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Menu Tracker: New items from Dunkin’, Starbucks, and CinnabonMenu Tracker: New items from Dunkin’, Starbucks, and Cinnabon

Plus innovation at Baskin-Robbins, Carl’s Jr., Chopt, Cinnaholic, Dog Haus, Dutch Bros, First Watch, Flower Child, Freddy’s Frozen Custard & Steakburgers, Friendly’s, Hardee’s Jimmy John’s, Long John Silver’s, PJ’s Coffee, Plant Power Fast Food, Potbelly, Regal Theatres, Rise Southern Biscuits and Righteous Chicken, Shake Shack, Sonny’s BBQ , Sprinkles, Studio Movie Grill, Velvet Taco, and Yoshinoya

Bret Thorn, Senior Food Editor

November 3, 2023

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Pumpkin spice season typically ends on Thanksgiving Day. Come the fourth Friday of November and it’s all about mocha, peppermint, eggnog, and gingerbread.

Yes, ginger’s a pumpkin spice. It transcends drink seasons.

But now in the first week of November Christmastime drinks are already on a roll.

There are new drinks and other holiday specials from Cinnabon, Cinnaholic, Dunkin’, Dutch Bros, Freddy’s Frozen Custard & Steakburgers, PJ’s Coffee, Potbelly, and Starbucks.

Thanksgiving in particular is being promoted by Baskin-Robbins, Dog Haus, Friendly’s, and Studio Movie Grill (sort of) and Sprinkles is celebrating the Hindu holiday of Diwali.

Shake Shack is celebrating the launch of the film Trolls Band Together.

Hardee’s is bringing back its legacy cinnamon raisin biscuit, Carl’s Jr. has a guacamole burger, and Long John Silver’s and Regal Theatres now have cheese curds.

First Watch and Flower Child, have a whole new lineup of new seasonal specials, and Rise Southern Biscuits and Righteous Chicken has a bunch of new permanent items.

Jimmy John’s has new potato chips, Chopt has a vegan salad, and Plant Power Fast Food has a new vegan burger that’s made from plants.

Sonny’s BBQ, on the other hand, has a new meat sampler.

Yoshinoya has karaage, and Velvet Taco’s Weekly Taco Feature is inspired by chicken piccata.

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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