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Menu Tracker: New items from Chipotle, Schlotzsky’s and Shake ShackMenu Tracker: New items from Chipotle, Schlotzsky’s and Shake Shack

Plus innovation at Bad Ass Coffee of Hawaii, Better than Sex, Black Bear Diner, Blank Street Coffee, Bonchon, Casey’s, Chili’s Grill & Bar, Cici’s, Clean Juice, Eggs Up Grill, Eureka!, Grimaldi’s Pizzeria, Honeygrow, Hungry Howie’s, Insomnia Cookies, Kung Fu Tea, Lion’s Choice, MOD Pizza, Mountain Mike’s Pizza, O’Charley’s Restaurant & Bar, Pilot Flying J, Pizza Inn, Salata Salad Kitchen, Snooze A.M. Eatery, Sprinkles, Taco John’s, Velvet Taco, Voodoo Doughnut, Wayback Burger, and Wing it On!

Bret Thorn, Senior Food Editor

September 16, 2022

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Philadelphia has been the birthplace of many famous people, living and dead, including Benjamin Franklin, Grace Kelly, Kobe Bryant, Kevin Bacon, Billie Holiday, and many, many more. However, one of The City of Brotherly Love’s most beloved native sons, Rocky Balboa, wasn’t born there, or anywhere, because he’s fictional.

Nonetheless, Philadelphia-born fast-casual chain Honeygrow has seen fit to name a dish for the Sylvester Stallone character, or rather something that he said. It’s a sausage-and-pepper stir-fry called Yo, Adrian!

Sure, why not?

In other unexpected news, Shake Shack is teaming up with the YouTube series Hot Ones for some menu items that sound too hot for normal people to eat, and Blank Street Coffee is adding Mike’s Hot Honey to a latte.

Eureka! has a Fire Alarm Burger.

There’s a 6-unit chain based in Key West, Fla., called Better than Sex that finally has a chocolate-strawberry cheesecake, and Kung Fu Tea has a drink inspired by Universal Pictures’ Minions: The Rise of Gru.

Chili’s Grill & Bar has a bunch of new bar items, Eggs Up Grill has several new permanent additions, Casey’s sells breakfast pizza now, and Pizza Inn has a pretzel crust stuffed with cheese.

Korean fried chicken concept Bonchon has several new Korean items, but only at two company-owned stores in Texas, and Chipotle keeps trying out new flavors, this time it’s garlic guajillo steak.

Related:Menu Tracker: New items from McDonald’s, Burger King and Wendy’s

More chains are rolling out their pumpkin-themed items, including Bad Ass Coffee of Hawaii, Clean Juice, Cici’s, Grimaldi’s Pizzeria, Hungry Howie’s, Pilot Flying J, Salata Salad Kitchen, Snooze A.M. Eatery, and Voodoo Doughnut

Lion’s Choice has plant-based meatless balls, MOD Pizza has a pie topped with chicken sausage, and Schlotzsky’s has a pizza topped with nothing at all — it’s just its signature sourdough made into a flatbread.

Wing it On! has a new wing sauce.

O’Charley’s has a seasonal beer, Sprinkles has a cupcake inspired by Mexican candy, Insomnia Cookies has treats inspired by apple pie, and Mountain Mike’s Pizza has baked fries.

Taco John’s quesadilla has four types of cheese now, Wayback Burger is celebrating Oktoberfest, and Velvet Taco’s Weekly Taco Feature is chicken Parmesan.

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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