Before the pandemic, Firehouse Subs fans enjoyed its Hot Sauce Bar, lined with a dozen or more ways to spice up their sandwiches. Those bars were taken down in March of 2020 for obvious reasons, but now they’re back!
The timing’s certainly right: Sauces are in, especially spicy ones. This week we have new sauces from Taco Bell and Pollo Campero.
Dave's Hot Chicken doesn’t have a new sauce, but it did make its hottest sauce even hotter.
Does pimento cheese count as a sauce? Probably not, but Chick-fil-A has it now, at any rate, and is offering it as a side, and Qdoba has a new spicier queso. Along similar lines, sort of, Buddy's Bar-b-Q now has mac & cheese.
Halloween’s approaching, and you’ll see plenty of appropriately themed items next week. But for now, Sonic has a new green apple drink — apples being super-duper trendy this fall — with salted caramel boba that you could imagine are eyeballs if you wanted to.
Oh, and Carl’s Jr. has some new Ghost Burgers, which are both spicy and seasonally thematic.
Chick N Max has a new bowl with mashed potatoes and chicken, Chill-N Nitrogen Ice Cream is observing Hispanic Heritage Month, which for complex reasons is Sept. 15-Oct. 15, with appropriately themed flavors, and there are new shakes at Beef-A-Roo.
Cheddar’s Scratch Kitchen has a new cocktail, Chopped Leaf has new branded items that it’s folding into kids menus, and there are new seasonal menus from Dig and Matchbox.
O’Charley’s also has a bunch of new items, including many “value inspired plates,” or V.I.P.s.
Miguel’s Jr. has new breakfast items, Round Table Pizza has a trio of new sides, and Frutta Bowls has new coffee items with the help of La Colombe.
Frank Pepe Pizzeria Napoletana has a four-cheese pie, Jet’s Pizza has a big new cookie, Taco John’s has new soft-shell tacos, and Taco Cabana has new chipotle-lime chicken.
HTeaO has a new peach cobbler iced tea, which probably makes sense in its home state of Texas, Jeremiah’s Italian Ice has a pumpkin item, which makes sense everywhere, Honeygrow is repurposing its Sriracha tahini sauce, and Velvet Taco’s Weekly Taco Feature has Guinness stout and a smash burger in it.
Contact Bret Thorn at [email protected]
