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Menu Tracker: New items from McDonald’s, Arby’s, and WhataburgerMenu Tracker: New items from McDonald’s, Arby’s, and Whataburger

Plus innovation at &pizza, Baskin-Robbins, Bonchon, Bruster’s Real Ice Cream, Burgerville, Chicken Guy, Donatos Pizza, Dutch Bros, Fiiz Drinks, The Flying Biscuit Café, Frank Pepe’s Pizza Napoletana, Freddy’s Frozen Custard & Steakburgers, Gott’s Roadside, Handel’s Homemade Ice cream, Hardee’s, Hopdoddy Burger Bar, IHOP, Krispy Kreme, Mountain Mike’s Pizza, Nekter Juice Bar, Noodles & Company, Nothing Bundt Cakes, Penn Station East Coast Subs, PJ’s Coffee of New Orleans, Potbelly, Pretzelmaker, Ruby Tuesday, Rush Bowls, Shipley Do-Nuts, Sweet Paris, Texas de Brazil, Velvet Taco, Viva Chicken, Voodoo Doughnut, Yampa Sandwich Company, and Ziggi’s Coffee

Bret Thorn, Senior Food Editor

July 5, 2024

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McDonald’s drove some fans nuts with the introduction in 1998 of Szechuan sauce as part of cross-promotional event with the Disney film Mulan. The limited-time condiment vanished for a couple of decades and came back for a little while, further driving people crazy. 

Will the Golden Arches have similar success with its new Special Grade Garlic Sauce as part of a collaboration with Jujutsu Kaisen?

Who knows?

Arby’s, which unceremoniously replaced its potato cakes with crinkle fries in 2021, is bringing them back for a limited time. We’ll see how much hubbub that generates. 

IHOP is continuing its custom started earlier this year of offering a Pancake of the Month. Other chains have monthly promotions all the time, and for July we’re seeing them from Baskin-Robbins, Bruster’s Real Ice Cream, Fiiz Drinks, The Flying Biscuit Café, Gott’s Roadside, Handel’s Homemade Ice cream, and Noodles & Company, Ziggi’s Coffee is jumping on the summertime s’mores bandwagon, &pizza and Mountain Mike’s are jumping on the considerably smaller but still real burger-themed pizza train, Donatos is the latest pizza chain to offer something similar to but not quite a calzone, and Bonchon finally has a fried chicken sandwich.

Whataburger and Chicken Guy have new fried chicken sandwiches, and Viva Chicken is reprising a chicken in green sauce. 

Frank Pepe’s Pizza Napoletana is bringing back its Fresh Tomato Pie.

Burgerville has seasonal special featuring local ingredients, which is its thing.

Hopdoddy has a new line of “dirty soda,” and there are also new drinks from Dutch Bros, Freddy’s, PJ’s, and Rush Bowls, and Nekter has its first shakes.

Hardee’s is testing chicken with glaze meant to taste like barbecue potato chips. 

Ruby Tuesday (remember them?) has seasonal specials, Shipley Do-Nuts is expanding its kolache line (now with eggs!), and Sweet Paris has new crêpes

Krispy Kreme has Independence Day-themed doughnuts, Nothing Bundt Cakes has miniature treats inspired by wedding cake, Potbelly has yet another limited-time cookie, and Pretzelmaker is the latest chain to team up with Cheetos.

Yampa Sandwich Company has an Italian hero, Penn Station East Coast Subs has a new spicy sandwich (but only in Lexington, Ky.), Texas de Brazil has new shrimp items, Voodoo Doughnut has a lemon doughnut for charity, and Velvet Taco’s Weekly Taco Feature is made with burnt ends.

 

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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