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Menu Tracker: New items from Wendy’s, Pizza Hut, and PopeyesMenu Tracker: New items from Wendy’s, Pizza Hut, and Popeyes

Plus innovation at Black Angus Steakhouse, Black Bear Diner, Blue Bottle Coffee, Bob Evans Restaurants, Bruster’s Real Ice cream, BurgerFi, Burgerville, Carl’s Jr., Friendly’s, Jimmy John’s, Juice it Up!, Nekter Juice bar, Next Level Burger, Nordstrom, On the Border Mexican Grill & Cantina, Original Chop Shop, PJ’s Coffee, Portillo’s, Qdoba Mexican Eats, Quiznos, Robeks, Scooter’s Coffee, Shake Shack, Subway, Taco Cabana, Taco John’s, Tacos 4 Life, Velvet Taco, and Voodoo Doughnut

Bret Thorn, Senior Food Editor

May 5, 2023

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It’s a ghost pepper jamboree this week, with that spicy chile being introduced on menu items at Popeyes, Taco Cabana, and Wendy’s.

In other spicy news, kimchi is pretty much fully mainstream now: It’s on a sub at Quiznos.

And we’re well into spring, and that means it’s time for more strawberry items, which are now being offered at Bob Evans Restaurants, Bruster’s Real Ice Cream, Friendly’s, Juice it Up!, Nekter Juice Bar, Robeks, Tacos 4 Life, Voodoo Doughnut, and Wendy’s.

Black Bear Diner is marking the season with raspberries.

It’s also Cinco de Mayo, commemorating the 1862 Battle of Puebla in Mexico, which Velvet Taco is acknowledging by offering a taco al pastor as its Weekly Taco Feature, and On the Border is teaming up with Mark Wahlberg’s tequila to offer a special cocktail (click through so you don’t miss its cute name).

In other Mexican food news, Taco Cabana is expanding on its Double Crunch pizza with two new iterations, and Taco John’s has a beef-and-potato quesadilla.

Subway has two new curated sandwiches, Carl’s Jr. has some hangover bundles, Black Angus Steakhouse has a new virtual brand, and Jimmy John’s sells brownies now.

Both Portillo’s and BurgerFi inexplicably now have Rodeo burgers.

Qdoba is bringing back its mango salsa, and PJ’s Coffee is bringing back its wedding cake flavors.

Related:Subway adds to its Subway Series menu

Blue Bottle Coffee has orange blossom drinks, Scooter’s Coffee has a blended peanut butter offering, and Shake Shack’s dairy-free shakes are now available nationally.

Shake Shack also has a new veggie burger, and vegan burger chain Next Level Burger has a meatless brunch burger topped with eggless egg.

Nordstrom has shrimp burgers and Burgerville has fried asparagus.

Pizza Hut has a cheesesteak pizza, and Original Chop Shop has red pepper hummus.

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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