Hosts Pat Cobe, senior menu editor of Restaurant Business, and Bret Thorn, senior food & beverage editor of Nation’s Restaurant News and Restaurant Hospitality, had a busy week going to chain restaurants’ promotional events in New York City.
Pat had high tea featuring Portillo’s menu items, and Bret went to a preview of the first United States location of Chinese chain Pull-Tab Coffee, whose signature menu item is a sort of reversed iced cappuccino: Coffee foam on top of milk on the rocks.
He also went to Bar Tender, a two-day pop-up in Brooklyn created by Wingstop, featuring the chain’s upgraded, crunchier chicken tenders in 12 different flavors (he didn’t try them all, but he did his best).
They also discussed other menu rollouts, including a wholesale brunch revamp at La Madeleine, featuring wine-based cocktails that Pat found especially intriguing, and the new seasonal lineup at Lazy Dog Restaurant & Bar, which includes a Loco Moco Fried Rice, based on the Hawaiian breakfast staple, and new versions of the chain’s TV Dinners — frozen take-and-bake meals in compartmentalized trays that the chain introduced during the pandemic and that have proved to be popular enough to have earned their place on the menu.
They also discussed the big chain news of Wendy’s new Frosty options. They can now be blended with syrups, and starting in May there will be mix-ins available — like Dairy Queen Blizzards.
Also big news: McDonald’s has upgraded its lemonade, doing away with Minute Maid (although its orange juice is still in stock), and replacing it with a beverage of lemon juice, lemon pulp and sugar.
Then Bret shared an interview with Juan and Gee Smalls, the owners of three-unit Virgil’s Gullah Kitchen & Bar in Atlanta, featuring the food of the Gullah and Geechee people of the coastal areas from North Carolina to Georgia. They’re first-time restaurateurs, motivated by what they saw as a need for venues owned and operated by Black gay people. The couple discuss their learning process and plans for the future.
Menu Talk is a collaboration between Restaurant Business Senior Menu Editor Pat Cobe and Bret Thorn, senior food & beverage editor of Nation’s Restaurant News and Restaurant Hospitality. You can subscribe to it wherever you listen to podcasts.
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