One pretty easy way to change up the menu without over-taxing operators or your product development team is to bring back items that did well in the past. That’s what KFC is doing with its mac & cheese bowl, what Potbelly is doing with its Gyro Flat and Bartaco is doing with its lobster taco and summertime cocktails. Native Foods is bringing back its popular Munchwrap Supreme, but the vegan restaurant is adding a bunch of brand new items, too.
Other chains are bringing in popular ready-to-drink items, like the Intelligentsia coffee at Piada Italian Street Food and the Tractor beverages at Zoup!
In a similar vein, Pieology is selling David’s Lemon Blueberry Cookies, and Marco’s Pizza is using Caulipower’s pizza crust to appeal to customers avoiding carbs or gluten.
Crumbl Cookies has a new item inspired by and made with Strawberry Pop-Tarts, Main Event is spinning Tiff’s Treats cookies into milkshakes, and Bennigan’s is using Johnsonville’s chorizo sausage strips for some new items.
BJ’s Restaurant teamed up with New Belgium Brewing Co., to make a beer made with dragon fruit, and Tim Hortons, apparently determining that some of its customers want more of a caffeine boost than their coffee is providing, is serving drinks with Red Bull.
TooJay’s Deli is offering sandwiches that come from chef and TV personality Eric Greenspan’s cookbook “The Great Grilled Cheese Book: Grown-Up Recipes for a Childhood Classic.”
Bar Louie has new tropical-themed items, Baja Fresh has new items based on tacos al pastor, for which pork is rotisserie-grilled under a pineapple, and Fuzzy’s Taco Shop’s new Piña Carnitas Taco seems to be similarly inspired.
Watermelon remains the trendy fruit of the summer and is found in new items at California Pizza Kitchen and Chart House, among other places, while strawberries star in MOD Pizza’s seasonal salad.
Boston has new rotisserie-grilled chicken nuggets, Hooters has a new hot sauce (its spiciest yet, by a lot), and It’s Just Wings has a new fry sauce.
Philly’s Best has a Nashville hot chicken cheesesteak, and Hopdoddy has a chicken-and-waffle “burger,” sort of.
PJ’s Coffee is drawing on its New Orleans roots for its new praline items
Quiznos has a whole new lineup of menu items, but they’re currently only at its new restaurant in Hobbs, N.M.
TGI Fridays has new fajitas and some summer cocktails,
Perkins has new pancakes and waffles, Pokeworks is using surimi, Studio Movie Grill has new, or in many cases newly named, items inspired by the film Where the Crawdads Sing, in theaters on July 15, and Velvet Taco’s Weekly Taco Feature has steak and chimichurri.