Sponsored By
Menu Tracker

Menu Tracker

Menu Tracker: New items from Wendy’s, Papa John’s and Einstein Bros. BagelsMenu Tracker: New items from Wendy’s, Papa John’s and Einstein Bros. Bagels

Plus additions at Abuelo’s, Bertucci’s, Black Bear Diner, Cowboy Chicken, Fired Pie, Fuzzy’s Taco Shop, Papa Murphy’s, Pretzelmaker, Russo’s New York Pizzeria & Italian Kitchen, Salata, Taco Mac, Tijuana Flats and Velvet Taco

Bret Thorn, Senior Food Editor

October 23, 2020

16 Slides
menu tracker oct 23

Already have an account?

Wendy’s has upped the ante in the chicken sandwich game by adding cracker crumbs to its breading for extra crunch.

Elsewhere in chicken, Cowboy Chicken has a new drumstick meal for four people, Fired Pie has joined the growing number of pizza chains with a Nashville hot chicken pizza and Fuzzy’s Taco Shop has new fried chicken tacos.

Einstein Bros. Bagels, apparently noticing how popular doughnuts have become during this pandemic, has added them to its menu, but to stay on-brand the chain is calling them Party Bagels.

Papa John’s is bringing back its cheeseburger pizza and also stuffing the same toppings in the folded sandwich called the Papadia that it introduced earlier this year.

Bertucci’s and Papa Murphy’s are both playing with their pepperoni pizza: Bertucci’s is putting on double the usual amount and naming the pie after former Boston Red Sox slugger David “Big Papi” Ortiz, and Papa Murphy’s is making it into a smiling face for the annual return of its Jack-O-Lantern pie.

Taco Mac has introduced a whole new lineup of burgers and Russo’s New York Pizzeria & Italian Kitchen has a whole new lineup of gluten-free items.

Black Bear Diner is inviting guests add pumpkin spice to several items this season, Salata is testing grain bowls, Abuelo’s has new seasonal items, Tijuana Flats has a family bundle just for taco Tuesdays, and Pretzelmaker is adding blue raspberry syrup to its lemonade.

And Velvet Taco’s weekly taco feature is inspired by pork bánh mì.

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 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

Subscribe Nation's Restaurant News Newsletters
Get the latest breaking news in the industry, analysis, research, recipes, consumer trends, the latest products and more.