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Sonic Drive-In introduces queso as a limited time offerSonic Drive-In introduces queso as a limited time offer

The quick-service restaurant chain is serving the new sauce on its own and on two types of loaded fries

Bret Thorn, Senior Food Editor

August 27, 2024

2 Min Read
sonic bacon ranch queso fries
Sonic Drive-In's Bacon Ranch Loaded Queso FriesSonic Drive-In

Sonic Drive-In is adding a cheese sauce as a limited-time offer and promoting it with two types of queso fries.

The new white queso can be added to any order for $1 starting Sept. 2 to the general public and Aug. 27 via the quick-service chain’s app.

The two varieties of loaded fries, starting at $3.99 for a medium size and available while supplies last, both feature the crinkle-cut Groovy Fries that Sonic introduced in May.

The Bacon Ranch Loaded Queso Fries dresses the Groovy Fries in the new queso along with bacon, shredded cheese, and ranch dressing.

The Southwest Loaded Queso Fries are topped with the same queso sauce and cheese along with sliced jalapeño peppers, tomatoes, diced onions and a creamy “Southwest sauce.”

“Sonic’s hot and crispy Groovy Fries are a perfect snack on their own but imagine elevating them with creamy queso and other flavor-packed toppings — now that’s a snack that hits the spot,” vice president of culinary & menu innovation Mackenzie Gibson said in a release announcing the new menu items. “Whether you go for Bacon Ranch or Southwest, these loaded fries will get you through those midday or late-night cravings and transform them into an experience that’s both comforting and delicious.”

The new queso is part of a wave of sauces that have been added to restaurant chains recently. Just last week Bojangles added a house-made ranch dressing, Buffalo Wild Wings added a Buffalo Bacon sauce, Popeyes added a new sweet and smokey chipotle coating to its wings, and Twin Peaks came out with both a tikka sauce emulating chicken curry and a spicy chili crisp sauce, featuring a spicy-tingly Chinese condiment that has grown in popularity in recent years. 

Related:Sonic Drive-In to give away 3 vacations in latest marketing effort

Sonic’s new items also come as the chain of more than 3,500 restaurants, a subsidiary of Atlanta-based Inspire Brands, is implementing its “Live Free Eat Sonic” marketing initiative, that positions it as a fun, monotony-breaking venue that encourages its customers to try new experiences.

To that end Sonic recently announced it would give away three vacations valued at around $15,000 each in its “Fun is on the Menu Sweepstakes.

 

 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/
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