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Menu Tracker: New items from Dunkin’, Wendy’s and Outback SteakhouseMenu Tracker: New items from Dunkin’, Wendy’s and Outback Steakhouse

Plus additions at Cousins Subs, Culver’s, Farmer Boys, First Watch, Golden Chick, Nathan’s Famous, Nektér Juice Bar, Peet’s Coffee, Portillo’s, Red Mango, Schlotzsky’s, Shake Shack, Taco Cabana, Torchy’s Tacos and Velvet Taco

Bret Thorn, Senior Food Editor

September 2, 2020

18 Slides
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Wendy’s has reworked the Pretzel Bacon Cheeseburger it originally launched in 2013, and now it has Muenster cheese.

If you thought that made Wendy’s the only limited-service chain to add Muenster to its menu this week, you’d be wrong: Cousins Subs has three new sandwiches with the cheese made in its home state of Wisconsin.

Speaking of Wisconsin, Culver’s is using cheddar cheese from that state, where it, too, is based, for a reprise of the pretzel bites it first introduced in 2018

Cheddar is also on the new Bourbon Bacon Cheddarburger at Farmer Boys, one of many brands celebrating bacon in anticipation of International Bacon Day, which apparently is Sept. 5. Schlotzsky’s is offering a special bacon bread for the week (the bread also has cheddar in it) available with any sandwich, and Nathan’s Famous has a bacon caramel shake.

Bacon is also on the Taco of the Month at Torchy’s Tacos, but a fried chicken tender is really the star of its Tailgater Taco, as it is in Velvet Taco’s Weekly Taco Feature.

Shake Shack is bringing back its hot chicken sandwich, and for the first time Outback Steakhouse is frying chicken breast in the same batter it uses for its Bloomin’ Onion.

Golden Chick does not have a new chicken sandwich (it launched one at the end of May), but it is selling corndogs to capitalize on the cancellation of the Texas State Fair.

Peet’s Coffee has rolled out its fall line of drinks, with pumpkin, obviously, but also maple. Nektér Juice Bar is rolling out its seasonal pumpkin line on Sept. 7, and First Watch has a pumpkin pancake, but also a burrito filled with pork carnitas.

Carnitas are also in Taco Cabana’s first-ever torta.

Dunkin’ already introduced its pumpkin spice line for the season, but this week it’s teaming up with TikTok sensation Charli D’Amelio to offer her go-to beverage — cold brew with milk and caramel sauce.

Red Mango has added to its line of fruit bowls.

And Portillo’s will now put their Italian beef in a bowl instead of on a sandwich if you want them to. Cheese and peppers are extra.

Contact Bret Thorn at [email protected] 

Follow him on Twitter: @foodwriterdiary

 

 

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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