Sponsored By
Menu Tracker

Menu Tracker

Menu Tracker: New items from Arby’s, KFC, and Taco BellMenu Tracker: New items from Arby’s, KFC, and Taco Bell

Plus innovation at Another Broken Egg, Bar Louie, Bojangles, Bruster’s Real Ice Cream, Burgerville, Capital Tacos, Charleys Cheesesteaks, Cold Stone Creamery, Cousins Subs, Cowboy Chicken, Denny’s, Dog Haus, Dutch Bros, El Pollo Loco, Eureka!, Fazoli’s, Great American Cookies, The Habit Burger Grill, Jet’s Pizza, Jimmy John’s , Jinya Ramen Bar, Joe and the Juice, Juice it Up, Krystal, Little Caesars, Naf Naf Grill, Noodles & Company, Panda Express, Paris Baguette, Pieology, Playa Bowls, Robeks, Rush Bowls, Shake Shack, Snuffer’s Restaurant & Bar, Sonic Drive-In, Sprinkles, Tin Lizzy’s Cantina, Velvet Taco, and Wahlburgers

Bret Thorn, Senior Food Editor

September 8, 2023

43 Slides
menu tracker 9 8

Already have an account?

After a hiatus of several years, Arby’s is leaning into its “We have the meats” slogan by cooking with game, which it did with venison, elk and duck in the late teens. Now it’s leveraging its relatively new burger platform for a new football themed item.

Burgerville also has a new burger, as do Eureka!, the Habit Burger Grill, Shake Shack, and Snuffer’s.

Capital Tacos has a burger taco, and Krystal and Wahlburgers have new sliders.

Little Caesars has a football themed Calzony (it has four quarters; get it?)

Taco Bell is testing dark meat chicken in Atlanta.

Noodles & Company is rolling out Chicken Parmesan, Jimmy John’s has made some of its summertime wraps permanent, and Panda Express has an item featuring super-trendy chili crisp.

KFC has new spicy wings, Bojangles is testing wings in South Carolina, and Jinya Ramen Bar has wings in sweet soy glaze.

Sonic Drive-In has brought back its pickle fries.

Dog Haus is offering wings as part of a trio of items for which proceeds are going to Maui relief efforts. Some proceeds from Bar Louie’s Martini of the Month will go to No Kid Hungry.

Featuring new pumpkin-oriented items are Another Broken Egg, Cold Stone Creamery, Denny’s, Dutch Bros, Fazoli’s, Great American Cookies, Joe and the Juice, Juice it Up!, Paris Baguette, Playa Bowls, Robeks, and Rush Bowls.

Bruster’s Real Ice Cream is highlighting s’mores for the end of summer, and apples for the beginning of autumn.

Tin Lizzy’s Cantina has lobster tacos, Sprinkles has a cupcake based on a candy from Northern Mexico, and Pieology has a macadamia nut cookie.

Cousins Subs has a new sub, Charleys Cheesesteaks has a new cheesesteak, and Cowboy Chicken has a new cowboy (just kidding; it has sweet potato waffle fries).

Naf Naf Grill has spicy hummus, El Pollo Loco has some new quesadillas, Jet’s Pizza is playing with popcorn chicken, and Velvet Taco’s Weekly Taco Feature is based on quesabirria.

Contact Bret Thorn at [email protected] 

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

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

You May Also Like