Carvel’s updated Carvelanche somes with a variety of mix-ins. | Photos courtesy of the brands
Memorial Day Weekend is right around the corner, what many consider the “unofficial” start of summer. Restaurants are not wasting any time getting summery food and drinks in front of guests. Beachy seafood sandwiches, broth-less ramen, ice cream treats and even a menu celebrating soccer’s World Cup tournament are rolling out this week. And there are plenty of cold drinks—including those ubiquitous refreshers—to beat the heat that’s sure to come.
Summer eats
The Carvelanche is back at Carvel, returning with a bit of a makeover. The signature soft serve blended treat has richer flavor, a smoother texture and fully integrated mix-ins. Plus fans can customize the Carvelanche with any soft serve flavor and any topping available, including Carvel crunchies, peanut butter cup pieces, Oreo cookies and M&M candies.
Andy’s Frozen Custard is going all in on summer with blueberries. On offer is a Blueberry Cobbler Sundae featuring vanilla frozen custard topped with blueberries and cobbler crumble, and a Blueberry Cobbler Concrete, a blend of blueberries with vanilla frozen custard and the same crumble topping. Grandma Elaine’s Strawberry Shortcake Sundae gives customers a taste of another summer berry.
Soft shell crab season at Gott’s Roadside
Soft shell crabs are in season for a short window and Gott’s Roadside is making the most of them in a summer sandwich, available through July 1. The Crispy Soft Shell Crab Sandwich is filled with a soft shell crab dipped in buttermilk, dredged and fried crisp; it’s topped with cabbage-cilantro slaw and house-made lemon mayo on a toasted egg bun. Morello cherries are another early summer treasure, and Gott’s serves them up in a Cherry Cobbler Parfait layered with vanilla soft serve, cherry compote and pecan crunch. Street Corn made with grilled sweet corn topped with mayo, Cotija cheese, asado seasoning and lime completes the limited-time menu.
Kura Sushi’s broth-less ramen
Ramen is not something usually associated with summer, but Kura Sushi is doing a variation minus the hot soup. Tonkotsu Mazemen is a broth-less ramen featuring the traditional ramen noodles with braised chashu pork, fried chicken, ajitama (soft-boiled egg marinated in soy sauce), scallions, fried red onions, tempura flakes and tonkotsu sauce. Noodles & Company reintroduced its take on mazemen called Chili Garlic Ramen. The broth-less dish of ramen noodles and seasonings first appeared as a limited-time offer last year and was a big enough hit to make a return appearance.
The World Cup, professional soccer’s biggest event, is coming to North America next month and TGI Friday’s is celebrating with the launch of Friday’s United, a dedicated menu designed for social viewing. Included in the lineup are shareables like Matchday Bites (Wing Bites, Chicken Finger Bites, Slider Bites and new Korean Rib Bites) and Matchday Platters with themed items such as Loud & Loaded Nachos and Captain’s Platter with crispy cod, fried shrimp and fries. On the drinks side, there’s a Red Card Margarita and Yellow Card Margarita, both made with tequila and Red Bull, a Goooal Shooter of vodka, triple sec and lemon and an alcohol-free Mock-Arita. To amp up the celebration, Friday’s is getting guests into the action with an interactive digital soccer game.
Celebrating the World Cup at TGI Fridays
Smoothie King is getting into the summer spirit with a new pickle smoothie. The Smoothie King x Grillo’s Pickles Smoothie is a blend of the branded pickles with bananas, kale and coconut water. The summery flavor of watermelon is also prominent on the chain’s menu, showing up in five items: Hydration Watermelon, Watermelon X-treme, The Activator Recovery Watermelon, Gut Health Watermelon and Power Meal Slim Watermelon. All are based on a watermelon juice blend.
Launching this week from The Original ChopShop is the Sunny Honey Protein Shake. The health-forward shake is a blend of tropical fruit, citrus and honey.
Summer sips
Tropical fruit flavors continue to trend at beverage concepts. Starbucks debuted its summer menu on May 12, introducing a new refresher and a couple of horchata-inspired beverages to the mix. The Tropical Butterfly Refresher is a combo of guava and passion fruit flavors with mango-pineapple flavored pearls. A splash of plant-based butterfly pea flower turns the beverage pastel shades of blue and pink. This refresher can be customized with lemonade or coconut milk. There’s also an Horchata Frappuccino and an Iced Horchata Shaken Espresso. Both are enhanced with creamy Mexican-style horchata flavors.
Starbucks’ refreshers with color-changing butterfly pea flower
The beverage selection is seeing a lot of activity at Carl’s Jr. starting now and running through Sept. 1. The Triple Berry Frozen Drink is a blend of strawberry, raspberry and blackberry flavors with ice, while Triple Berry Lemonade features the same berry trio with a lemonade base. Also on offer is a Triple Berry Milkshake with the strawberry, raspberry and blackberry flavor combo.
Sparkling water is the base for three summer quenchers at Clean Juice. The Cucumber Ginger-Aid Sparkler mixes the water with apple juice, ginger juice, cucumber juice and cucumber slices, while the Blue Citrus Sparkler combines it with pineapple juice, lemon juice, apple juice, blue spirulina and blueberries. Rounding out the collection is the Pineapple Mango Citrus Sparkler with pineapple juice, lemon juice, orange juice, turmeric and mango.
Summer chicken
Chicken is a protein star year ‘round, but two summer standouts are on a pizza and in a sandwich. Taco Bell marries its wildly popular Mexican Pizza with another fan favorite—Cantina Chicken—for the new Cantina Chicken Mexican Pizza. It features slow-roasted Cantina Chicken, black beans, green chile sauce, and a three-cheese blend layered between crispy tortilla shells and topped with shredded purple cabbage and pico de gallo. Guests can order it with a packet of the new Jalapeño Citrus Salsa, a mix of citrus, red jalapeño peppers and guajillo chiles.
The Chicken Caesar Salade Stuffed Croissant at La Madeleine
Inspired by the viral croissant sandwich trend on social feeds, La Madeleine introduced a limited-time Chicken Caesar Salade Stuffed Croissant. The chain’s signature flaky croissant is filled with chicken Caesar salad and can be paired with an optional tomato basil soup for dipping. Guests were putting the sandwich together on their own, stuffing the salad into the croissant, so the launch makes it easy to order.
See what else is trending in chains this week on Menu Tracker.
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