan’s RoadhouseMenu Tracker: New items from Chipotle Mexican Grill, Taco Bell and Logan’s Roadhouse

Plus innovation from A&W, Bad Daddy’s Burger Bar, Bartaco, Bruster’s Real Ice cream, Bubbakoo’s Burritos, BurgerFi, Caribou Coffee, Chevy’s, Fired Pie, Friendly’s, Krispy Kreme, Nekter Juice Bar, Red Robin Gourmet Burgers & Brews, Slim Chickens, Smoothie King, Van Leeuwen, Velvet Taco and Woody’s Bar-B-Q

Bret Thorn, Senior Food Editor

March 12, 2021

21 Slides
menu tracker march 12

Already have an account?

The headline is that Chipotle Mexican Grill has finally rolled out the quesadilla that its customers have been clamoring for. It’s certainly possible that Taco Bell’s decision to bring back its Quesalupa at exactly the same time (on the same day, in fact: March 11) is coincidental.

With Lent well underway, chains continue to roll out new seafood items. This week’s new ones come from A&W, Logan’s Roadhouse and Woody’s Bar-B-Q.

Lent is a time of abstinence for many Christians, so it is ironic that St. Patrick’s Day always falls in the 40-day prelude to Easter, and chain restaurants are marking that holiday with indulgent items such as doughnuts from Krispy Kreme and green cocktails from Chevys and Bartaco — the latter continuing its month-long Margarita celebration with a drink that has the color and flavor of green chiles. It probably is coincidental that Smoothie King and Nekter Juice Bar have both chosen this week to offer green-colored drinks — one with matcha and the other with kale — since those are permanent additions to their menus.

There are new fried chicken options this week from Bubbakoo’s Burritos, Slim Chickens and Velvet Taco, and new burgers form Bad Daddy’s Burger Bar, BurgerFi, Friendly’s and Logan’s Roadhouse.

Fired Pie has a Crispy Chicken Salad, but the chicken is grilled and the crunch comes from peanuts and fried wonton skins.

There are new frozen desserts from Bruster’s Real Ice Cream and Van Leeuwen, a meatless breakfast sandwich from Caribou Coffee and cauliflower from Red Robin.

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.