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Menu Tracker: New items from Popeyes, Taco Bell, and Jimmy John’sMenu Tracker: New items from Popeyes, Taco Bell, and Jimmy John’s

Plus innovation at Beef-A-Roo, California Pizza Kitchen, Capriotti’s, Chip City Cookies, Cicis Pizza, Freebirds World Burrito, Harlem Shake, Jeremiah’s Italian Ice, Krispy Kreme, Moe’s Southwest Grill, Noodles & Company, Pincho, Portillo’s, Pret A Manger, Qdoba, Randy’s Donuts, Scooter’s Coffee, Sullivan’s Steakhouse, Sweet Paris, TooJay’s Deli, Toppers Pizza, Velvet Taco, Vitality Bowls, Wing Snob, and Zaxby’s

Bret Thorn, Senior Food Editor

October 10, 2024

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The cartoon SpongeBob SquarePants turns 25 years old this year, which for reasons that are unclear is reason to do a bunch of collaborations with Paramount.

Wendy’s announced its collab last week, and this week Randy’s Donuts, Harlem Shake, and Pinchos are doing it, with offers available through Oct. 27, as though it’s coordinated or something.

Krispy Kreme doesn’t care, however; it’s focused on the 40th anniversary of Ghostbusters.

Chip City Cookies is collabing with Pop Tarts, Cicis Pizza is partnering with Eggo (both part of Kellanova), and Portillo’s has a promotion with Milk Bar as the dessert concept plans its Chicago debut.

Halloween is barreling down upon us, hence thematic items from Beef-A-Roo, Jeremiah’s Italian Ice, and Scooter’s Coffee.

Popeyes has a new Ghost Pepper Chicken Sandwich, which is not Halloween themed.

TooJay’s Deli is charging on ahead past Halloween with Thanksgiving items, and Sweet Paris has several new items, including some lattes that hint at the approach of Christmas.

Capriotti’s has launched bacon, Toppers Pizza has deep-dish pie, Wing Snob has loaded fries, and Moe’s Southwest Grill is playing with Chili Crisp, which is looking to be the new hot honey, or maybe the new birria, which Freebirds World Burrito is bringing back.

Related:Wendy’s teams with Paramount for SpongeBob 25th anniversary menu

California Pizza Kitchen is reprising two old favorites, Zaxby’s Asian Zensation Salad is back, and so are Qdoba’s tortilla soup and Taco Bell’s Double Decker Taco.

Pret A Manger has a bunch of seasonal items, Sullivan’s Steakhouse has fancy ones, and Jimmy John’s has sandwiches featuring its new Sriracha bourbon sauce.

Noodles & Company has launched new dishes exactly as it said it would in its last earnings call.

Vitality Bowls has a pumpkin bowl, and Velvet Taco’s Weekly Taco Feature is inspired by the bánh mì sandwich.

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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