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Menu Tracker: New items from Taco Bell, Church’s Chicken and Shake ShackMenu Tracker: New items from Taco Bell, Church’s Chicken and Shake Shack

Plus innovation at Bruster’s Real Ice Cream, The Counter, Dog Haus, Fuku, Gott’s Roadside, Halal Guys, Hopdoddy, Hot Dog on a Stick, Insomnia Cookies, Jamba, Jinya Ramen Bar, Menchie’s Frozen Yogurt, Native Foods, Nekter Juice Bar, Peter Piper Pizza, Piada Italian Street Food, Pizza Ranch, Project Pollo, Sunny Street Café, Tropical Smoothie Café, Velvet Taco, Voodoo Doughnut, Wings Over and Zaxby’s

Bret Thorn, Senior Food Editor

June 2, 2022

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June is Pride month for the LGBTQ community. You might be wondering why it’s called “Pride” instead of more frequently used terms like “awareness.” That’s because, while many LGBTQ people face discrimination and bullying, perhaps the most damaging effect is shame from being so different from mainstream society. The dangers of that can be real: Suicide attempts among LGBTQ youth is reportedly around double that among teens overall, which is why organizations such as The Trevor Project, a suicide-prevention and crisis intervention group for young members of sexual minorities, is so important, as is instilling pride in people who are struggling with their identity. 

So for Pride month, Shake Shack is donating 3% of its proceeds from its three celebratory shakes to The Trevor Project, while Fuku is donating sales of its Pride Sando to the Hetrick-Martin Institute, which provides aid to LGBTQ youth.

Voodoo Doughnut is marking the occasion with a Pride Bar and donating money to the It Gets Better Project. 

Menchie’s Frozen Yogurt, meanwhile, is teaming with the Japanese candy brand Hi-Chew for its Rainbow Sherbet flavor, which sure sounds like it’s Pride-related, but the company says it’s doing it because June is also National Candy Month.

It’s okay, Menchie’s; coming out is a journey. 

Watermelon is once again the trending fruit of the summer, and this week alone new items made with the fruit are available from, Halal Guys, Hot Dog on a Stick, Jamba, Nekter Juice Bar, Tropical Smoothie Café and possibly Piada Italian Street Food, which is offering a “summer melon fresca,” but doesn’t specify what melons.

Taco Bell has introduced the first sparkling tea from Brisk.

Church’s Chicken is bringing back its smoked product, Gott’s Roadside is reprising its Baja Shrimp Cocktail, Wings Over has brought back its honey hot sauce, and Zaxby’s fried pickles are now a permanent part of the menu.

Vegan chain Native Foods has a fish-free tuna melt, and Project Pollo, another vegan chain, now has burgers.

The Counter has a doughnut burger and a milkshake to match, Bruster’s Real Ice Cream has wedding cake ice cream and banana pudding, Peter Piper Pizza has churros, and Insomnia Cookies has a whole lineup of late-spring treats.

Dog Haus has a new hot chicken sandwich and Hopdoddy has a barbecue chicken “burger.”

Sunny Street Café has a whole new lineup for the summer, plus cocktails, Pizza Ranch has a Caprese pizza, Jinya Ramen Bar has a new bar snack and Velvet Taco is kicking off the month with what it promises to be a string of salad-related Weekly Taco Features.

 

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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