Ranch Pop Rocks, Garden Cocktails and Pumpkin Everything

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.

Opportunity Knocks I: Betting the Ranch

Following this summer’s FIFA World Cup playoffs, ranch dressing proved a powerful unifying force of international amity that has so far eluded those in the political sphere. In addition to capturing the fancy of thousands of visiting soccer fans, it caused major headaches at TSA airport checkpoints and led to the following plea on the agency’s X account: “If you’re visiting for a very large sporting event and you happen to discover RANCH while you’re here, pls. place it in your CHECKED BAG.”

It’s tough to criticize ranch-happy tourists for their infatuation with the dressing that has ranked as Americans’ No. 1 favorite since the early 1990s. Created at Hidden Valley Ranch outside Santa Barbara, Calif., the buttermilk-and-herb combo was an instant hit with consumers. A foodservice staple for decades, it has given rise to second-gen favorites with the addition of Buffalo and bacon, separately and together. It is broadly compatible with flavor-forward ingredients like Chipotle’s spicy-smoky Adobo Ranch Dressing, and it also plays nicely with less assertive ingredients like Long John Silver’s Ranch with Old Bay Seasoning—the limited-time item combined two perennial favorites in an appropriately seafood-friendly condiment.

Reflecting both its unexpected FIFA fandom and its long-running homegrown appeal, the recent past has seen a flurry of operator innovation around the product. Chicken wing specialist Wingstop unleashed a limited-time, 32-ounce Big A$$ Ranch Cup: a stainless-steel collectible container filled with the brand’s housemade ranch and pitched to “those who like their ranch with a side of wings.” The promotion took advantage of the product’s popular secondary use as a dip.

Buffalo Wild Wings made an unexpected textural play with the promotional Poppin’ Ranch. The ranch-flavored Pop Rocks–like candy, which could be sprinkled on wings or other items or mixed into ranch dressing, covered multiple sensory bases with its audible pop of flavor and fizzy mouthfeel.

Habit Burger & Grill went way outside the box, literally, in May with the Habit Ranch promotion, a dude ranch for ranch-loving dudes and the brand’s loyalty members near Joshua Tree, Calif. It lured influencers through attractions like a saloon with ranch dressing on tap, custom merch including a branded ranch flask and a ranch holster, and even a wedding chapel where superfans already united in their love of ranch could be united in the bonds of matrimony.

Inevitably, liquid versions have appeared, too, like Old Ranch Hand, a cream ale with 5 percent ABV that soothed sun-burned attendees of the Minnesota State Fair. And on the nonalcoholic side, the limited-time Ranch Milkshake at Great Wolf Lodge, a family water park with more than 20 locations, mixed the dressing with vanilla ice cream topped with popcorn chicken, fresh carrots and celery for salt and crunch.

Opportunity Knocks II: Gardening in a Glass

Credit: Sandy Noto for Valedor

Newly opened Valedor showcases vegetal flavor and bold color in its Beats “N” Y’gurt—a lassi-like beverage featuring beet juice and powder.

Moving beyond the venerable Bloody Mary, which often sports a veritable vegetable patch garnish, chefs and bartenders of late have been busily raiding the greenhouse for a cornucopia of veggies that add both flavor and color to their cocktail offerings. Kiko, an elegant Asian concept in New York City, pours a signature Kiko Martini with unexpected additions of sake and sea lettuce, while its Sunchoke Old Fashioned combines the titular tuber with Calvados, miso and rye.

RPM Italian features an Heirloom Tomato Martini at its three locations, each of which boasts locally sourced tomatoes. Scratch & Co. in Pittsburgh offered a summer special Radish Spirit cocktail made with Scandinavian aquavit and vermouth, watermelon radish and tarragon, while the current menu lists a Garden Collins with lime and cucumber.

Technically a fruit, crisp cucumber is widely used in cocktails. The gin-based Radish Highball at San Francisco’s Golden Rule incorporates cucumber, daikon and umami salt to deliver “white kimchi in a glass.” California Pizza Kitchen delivered a different experience this summer with Spiked Cucumber made with vodka, rum or gin and shaken with freshly puréed pineapple and cucumber; and The Cheesecake Factory gives the cuke star billing in the Fresh Cucumber Martini, a favorite that mixes gin, vodka, elderflower liqueur and freshly muddled cucumber.

Kabin is an elevated neighborhood bar that brings a Nordic taste to New York City. The drinks list invites patrons to Touch Grass through a mix of gin and vermouth that’s spiked with herbaceous Empirical Cilantro spirit; pápalo, a peppery South American herb; Italicus, a bergamot-inflected liqueur; and dandelion greens. The Stranger Things cocktail menu at Chicago’s newly opened Valedor includes the offbeat Beats “N” Y’gurt, which combines citrus vodka, orange shrub and pistachio orgeat with yogurt, beet juice and beet powder.

Nibbles & Bits

Credit: Panera

Lasagna soup may not be a “new” concept, but social media has sparked fresh demand, prompting operators like Panera Bread to unveil their own signature takes.

Reflecting the steadily growing impact of social media on food trends, the Wall Street Journal noted recently that pickle-flavored snacks have racked up sales to the tune of a 30 percent increase over the prior year. Cited as one of the drivers: pop star Dua Lipa, who added pickle juice to her Diet Coke, posted the results and propagated pickle popularity and engagement across segments. Jimmy John’s, for example, currently courts pickle pickers with new Swicy Jimmy Pickle Bites, sweet-and-spicy sliced pickles in a humongous 48-oz. collectible bucket. 

Another example of crossover from social media to restaurant menus is lasagna soup, a TikTok phenomenon that has generated an estimated 300 million views. The tomato-based soup with broken lasagna noodles isn’t new—restaurant menus have featured it since the early 1990s—but social media gave it a second wind and restaurants responded. Newk’s Eatery offers Lasagna Soup with savory beef and Mafalda ribbon pasta as a limited-time offer for fall, and Panera Bread features a new Three Cheese Lasagna Soup as a seasonal LTO. The three cheeses in the title are Parmesan, ricotta and Asiago.

Finally, with the annual pumpkin-spice free-for-all in full swing, operators are broadening their use of the time-tested combo of cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg, with a whisper of cloves and allspice. The Pumpkin Crunch Waffle at Another Broken Egg puts toasted graham cracker crumbs in the batter and cinnamon butter over the top. There’s a Happy Pumpkin Acai Bowl at Playa Bowls, topped with granola and bananas and finished with pumpkin-butter drizzle, and Pumpkin Pie Mini Churros that are dusted with cinnamon sugar at El Pollo Loco. And Bellagreen takes an intriguing turn to the savory side with the promotional Pumpkin Beef Chili that is actually simmered with pumpkin purée and the requisite warm spices.