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Menu Tracker: New items from KFC, Culver’s, and Applebee’sMenu Tracker: New items from KFC, Culver’s, and Applebee’s

Plus innovation at Beyond Juicery + Eatery, California Tortilla, Condado Tacos, Cotton Patch Cafe, Eureka!, Fuku, Gong Cha, Gregory’s Coffee, Insomnia Cookies, Newk’s Eatery, Next Level Burger, Pokeworks, Potbelly, Pret à Manger, 16 Handles, Smashburger, Sprinkles, Studio Movie Grill, Toasted Yolk Café, Tropical Smoothie Café, Velvet Taco, Voodoo Doughnut, Whataburger, and Zaxby’s

Bret Thorn, Senior Food Editor

October 7, 2022

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KFC is testing wraps in Atlanta, which is pretty big news in the world of fried chicken, but also of interest is the fact that Fuku, Momofuku’s fried chicken sandwich concept, is bringing back its original chicken thigh sandwich at two locations in New York City.

CEO Alex Munoz-Suarez explained in an email:

“Fuku was originally built off of a thigh meat chicken sando when we first opened in 2015, and it was arguably the juiciest and crispiest chicken sando out there,” he said. “As we expanded outside of our home market of New York City in the years ahead, guests increasingly asked for a white meat version, which ultimately inspired us to shift to a new sandwich recipe using chicken breast in 2020. Like so many others, we've been feeling pretty nostalgic these past couple of years, and it felt like the right time to honor our roots and satisfy our diehard fans by bringing the Dark Meat Sando back in all its O.G. glory.”

Speaking of nostalgia, Cotton Patch Café is offering meat ball sliders, which might not technically be old-school, but seems nostalgic anyway, Applebee’s has a rather traditional new burger on the menu, and Potbelly is reprising its fan-favorite pastrami sandwich.

It’s unclear why California Tortilla has new items named for an old song by The Doors, but maybe nostalgia has something to do with that, too.

Speaking of chicken, Smashburger is selling wings, which is also kind of a big deal, Zaxby’s is putting its signature fried bird on fries, Newk’s Eatery has some new Buffalo chicken items, Pokeworks has spicy chicken in a bowl (or burrito), and Tropical Smoothie Cafe has some new chicken flatbread.

Culver’s, for its part, is bringing back its Curder Burger, which started as an April Fool’s joke, but it turns out, unsurprisingly if you think about it, that people want a fried cheese patty on top of their hamburger.

It is Halloween season, which is being celebrated with new items from Applebee’s, Eureka!, Gong Cha, and Insomnia Cookies.

It’s also Breast Cancer Awareness Month, hence the pink frosé at Toasted Yolk Café.

Pret à Manger has a whole lineup of new menu items, and Condado Tacos has quite a few, too.

In vegan news, there’s new oat milk soft serve at 16 Handles, and Next Level Burger has a dairy free pumpkin spice shake and a meat-and-cheese-free version of a cheeseburger.

Gregory’s Coffee and Beyond Juicery Eatery have seasonal drinks, Sprinkles has a pumpkin spice cupcake, Voodoo Doughnut has a doughnut version of a caramel macchiato, Whataburger has a breakfast bowl and Velvet Taco has its own version of a Texas delicacy: The walking taco.

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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