Menu Tracker: New items from Chick-fil-A, CAVA, and Krispy Kreme
Menu Tracker
Plus innovation at Benihana, Honeygrow, PopUp Bagels, Salad and Go, and more
July 24, 2026
Blueberries grow in much of the country, peaking, depending on where you are, between April (in the Southeast) and September (in the Northeast), but according to Krispy Kreme, based in Charlotte, N.C., the height of the season is RIGHT NOW!
On Thursday, it launched a special blueberry glazed doughnut, and it’s only available through Sunday.
Lou Malnati’s Pizzeria also has an extremely limited-time offer — a special pie made to honor the custom of the Maxwell Street Polish Sausage tradition of combining Vienna Beef with yellow mustard and sport peppers. Just available through July 30, and only in Chicagoland and Wisconsin, it is in celebration of Lou Malnati’s being the “official deep dish partner” of local professional soccer team Chicago Fire FC.
Those are both one type of LTO, the other is what Einstein Bros. Bagels is doing: offering one type of cream cheese very briefly and in just one location. This particular one is ranch flavored and it’s being served near a World Cup venue, acknowledging reports that visitors to the U.S. fell in love with the dressing.
There are also extreme LTOs at select CAVA and Chick-fil-A locations, but those are tests for new items.
There are new collabs this week, too. Korean fried chicken concept bb.q chicken has new cornflake-crusted fried chicken developed with K-pop star Felix of Stray Kids, PopUp Bagels has one with Natalie’s Juices (so if you were looking for tangerine flavored cream cheese, you’re in luck), Rita’s has new flavors named for TV shows you can watch on TBS, and Andy’s Frozen Custard has a flavor developed in collaboration with the drivers of its NASCAR team, Austin Dillon and Cole Custer.
Sister concepts Leann Chin and Pei Wei Asian Kitchen both have spicy honey mango chicken, Salad and Go has coconut drinks, Hot Head Burritos has citrus carnitas.
Philz Coffee has matcha, Honeygrow has strawberry specialties as well as a seasonal stir-fry, and Benihana is using luxe ingredients in gyoza and fried rice.
Curry Pizza House, an Indian pizza concept (yes, that’s a thing), has pasta now, Detroit Wing Company has brought back its Carolina Gold barbecue sauce, Nothing Bundt Cakes has brought back its lemon-raspberry option, and Velvet Taco’s Weekly Taco Feature is inspired by the Piña Colada.
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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