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Menu Tracker: New items from Subway, Culver’s and Baskin-RobbinsMenu Tracker: New items from Subway, Culver’s and Baskin-Robbins

Plus innovation at Abuelo’s, Bennigan’s , Bruster’s Real Ice Cream, BurgerFi, Cotton Patch Cafe, Daphne’s, Fresh Brothers, Lemonade, Modern Market, Perkins, Round Table Pizza, 16 Handles , Slaters 50/50, Tacodeli, Torchy’s Tacos, Velvet Taco, Voodoo Doughnut and Yogurtland

Bret Thorn, Senior Food Editor

July 9, 2021

21 Slides
menu tracker july 9

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The big news is that Subway is updating its menu with upgraded bread, fresh mozzarella, avocado, new bacon, ham, turkey, steak as well as rotisserie chicken and roast beef. More than 10,000 locations will shut their doors at 6 p.m. on July 12 and open with a new menu the following day.

But there’s a lot more menu news out there, too. In frozen treats alone, Culver’s has rolled out the second of its new Flavor of the Day options for the year, 16 Handles has complete its rollout of four oat milk-based frozen desserts, Bruster’s Real Ice Cream has two special flavors for the month and Baskin-Robbins has new drinks made of ice cream, sorbet and tea.

Speaking of tea and desserts, Voodoo Doughnut’s monthly special is flavored with Earl Grey.

Cotton Patch Cafe has Key lime pie.

Yogurtland has new fruity bowls that could easily pass for dessert, including one with watermelon, a summertime favorite that’s also found in new items at Abuelo’s and Bennigan’s.

Modern Market has a bunch of new summertime menu items, including a ginger peach lemonade, and its sister chain, Lemonade, has five new versions of its namesake drink.

BurgerFi has made its Spicy Wagyu Burger, introduced in March, a permanent menu item, and Slaters 50/50 has a seasonal burger-like sandwich celebrating American opulence.

Tacodeli is serving braised beef cheek as a taco upgrade for the month, Torchy’s Tacos is serving a Thai-inspired item and Velvet Taco’s Weekly Taco Feature draws its inspiration from paella.

Perkins has new crêpes, Fresh Brothers has new salads, as well as the option of dumping your salad into flatbread for added portability, and Daphne’s has new salads, too.

Round Table Pizza, meanwhile, is experimenting with charred lemon.

Contact Bret Thorn at [email protected] 

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: [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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