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Menu Tracker: New items from Taco Bell, Taco John’s, and Tim HortonsMenu Tracker: New items from Taco Bell, Taco John’s, and Tim Hortons

Plus innovation at Beard Papa’s, California Pizza Kitchen, Cinnaholic, Cotton Patch Cafe, The Crack Shack, Dutch Bros, Farm Burger, Fiiz Drinks, Flying Biscuit Café, Frank Pepe Pizzeria Napoletana, Freebirds World Burrito, Goodcents, The Human Bean, Hurricane Grill & Wings, Ike’s Love & Sandwiches, Iron Hill Brewery & Restaurant, Island Fin Poke, Juice it Up!, Miguel’s Jr. , Mountain Mike’s Pizza, Next Level Burger, Noodles & Company, Oakberry, Protein Bar & Kitchen, Round Table Pizza, Schlotzsky’s , Snooze A.M. Eatery, Starbird, Taco Cabana, Tender Greens, Tropical Smoothie Café, Veggie Grill by Next Level, Velvet Taco, Via 313, Vicious Biscuit, Vitality Bowls, Wings and Rings, WOB Bar & Kitchen, Your Pie, Zaxby’s

Bret Thorn, Senior Food Editor

January 17, 2025

43 Slides
Clockwise from top left: menu items from Taco Bell, Taco John's, Tim Hortons, and Noodles & Company

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Photos courtesy of the restaurant companies

During the pandemic, a number of chains took menu items that didn’t travel well, like burgers and tacos, and put them on something known for being delivered intact: Pizza. Hence a brief period of pizza topped with the fixin’s of those other popular menu items.

Well, as you know, the delivery trend that grew when dining rooms were closed continues to be a popular option, and the trend of coaxing pizza to taste like hard-to-deliver items continues, but this time a popular option is jalapeño poppers. &Pizza did that last week, and this week we’re seeing it at Your Pie

Pizza with Indian toppings is another little trend, hence the Tikka Masala Pizza now available at Via 313.

In other pizza news, Frank Pepe Pizzeria Napoletana, the little chain based in New Haven, Conn., known for its clam pies, is offering a pizza with a topping that’s popular in Rome: Potatoes.

Round Table Pizza now has a pie topped with both pepperoni and chicken (and bacon), while California Pizza Kitchen now offers burritos on a secret menu in partnership with virtual brand Man Vs. Pies (speaking trends that emerged during the pandemic), and Mountain Mike’s Pizza has a couple of new salads.

Taco Bell has cheesy new miniature burritos and Taco John’s has a new quesadilla-taco hybrid.

Taco Cabana, for its part, has a new salad.

Farm Burger has two new salads

The Crack Shack has some new seasonal items, along with a breakfast sandwich that’s a permanent addition, and there are also new permanent items at Cotton Patch Cafe, Goodcents, Tropical Smoothie Café, Veggie Grill by Next Level, The Human Bean, Hurricane Grill & Wings, and, notably, Snooze A.M. Eatery, which has rolled out protein pancakes.

Noodles & Company is bringing back its Steak Stroganoff, which was a big hit last year, and Beard Papa’s has essentially renamed some of its cream puffs as a cross-promotion with manga series Mashle: Magic and Muscles.

There are new sweet drinks from Dutch Bros and not-so-sweet drinks from Fiiz Drinks.

Island Fin Poke has coho salmon now, permanently, and Freebirds World Burrito has new seasoned ground beef for a limited time.

Vegan chain Cinnaholic has new pastries, and other vegan chains Next Level Burger and Veggie Grill by Next Level have a burger and shake and a bunch of smoothies, respectively.

Ike’s Love & Sandwiches is not a vegan chain, but it has a vegan sandwich for January.

Juice it Up! has new smoothies and a build-your-own waffle, Oakberry has oatmeal, and Tender Greens has a new meal inspired by the Blue Zone diet.

Miguel’s Jr. has pozole, as it generally does in January,

Iron Hill has some new items just available through early February, including a tomato basil soup, which Flying Biscuit Café has too.

Protein Bar & Kitchen has some high-protein items, just as you’d expect,

Zaxby’s has a chicken sandwich inspired by the Philly Cheesesteak, Starbird has a chicken Park, and Schlotzsky’s has a tortilla soup.

Vicious Biscuit has a new omelet, and Vitality Bowls has its own version of a hangover cure. WOB Bar & Kitchen, aka World of Beer, has new wings, Wings and Rings has several items with Sam Adams beer cheese, Tim Hortons has indulgent drinks and doughnuts, and Velvet Taco’s Weekly Taco Feature is inspired by jambalaya.

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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