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Menu Tracker: New items from Dunkin’, Papa Johns, and Taco Bell 2022-12-21Menu Tracker: New items from Dunkin’, Papa Johns, and Taco Bell 2022-12-21

Plus innovation at Bruster’s Real Ice Cream, Casa Olé, Chopt Creative Salad Company, Crazy Joe’s, The Halal Guys, Huddle House, Monterey’s Little Mexico, Papa Murphy’s, Paris Baguette, Razzoo’s Cajun Cafe, Sonic Drive-In, Stan’s Donuts & Coffee, Velvet Taco, Vitality Bowls, Voodoo Doughnut, and Wings Etc.

Bret Thorn, Senior Food Editor

December 21, 2022

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Dunkin’ has released its darkest roast yet, along with other assorted seasonal fare, Papa Johns has teamed up with Oreo to make a new dessert treat, and Taco Bell is retooling various items such as new versions of its chicken burrito.

Sonic Drive-In is continuing with its variations on grilled cheese sandwiches, this time as a sort of cheesesteak.

Sister chains Casa Olé, Crazy Joes, and Monterey’s Little Mexico have assorted seasonal limited-time offers, some of which are available at all three chains, and Paris Baguette, as you’d expect, has a whole seasonal lineup of cakes.

Bruster’s Real Ice Cream and Voodoo Doughnut also have assorted holiday treats, and Stan’s Donuts & Coffee has an olive oil pastry.

Huddle House has dessert-oriented pancakes and waffles

Papa Murphy’s has pre-cooked meatballs to accompany their take-and-bake pizza, and The Halal Guys have chicken shawarma.

Chopt Creative Salad Company is teaming up with Mexican food manufacturer Somos for some seasonal specials, Vitality Bowls has an apple pie bowl, Razzoo’s Cajun Café has a variation on a Bloody Mary, Wings Etc. has fried cauliflower, and Velvet Taco’s Weekly Taco Feature is like a miniature brisket dinner.

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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