Menu Tracker: New items from Burger King, Dunkin’, and White Castle
Menu Tracker
Plus innovation at Logan's Roadhouse, Mendocino Farms, Peet's Coffee, Torchy’s Tacos, and more
June 5, 2026
This week’s menu headline is that Logan’s Roadhouse is testing THC beverages in Texas. The drinks have been gaining popularity in retail, so it was probably only a matter of time before restaurants started playing with them, despite the legal ambiguity involved.
The chain also has new cocktails and a bunch of summertime specials.
In other pretty interesting menu news, White Castle has introduced a veggie burger, Captain D’s has shifted its white fish sourcing to Alaska pollock, and Burger King is adding to its Whopper by You program.
Although it’s just early June, the Independence Day promotions have started at restaurants such as Carvel and Quaker Steak & Lube. But Tender Greens is spending June with a celebration of its own — its 20th anniversary.
Baskin-Robbins is celebrating the World Cup with its Flavor of the Month, and Carvel has a soccer-themed ice cream cake.
Ramen has been gaining in popularity for a while, including cross-cultural variations such as birria ramen. And this week Canadian Mediterranean concept Tahini’s has launched shawarma ramen.
Bad Daddy’s Burger Bar’s burger of the month is called The Birdie — it’s made with brie and arugula salad, among other things, and according to the chain, “is designed to capture the relaxed feel of the 19th hole while delivering a balanced, flavor-forward build.”
Good luck to them.
Torchy’s Tacos’ Taco of the Month is a whole thing — fried chicken, Champagne vinaigrette slaw, gochujang teriyaki sauce, and more.
The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf is highlighting its espresso with a new permanent line of Americanos. Black Sheep Coffee has a new matcha cold foam, Dunkin’ has a whole line of Barbie-themed pink drinks, Peet’s Coffee has new energy drinks as well as new protein drinks, and Philz Coffee has new flavored cold brew.
Good Times has a jalapeño popper burger, Mendocino Farms is bringing back some summertime specials in what it’s calling the “Adventure Tastes Like This” collection, Papa Gino’s has a stuffed crust with a charitable component, and Velvet Taco’s Weekly Taco Feature is made with grilled salmon with Mediterranean flavors.
Contact Bret Thorn at [email protected]
Follow him on TikTok and Instagram: @foodwriterdiary
About the Author
Bret Thorn
Senior Food Editor, Nation's Restaurant News
Senior Food & Beverage Editor
Bret Thorn is senior food & beverage editor of Nation’s Restaurant News and Restaurant Hospitality.
Hi is responsible for spotting and reporting on F&B trends across the country for both publications.
He is the co-host of a podcast, Menu Talk with Pat and Bret, 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
TikTok: @foodwriterdiary
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