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Menu Tracker: New items from Popeyes, Starbucks, and Burger KingMenu Tracker: New items from Popeyes, Starbucks, and Burger King

Plus innovation at Auntie Anne’s , Bar Louie, Big Chicken, Bruster’s Real Ice Cream, Cracker Barrel Old Country Store, Dog Haus, Ellianos Coffee, Freddy’s Frozen Custard & Steakburgers, Gott’s Roadside, Handel’s Homemade Ice Cream, IHOP, Juice it Up!, Krispy Kreme, Maggiano’s Little Italy, Modern Market Eatery, Mooyah, Next Level Burger and Veggie Grill by Next Level, Pollo Campero, Randy’s Donuts , Ruby Slipper, Scooter’s Coffee, Smokey Bones, Sonic Drive-In, Sweetgreen, Voodoo Doughnut, Walk-On’s Sports Bistreaux, and Whataburger

Bret Thorn, Senior Food Editor

May 10, 2024

30 Slides
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Creamsicle continues to be the flavor of this spring, with new vanilla-orange drinks now available at Freddy’s and Sonic Drive-In. Starbucks has new berry-flavored Refreshers, and Burger King is celebrating its 70th birthday with a new dessert.

Cracker Barrel has some new hot honey items along with some watermelon beverages.

Auntie Anne’s has new drinks using that fruit, too, and there are also new watermelon items at Bar Louie (part of a large menu revamp), Ruby Slipper, and Smokey Bones.

Sweetgreen has added steak to its menu after a successful test in Boston, and Dog Haus has items with Colorado green chili, just as the chain’s würstmacher, Adam Gertler, said it would.

There are new shakes at Big Chicken, Gott’s Roadside, Mooyah, Next Level Burger (sans dairy, of course), and Whataburger, which just rolled out new coffee.

Ellianos Coffee has a new muffin, Handel’s has carrot cake ice cream, and Bruster’s has a new caramel brown butter flavor

IHOP has a bunch of specials in cross-promotion with the film IF, and Juice it Up! has some new lighter drinks (less than 190 calories in a medium).

Scooter’s Coffee has new flavors of its Quenchers.

Krispy Kreme has miniature doughnuts for Mother’s Day, while Maggiano’s Little Italy is offering mom’s and everyone else, a double-sized chocolate cake at a discount.

Randy’s Donuts has a new item with “MOM” written on it.

Modern Market Eatery has sustainable new shrimp, both Pollo Campero and Popeyes have new chicken sandwiches, Walk-On’s has beignet sliders and Voodoo Doughnut has a doughnut with mango and Tajín.

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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