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Menu Tracker: New items from McDonald’s, Burger King and Wendy’sMenu Tracker: New items from McDonald’s, Burger King and Wendy’s

Plus innovation at Boston Market, Bruster’s Real Ice Cream, Chick-fil-A, Chipotle Mexican Grill, Donatos, Dutch Bros, Häagen-Dazs, Insomnia Cookies, Juice it Up!, Krispy Kreme, Long John Silver’s, Nekter Juice Bar, Panda Express, PJ’s Coffee , Potbelly, 7-Eleven, Shake Shack, Velvet Taco, Voodoo Doughnut, Wendy’s, White Castle, and Yogurtland

Bret Thorn, Senior Food Editor

September 9, 2022

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Anyone familiar with the hit Adult Swim series Rick and Morty might think twice about consuming anything claimed to have been conceived in Froopyland, but Wendy’s is betting customers will roll the dice with specials the chain has rolled out in time for the show’s sixth season.

It’s also football season, and Chipotle is capitalizing on that with curated bowls developed in conjunction with Dallas Cowboys current and former wide receivers who all wore the number 88.

McDonald’s has rolled out a cheese Danish, which some of its marketing materials pointed out doesn’t have pumpkin spice, apples, or maple in it but the Golden Arches are rolling it out in the autumn anyway.

Maple has actually been notably scarce so far this season, but not so pumpkin and the spices (cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, allspice, ginger, etc.) that are associated with it. Chick-fil-A, in an unconventional move, is calling its seasonal treat an Autumn Spice Milkshake. It’s the first seasonal shake the brand has rolled out nationwide in four years.

Bruster’s Real Ice Cream is highlighting apples, but a bunch of other chains — Donatos, Dutch Bros, Häagen-Dazs, Juice it Up!, Nekter Juice Bar, PJ’s Coffee, Potbelly, Shake Shack, and Yogurtland — are offering new pumpkin items.

Burger King is testing items with Everything spice on them (which is to say granulated onion and garlic, poppy and sesame seeds, and salt) in two markets, and Krispy Kreme now has a doughnut-churro hybrid.

Panda Express is launching a plant-based version of its Orange Chicken systemwide after testing it in select markets last year, 7-Eleven has two new types of pizza, and Velvet Taco’s Weekly Taco Feature comes in a pancake.

White Castle, seeing success with the 1921 Slider it launched in the spring, has two new versions of it, Boston Market has a pulled pork sandwich, Insomnia Cookies is selling Cookies ‘N Cream cookies as a back-to-school special for one week only (stay tuned for what’s in store next week), Long John Silver’s has brought back its lobster bites, and Voodoo Doughnut has a sweet-and-salty chocolate-and-peanut butter doughnut.

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 of Nation’s Restaurant News and Restaurant Hospitality.

Hi is responsible for spotting and reporting on F&B trends across the country for both publications. 

He is the co-host of a podcast, Menu Talk with Pat and Bret, 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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