Bites and Sips: Pop-Tarts Pop Up and Salads Size Up

Innovation is the lifeblood of menu development, with countless new items invigorating restaurant brands and energizing the industry as a whole. While many of these may not evolve into long-term trends with major-league status, they still represent valuable niche opportunities to perk up offerings and generate buzz. Each month, we’re serving up a platter of ideas that aim to create a connection with customers and deliver a promotional pop.

Summer Flavor Features I: Pop-Tarts Revisited

Pop-Tarts, the iconic toaster pastries that zoomed to popularity in the 1960s, got a public relations boost last year thanks to Netflix’s star-studded Unfrosted film, which told a fictional history of the product’s creation. Hollywood heavyweights notwithstanding, the film endured a critical drubbing that did nothing to dull consumer enthusiasm for the brand. Operators have responded with a range of items that address the appeal of “kidulting,” the ongoing trend of adults embracing childhood amusements.

This year kicked off with the limited-time collaboration between Krispy Kreme and Pop-Tarts. The brands’ Crazy Good Doughnuts Collection included Pop-Tarts Frosted Chocolatey Fudge Doughnuts and Pop-Tarts Frosted Brown Sugar Cinnamon Doughnuts. In May, Wendy’s stepped up with the Pop-Tarts Strawberry Frosty Fusion that fused the chain’s signature Frosty with strawberry syrup and crunchy Strawberry Pop-Tart pieces.

Late last year, Chip City Cookies promoted Strawberry Poppable Pop-Tart Cookies and Nothing Bundt Cakes offered a special Strawberry Pop-Tart Bundtlet. These joined an earlier limited offer from Crumbl Cookies that put crumbled Pop-Tarts over its Brown Sugar Cinnamon Cookie.

Local bakeries and specialists have exploited the item’s rediscovered cachet, too. The Minnesota Star Tribune recently featured “Three Places to Get a Pop-Tart Fix,” which extolled the iconic product’s many perks, like portability, versatility and convenience, while highlighting operations that take inspiration from it. For example, Edelweiss Bakery in Lake Prior, Minn., serves an elevated version that features all-butter pie crust cut into rectangular pastries and topped with jams, white icing and colorful sprinkles—just like a Pop-Tart but with a premium sheen.

Gluten-sensitive consumers are taken into consideration at Little Brown Bird Bakery, which has six stores in the Northeast. The gluten-free Toaster Pastry here tops the flaky crust with four filling options: cherry, raspberry, strawberry, and fig.

SUMMER FLAVOR FEATURES II: SHOW-STOPPING SALADS

Credit: Lazy Dog

At Lazy Dog, the Summer Market Salad celebrates seasonal produce while still providing a hearty meal.

The entrée salad rode the wave of California cuisine, reflecting a fresh and seasonal approach to dining that eschewed three hot squares a day in favor of lighter fare. Some 30 years later, main-dish salads continue to evolve, driven by the growth of salad-centric operations and solid salad innovation that keeps the category on trend. Chain chefs focus on textural enhancements and contrasts, like the Summer of Salads trio from Starbird. Here, the Avo Cabo Crunch and Sesame Ramen Crunch amp up the munch factor, while the Creamy Tzatziki Chop is crowned with creamy tzatziki and housemade Greek vinaigrette to soften it.

The addition of a little something extra is also a recurring theme. Lazy Dog’s Summer Market Salad combines seasonal produce like charred sweet white corn and toasted zucchini with homemade spring pea hummus and garlic Parmesan crisps. Panera Bread doubles down on dressing: The new Ranch Parm BLT Salad comes with both ranch and green goddess. California Pizza Kitchen, a salad OG in the casual-dining segment, serves up salads inspired by other parts of the menu. For example, the recently released Crispy Chinese Dumpling Salad deconstructs the popular appetizer with savory chicken dumplings served on a bed of greens and vegetables and finished with chile crisp for a flavor punch. Another newcomer, the Charcuterie Salad, reimagines the trendy snacking board on a bed of greens and includes cuts of ham and salami, Brie and Parmesan cheeses, green apple and walnuts—all served with toasted sesame crackers.

Earlier this year, The New York Times reported in a story headlined “Whole-Leaf Salads Serve Up Drama” that bigger, fancier salads that require steak knives to navigate are all the rage in many independent operations. Of course, showstopping salads are standard at The Cheesecake Factory, where photogenic towers of green like the Santa Fe Salad predated Instagram and TikTok by decades.

Summer Flavor Features III: Beer Sparklers

Summer beverages often emphasize fizzy fun: Think, spritzes and fruit-forward sparkling sodas. A relatively new ingredient on American bar menus is beer, which some operators have embraced to spruce up their summer offerings.

Buffalo Wild Wings is featuring a limited-time Mountain Dew Radler. German in origin, the radler combines beer with soda, juice or lemonade and is traditionally used to cool off summer cyclists. Similarly, the michelada is a cocktail that substitutes Mexican beer in place of vodka in a standard Bloody Mary build. Patrons at El Torito, the venerable Mexican dinner-house chain in California, are invited to make a Michelada with any of the ice-cold cervezas on the comprehensive list for an additional charge.

While radlers and micheladas have traditional roots, other beer-based quaffs are distinctly contemporary. Earlier this year, Iron Hill Brewery & Restaurant introduced Beer-Mosas that marry the signature Brambleberry Farmhouse Ale with orange juice and Micheladas made with Iron Hill Light Lager and the house-spiced Bloody Mary tomato mix. The latter is served in glasses with a totally trendy Tajín rim.

Independents are on board the beer train. In St. Paul, Minn., Emerald Lounge creates the Sprint Car Spritz that combines lager, red bitters and orange-spiced agricole, an artisanal rum made with sugarcane juice in place of molasses.

On a related note, Minnesota mainstay Lift Bridge Brewing Company in suburban Stillwater has concocted a Boozy Root Beer Float for the Minnesota State Fair that offers imbibers a cooling combo of nostalgia and fun that clocks in at 5 percent ABV. Parched fairgoers can also sample beer in soft-serve form from local Pryes Brewing Company. Soft Serve Royal Raspberry Beer promises “the flavor of juicy raspberry and subtle hints of passion fruit served in a cone.”