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Menu Tracker: New items from Chipotle, Sonic Drive-In, and Burger KingMenu Tracker: New items from Chipotle, Sonic Drive-In, and Burger King

Plus innovation at Baskin-Robbins, Black Rock Coffee Bar, Black Tap Craft Burgers & Beer, Buffalo Wild Wings, Caribou Coffee, Carrabba’s Italian Grill, Casey’s, Grill, The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, Cousins Subs, Cowboy Chicken, Del Taco, Dunkin’, Dunn Brothers Coffee, Dutch Bros, East Coast Wings and Grill, Fiiz Drinks, First Watch, Friendly’s, Häagen-Dazs Shops, Jamba, Jinya Ramen Bar, Kyuramen, Philz Coffee, Portillo’s, Rush Bowls, Scooter’s Coffee, Surcheros, Tous Les Jours, Velvet Taco, Village Burger Bar, Whataburger, White Rhino Coffee, and Wingstop

Bret Thorn, Senior Food Editor

August 30, 2024

36 Slides
Chipotle, Jamba, Burger King, Sonic

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Menu Tracker: New items from Chipotle, Sonic Drive-In, and Burger KingPhotos courtesy of the restaurant companies

As autumn approaches the pumpkin offerings (often with spices including cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg, and also sometimes cardamom, and this year a little chile) are rolling out in droves.

They can be had at Black Rock Coffee Bar, Caribou Coffee, The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, Cousins Subs, Dunkin’ (which now has coffee milk, a distinctly New England thing), Dutch Bros, First Watch, Häagen-Dazs, Rush Bowls, Tous Les Jours, and White Rhino Coffee.

But apparently not at Dunn Brothers Coffee, which is focused on a new line of dirty sodas, nor at Philz Coffee, which has cardamon, cinnamon, and nutmeg, but no pumpkin. Fiiz Drinks, for its part, is focused on its new partnership with Red Bull.

So be it.

Black Tap, based in New York City, is focused on the Feast of San Gennaro, a 10-day celebration in that city’s Little Italy, and has developed a signature CrazyShake in its honor.

There are also other seasonal items at chains such the Caramel Apple Cheesecake at Carrabba’s, the maple flavored sandwich at Casey’s, and the Salted Caramel Spice Cake at Portillo’s.

Scooter’s Coffee has something called a Mystery drink.

Burger King has frozen pink lemonade that is somehow tied in to the MTV Video Music Awards.

Chipotle is the latest chain to test a version of hot honey.

Related:Chipotle is testing chipotle honey chicken as latest menu innovation

Cowboy Chicken has mashed potatoes with gravy, Buffalo Wild Wings has found three different ways to put bacon on a burger, and Del Taco has a whole lineup of al pastor items.

Friendly’s has its latest monthly Conehead sundae, and Baskin-Robbins is mixing banana ice cream with Oreo cookies and peanut butter.

East Coast Wings and Grill has added a variety of items to its permanent menu, and Jamba serves frozen coffee now.

Chicken wings are now so popular during football season that even Jinya Ramen Bar has them now.

Surcheros, a chain in Georgia, has two new items in a NIL (name, image, and likeness) deal with University of Georgia wide receiver Luke Bennett, and Village Burger Bar, a little Texas chain, is selling hot dogs.

Whataburger, a considerably larger Texas chain, has Nashville hot sauce for its chicken nuggets, and Wingstop, an even bigger chain, is combining Nashville hot and sweet Kansas City barbecue in a new flavor.

Kyuramen is using rice cakes as burger patties, Sonic Drive-In has queso now, and Velvet Taco’s Weekly Taco Feature is inspired by the gyro.

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 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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