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Menu Tracker: New items from McDonald’s, Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen and Shake ShackMenu Tracker: New items from McDonald’s, Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen and Shake Shack

Plus additions at Bojangles, Chevys Fresh Mex, Coolgreens, Eggs Up Grill, Freddy’s Frozen Custard and Steakburgers, Golden Chick Lime Fresh Mexican Grill, PLNT Burger, Taco John’s, Toppers Pizza, Velvet Taco, Voodoo Doughnut, WaBa Grill and Wow Wow Hawaiian Lemonade

Bret Thorn, Senior Food Editor

February 12, 2021

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For Lent, which starts on Wednesday, Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen is taking its show-stopping chicken sandwich and swapping in flounder and tartar sauce.

That’s a time-tested practice, one that Bojangles is carrying out with the reprise of its Bojangler, made with pollock that is treated with the same spice blend as its chicken biscuit, which is so beloved that some people will reroute their flights so they can pick one up at the Charlotte, N.C., airport.

Freddy’s Frozen Custard and Steakburgers has a seasonal cod sandwich through early April. Golden Chick has one, too, although it will be available long past Easter and well into May.

Too many chains to mention are offering heart-shaped pizzas for Valentine’s Day, so we’re skipping coverage of that, but Shake Shack is teaming up with 1990s boy band Boyz II Men in a holiday promotion that will include a live performance by the group at 8 p.m. Eastern time on Feb. 14 on the burger chain’s Instagram and Facebook accounts, as well as a holiday milkshake. Velvet Taco is marking the holiday with its first-ever dessert taco, and Voodoo Doughnut is offering a couple of treats that can include customizable messages — short ones that can fit on a doughnut.

Taco John’s has new queso, Lime Fresh Mexican Grill has new churro bites, WaBa Grill has an improved salmon preparation and vegan chain PLNT is introducing its first breakfast sandwich.

In a non-vegan move, you can now top you Toppers Pizza pies with prime rib.

Coolgreens, apparently betting that it’s still early enough in the year for people to try to keep New Year’s resolutions, is introducing some nutrient-dense items, while Chevys Fresh Mex is observing the end of dry January and the approach of National Margarita Day with the Rosé-A-Rita.

Eggs Up Grill has new brunch items, and Wow Wow Hawaiian Lemonade, marching to the beat of its own drum, is celebrating winter with cinnamon and apple.

Also, McDonald’s Shamrock Shake is back, and so is the a Oreo Shamrock McFlurry, which debuted around this time last year.

Contact Bret Thorn at [email protected] 

Follow him on Twitter: @foodwriterdiary

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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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