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Menu Tracker: New items from Chipotle, Starbucks and Del TacoMenu Tracker: New items from Chipotle, Starbucks and Del Taco

Plus innovation at Baja Fresh Mexican Grill, Baskin-Robbins, Black Bear Coffee Bar, Chicken Salad Chick, Cousins Subs, Freddy’s Frozen Custard & Steakburgers, Golden Chick, The Habit Burger Grill, Huckleberry’s Breakfast and Lunch, Jamba, La Madeleine, Macaroni Grill, Miller’s Ale House, Papa Murphy’s Take ’n’ Bake Pizza, Smokey Bones, Smoothie King, Tropical Smoothie Cafe, and Velvet Taco

Bret Thorn, Senior Food Editor

September 1, 2022

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Okay, now it’s really pumpkin spice season: Starbucks’ mother of all Pumpkin Spice Lattes is back for the 19thyear, accompanied by a relative newcomer, the Apple Crisp Macchiato from last year, now made with oat milk. 

Black Bear Coffee Bar has a new seasonal lineup, with cranberries, caramel and apples as well as pumpkin, and Smoothie King has pumpkin drinks for the fall, plus espresso and cold brew coffee as permanent new options.

Freddy’s, Huckleberry’s, and Chicken Salad Chick have seasonal pumpkin options, too. 

Chipotle, meanwhile, is testing a new chicken option, Cousins Subs has brought back its Cubano for a limited time, which is also what Papa Murphy’s has done with its Triple Pepp Pizza.

Baja Fresh has given plant-based protein a permanent spot on the menu, Del Taco has done the same thing with tortas, and Golden Chick now offers wings at all of its restaurants. 

Baskin-Robbins has a brand new flavor of the month, Jamba has boba, and The Habit Burger Grill has roasted cauliflower.

Miller’s Ale House has nine new permanent additions to the menu, Smokey Bones has a seasonal lineup, and Macaroni Grill is offering items made with Buffalo chicken.

La Madeleine has a caramel apple Danish, Tropical Smoothie Cafe has a chicken flatbread, and Velvet Taco’s Weekly Taco Feature is made with barbecue chicken.

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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