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Menu Tracker: New items from Starbucks, Taco Bell, and Wendy’sMenu Tracker: New items from Starbucks, Taco Bell, and Wendy’s

Plus innovation at Bad Ass Coffee of Hawaii, Bob Evans, Caribou Coffee, Carrabba’s Italian Grill, Chipotle Mexican Grill, The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, Dave & Buster’s, Friendly’s, Gong Cha, Gott’s Roadside, The Habit Burger Grill, Honeygrow, Island Fin Poke, Jet’s Pizza, Johnny Rockets, Kona Ice, Krispy Kreme, La Madeleine, Lenny’s Grill & Subs, Little Caesars, Nekter Juice Bar, North Italia, Paris Baguette, Potbelly, Rush Bowls, Smashburger, Smoothie King, Tender Greens, Tocaya Modern Mexican, Twisted Root Burger, and Velvet Taco, Wendy’s

Bret Thorn, Senior Food Editor

March 14, 2024

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St. Patrick’s Day is right around the corner and some last-minute green items are being offered by The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, Krispy Kreme, and Starbucks (plus some non-holiday-related items at its Starbucks Reserve locations), and Velvet Taco has a Shepherd’s Pie Taco as its Weekly Taco Feature, which seems geared toward the holiday.

St. Patrick’s Day always falls during Lent, a season that Bob Evans is observing with new fish items.

La Madeleine is jumping on ahead to Easter, which is March 31 this year, and North Italia celebrated Pi Day, March 14 (because 3.14 are the first three digits of the mathematical constant used for calculating the circumference of circles) with the launch of 20 regional pizzas inspired by different parts of Italy.

Spring is in the air, and for some coffeehouses that apparently means lavender. Both Bad Ass Coffee of Hawaii and Caribou Coffee have special drinks made with the flower, falling Starbucks’ launch of similar items last week.

Sort of related, Dave & Buster’s has drink specials celebrating spring break.

Taco Bell has rolled out a whole new Cantina Chicken menu, Chipotle is reprising its Chicken al Pastor, Smashburger has a new fried chicken sandwich, and Island Fin Poke is getting in on the chicken game as well.

Related:Taco Bell makes a play for lunch traffic with new Cantina Chicken menu

Wendy’s has a new Frosty.

There are new seasonal menus at Carrabba’s, Friendly’s, Paris Baguette, and Tender Greens, and a new cookie at Potbelly.

Gott’s Roadside is going Latin with a Cubano sandwich and dulce de leche shake, Gong Cha has some drinks in collaboration with Hershey’s, Johnny Rockets has a shake made with Oreo cookies, and Twisted Root Burger has one with Reece’s Peanut Butter Cups.

Nekter Juice Bar has several new items made with Tajín, Smoothie King has a collab with Dude Perfect, and Tocaya Modern Mexican is working with Vanessa Hudgens.

The Habit Burger Grill, noticing that consumers like the value of kids’ meals, has introduced a version of them specifically targeting adults.

Honeygrow has a spicy stir-fry, Jet’s Pizza has a new Greek pie, Little Caesars has pizza pockets, Lenny’s Grill & Subs has its first sub with pepperoni on it, Kona Ice has a flavorful new dust, and Rush Bowls is bringing back an item inspired by the Mai Tai.

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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