Candy- and cookie-inspired menu items are trending at several restaurant chains, with nostalgic branded sweets showing up in beverages and desserts. In other news, variations on ranch dressing keep on coming, and there’s no end in sight for pumpkin rollouts. Pizza, breakfast, and coffee categories are also seeing menu activity this week.
Sweet-tart Nerds lend flavor and crunch to a limited-time milkshake at Zaxbys. The Nerds Strawberry Milkshake blends the chicken chain’s creamy strawberry milkshake base with Original Nerds candies, then the treat is topped with whipped cream, Nerds Gummy Clusters, Rainbow Nerds, and a maraschino cherry. The pink-tinted shake launches Monday after a successful test in select markets.
Sour Patch Kids are flavoring a new candy-inspired drink at Scooter’s Coffee. Sour Patch Kids Lemonadefeatures Sour Patch Kids Redberry flavor topped with whipped cream and Sour Patch Kids candies. The lemonade is available iced or blended with ice. Candy-loving grownups may want to order one, too.
Scooter's Sour Patch Kids-inspired lemonade.
Nutter Butter Minis are the featured treat in Cici’s latest dessert. The chain’s Fudge Brownie with Nutter Butter Cookies bakes Nutter Butter Mini cookies right into the rich, fudge brownie batter. The brownies are then frosted with peanut butter icing. The result is a nostalgic chocolate-and-peanut-butter dessert with a sweet-and-salty twist, available on Cici’s buffet for a limited time.
Cookie butter is sweetening a coffee drink at Dutch Bros. Literally called Cookie Butter, the latte has a cookie butter flavor and a cookie butter swirl around the cup; it’s topped with cold foam and a cookie butter drizzle. It's also available as a freeze or chai. Caramel Pumpkin Brûlée is returning to the menu, a coffee with pumpkin and salted caramel topped with cold foam and raw sugar sprinkles. The Autumn Berry energy drink rounds out the new items.
The shmears at Einstein Bros. Bagels are also getting the sweet treatment. Making their debut is a Pumpkin Bagel & Pumpkin Shmear, a Pumpkin Crunch Pull-Apart Bagel & Shmear, and a Cinnamon Sugar Pull-Apart Bagel with a honey almond shmear. To sip, there’s Crème Brûlée Iced Coffee.
On the savory side are ranch variations, starting with Donatos Pizza. The chain revamped its ranch recipe, preparing it fresh in-house now with real buttermilk for a richer flavor and serving it in dipping cups instead of packets. Guests can try it on two new pizzas: Chicken Bacon Ranch, a pie that’s finished with a drizzle of ranch, and Buffalo Chicken Dip, a pizza layered with spicy boneless chicken wings, jalapeños, Gorgonzola crumbles, and a Mariachi spice mix over Alfredo sauce and shredded provolone, then finished with a mild wing sauce drizzle; a portion of new ranch is served on the side. To introduce guests to the upgrade, Donatos is offering a free Ranch sample with every large pizza ordered, for a limited time.
Donatos upgrades its ranch and pairs it as a dip with pizza.
Ranch with Old Bay seasoning is making news at Long John Silver’s. It goes particularly well with the new Fried Pickles, which are freshly battered in restaurants with the same signature batter used on the chain’s Alaska Pollock. The ranch was developed in collaboration with McCormick & Company, producers of Old Bay, and ties into LJS’s seafood legacy.
Pumpkin has arrived at Benihana, not a flavor traditionally seen on a Japanese-style menu. But the restaurant chain is jumping into the ubiquitous fall ingredient with Lobster and Pumpkin Fried Rice and Lobster and Shrimp Gyoza wrapped in pumpkin gyoza skin. For dessert, there’s pumpkin pie with cinnamon crumble, and at the bar, a Pumpkin Spice Margarita (tequila, lime, pumpkin purée, and pumpkin spice) and Sunset Spice Mai Tai with rum, pumpkin, and citrus.
Pumpkin infuses an array of boba teas at Gong cha. The lineup includes Pumpkin Brown Sugar Milk Tea with Marshmallow Foam & Pearls flavored with pumpkin spice and brown sugar boba, Iced Pumpkin Spice Milk Tea with Milk Foam & Pearls, a Pumpkin Spice Smoothie with Milk Foam, and Hot Pumpkin Spice Milk Tea with Milk Foam.
Meanwhile, Sonic Drive-In is leaning into banana with four new items. The Banana Pudding Shake combines banana pudding-flavored soft serve with vanilla wafer crumbles, crowned with whipped topping and a cherry, while the Banana Pudding Blast offers the same combo topped with vanilla wafer cookie crumbles. There’s also a Banana Pudding Cream Slush made with vanilla soft serve blended with banana pudding flavor and ice, and a Banana Dirty Dr Pepper.
No pumpkin or banana at Fogo de Chão, but there are menu introductions that say “fall” nonetheless. Beet Hummus, Sweet Potato & Apple Salad, Rainbow Carrot Crudités, Crispy Chickpea & Kale Salad, and Whipped Feta are all additions to the signature all-you-can-eat Market Table. New on the main dinner menu is Branzino, butterflied, grilled, and served with yucca bites; Honey-Roasted Rainbow Carrots; and Potatoes Au Gratin.
Blaze Pizza ties its menu launches into the release of the movie “Practical Magic 2.” On offer are Mystic Margherita Pizza with tomato, mozzarella, basil, Parmesan, and an olive oil drizzle, along with Greenhouse Grecian Salad and Midnight Margarita Lemonade. Young pizza fans can now order a personal pie sized for them — the 7-inch Kids Pizza comes with a choice of cheese, pepperoni, or up to three other toppings for $5.95.
There’s lots of menu action over at Mod Pizza, too. The fast casual introduced five new pies: The Carnivore (with sausage, bacon, ground beef, and pepperoni), Veg Out Pizza, MODgherita, Firebird (with Buffalo sauce, three cheeses, and chicken), and the Smoke Show Pizza topped with barbecue sauce. For dessert, there’s the CinnaMOD pizza with a buttery base, cinnamon sugar, salted caramel, and vanilla icing.
Fall hits the breakfast and brunch menu at Snooze Eatery.
Breakfast burritos, tacos, and Benedicts rolled out at Snooze Eatery for the fall season. Both the Crispy Breakfast Burrito and Smothered Breakfast Burrito are filled with scrambled eggs, hash browns, and black beans, but the former also includes melted cheeses griddled crisp in a flour tortilla, while the latter adds sautéed onions and poblanos to the mix, then wraps it all up in a flour tortilla. Lime crema, pico de gallo, jalapeño avocado salsa, and red and green chile add layers of flavor. Also in the lineup are Breakfast Tacos with similar fillings, a Smoked Salmon Benny on focaccia, Pumpkin Pecan Pie Pancakes, and Tiramisu French Toast.
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