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Menu Tracker: New items from Jack in the Box, Tim Hortons and Buffalo Wild WingsMenu Tracker: New items from Jack in the Box, Tim Hortons and Buffalo Wild Wings

Plus innovation at Abuelo’s Mexican Restaurant, Andy’s Frozen Custard, Applebee’s Neighborhood Grill & Bar, Blimpie, Cava, Donatos, Friendly’s, Freddy’s Frozen Custard & Steakburgers, Frisch’s Big Boy, Gott’s Roadside, Hopdoddy, Hot Dog on a Stick, Jack’s Family Restaurants, Mellow Mushroom, MOD Pizza, Moe’s Southwest Grill, PDQ, Peter Piper Pizza, Potbelly, Qdoba, Studio Movie Grill, Taco Cabana, Velvet Taco and Voodoo Doughnut

Bret Thorn, Senior Food Editor

April 8, 2022

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YouTube personality Emma Chamberlain loves Cava’s spicy hummus, literally. She literally said that on Instagram. She said, “I literally love ur spicy hummus i ate an entire tub in one sitting once”.

In celebration of that, the fast-casual Middle Eastern chain has named a bowl and a snack after her, at least for the next few weeks.

Elsewhere in spicy food, Moe’s Southwest Grill has added spicy chicken to its lineup, Peter Piper Pizza has a spicy meatball pizza, Blimpie has Nashville hot chicken, Buffalo Wild Wings has Doritos Flamin’ Hot Nacho Wings, Hot Dog on a Stick has a new jalapeño ranch dipping sauce, Jack in the Box has spicy cheese fries as well as popcorn chicken that can be spicy if you want it to be, Mellow Mushroom has spicy beer cheese, plus wings with giardiniera, the sometimes spicy pickle mix that goes with Chicago-style Italian beef. Italian beef, by the way, is the inspiration for Velvet Taco’s Weekly Taco Feature.

Friendly’s has a dozen new items; you can get fig jam there now.

Potbelly has rolled out a Cubano, the first in what it says will be a line of limited-time sandwiches this year, and Freddy’s Frozen Custard & Steakburgers has what it says will be the first in a line of floats — this one, logically enough, being made with root beer.

Applebee’s is bringing back its Irresist-A-Bowls, including a new one with broccoli cheddar mac & cheese, plus some more cocktails, and Abuelo’s Mexican Restaurant has a new raspberry hibiscus Margarita.

Hopdoddy has a burger topped with mac & cheese and PDQ has added mac & cheese as a permanent addition to the menu.

Studio Movie Grill has a drink with proceeds going to Autism Speaks, Voodoo Doughnut has a treat to raise money to fight ovarian cancer and MOD Pizza has a new Squad Cake, which raises money for crew members in need,

Taco Cabana has enchiladas, Jack’s Family Restaurants has fried green tomatoes, Qdoba has cheese-crusted quesadillas and Gott’s Roadside has a fried tofu sandwich.

Andy’s Frozen Custard has waffle cones, Donatos has a new version of its dessert twists, Tim Hortons has an Easter doughnut and Frisch’s Big Boy is celebrating baseball season with sliders.

Oh, I just got that joke.

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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