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Menu Tracker: New items from Dunkin’, Papa Johns, and KFCMenu Tracker: New items from Dunkin’, Papa Johns, and KFC

Plus innovation at Baskin-Robbins, Dickey’s Barbecue Pit, Eggs Up Grill, Farmer Boys, Freebirds World Burrito, Gott’s Roadside, Huckleberry’s Breakfast and Lunch, Jimmy John’s, Krispy Kreme Menchie’s Frozen Yogurt, Miller’s Ale House, Native Foods, Next Level Burger, O’Charley’s, Ocean Prime, Playa Bowls, Proud Mary Coffee Roasters, Quiznos, Razzoo’s Cajun Café, Schlotzsky’s, Taco Cabana, Velvet Taco, and Voodoo Doughnut

Bret Thorn, Senior Food Editor

February 2, 2023

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It’s February, and that means that pretty much every pizza chain is offering heart-shaped pizzas. We won’t be posting them all here, but take our word for it: If you want heart-shaped pizza this month, your favorite chain probably has you covered, and at no extra charge!

There are also Valentine’s Day-related items from Baskin-Robbins, Dunkin’, Krispy Kreme, and, arguably, Menchie’s Frozen Yogurt, which has a limited-time pink treat.

Possibly related is Jimmy John’s Red Velvet Cookie, and, because people order a lot of lobster on Valentine’s Day, the returning lobster items from Quiznos and new lobster items from O’Charley’s.

In less expected news Proud Mary Coffee Roasters, a coffeehouse chain based in Australia, spent $2,000 for a pound of Hartmann Estate’s Black Jaguar Geisha coffee and is selling it for $150 per cup. Only 22 such cups will be available, and only at the chain’s Portland, Ore., and Austin, Texas locations.

And you thought you were paying a lot for eggs.

Farmer Boys is testing premium coffee at two locations, but for considerably less than Proud Mary.

Dickey’s Barbecue Pit is making use of its virtual brand, Wing Boss, to offer a spicy chicken sandwich, and Gott’s Roadside has a new chicken sandwich, too.

The wraps that KFC tested last year are now available systemwide.

Papa Johns now has pizza with cheese on the bottom of the crust, Freebirds World Burrito has low-carb tortillas, and Playa Bowls has a new base made of pitaya (aka dragon fruit).

Miller’s Ale House and Ocean Prime both have a bunch of new menu items, Eggs Up Grill and Huckleberry’s have sweet new breakfast items, and Razzoo’s Cajun Café has crawfish.

Native Foods has a pulled pork sandwich without any pork in it, Next Level Burger has a burger made with quinoa and mushrooms, Schlotzsky’s has expanded its line of “calzones” and Taco Cabana has new versions of its double crunch pizza.

Voodoo Doughnut has a new treat with lemon honey cream and Velvet Taco’s Weekly Taco Feature has fried Spam.

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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