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Menu Tracker: New items from Red Robin, Sonic Drive-in and Carl’s Jr.

Plus innovation at Baskin-Robbins, Bruster’s Real Ice Cream, Cava, Hardee’s, Hopdoddy, Lee’s Famous Recipe Chicken, Lucille’s Smokehouse Bar B Que, Main Event, Marble Slab Creamery, Pieology, Torchy’s Tacos, Twin Peaks, Velvet Taco, Voodoo Doughnut and WaBa Grill

Bret Thorn, Senior Food Editor

August 5, 2021

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It’s unusual for chains to announce when they’re changing suppliers, but several are doing it this week. Hopdoddy is switching from Impossible Foods to Beyond Meat as its plant-based protein provider, and is offering a meatless burger in celebration that’s inspired by the Reuben sandwich.

WaBa Grill also has announced a collaboration with Nasoya foods for its own proprietary meatless steak substitute.

Meanwhile, Cava has switched pita suppliers. The flatbread now comes from Damascus Bakery in Brooklyn, N.Y. 

In other plant-based news, Lucille’s Smokehouse Bar B Que now has cauliflower “steak” on its menu, along with other new meatless options.

Main Event, the family entertainment concept, introduced a line of Shirley Temples this past spring, and is now expanding that line in celebration of the 20th anniversary of the musical group Kidz Bop.

Red Robin Gourmet Burgers & Brews has new spicy items and Marble Slab Creamery has spicy ice cream.

Baskin-Robbins has new chocolatey ice cream options, Bruster’s Real Ice Cream’s monthly flavor mimics the Creamsicle and Sonic Drive-In has a new shake inspired by banana pudding.

Hardee’s now has the French Toast Dips that were already being sold at sister chain Carl’s Jr., and Carl’s Jr. itself has a new patty melt.

Twin Peaks has a new light beer, Lee’s Famous Recipe Chicken has chicken & waffles and Pieology customers can now sprinkle their pies with French’s Fried Onions.

Voodoo Doughnut’s monthly special is pink and blue, Torchy’s Tacos has a monthly tequila cocktail with dragon fruit and Velvet Taco’s Weekly Taco Feature has pulled pork.

Contact Bret Thorn at bret.thorn@informa.com 

Follow him on Twitter: @foodwriterdiary

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: bret.thorn@informa.com

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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