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: Flights of Fancy

Consumers like choice and they also like to try new things, both of which account for the long-running success of restaurant sampler platters. These offerings put the patron in charge and allow for controlled customization, and their enduring appeal has been underscored recently by the breakout performance of Chili’s Triple Dipper. The decades-old appetizer option took off like a rocket when it went viral on TikTok, where Gen Zers showed off their cheese-pulling prowess with the Fried Mozzarella and the new Nashville hot variation. That virality reportedly led to a doubling of Triple Dipper sales, and together with the soaring popularity of the equally customizable Pick 3 promotion, helped drive the chain’s record-breaking first-quarter sales.

Demand for small bites—and therefore low-lift/low-risk investments for operators—are creating opportunities across the menu. Yelp reports that wine-flight searches jumped about 400 percent last year, while martini-flight queries were up 162 percent. From the food perspective, interest in egg flights (featuring half-split hard-boiled eggs topped with a variety of ingredients) jumped 496 percent, while cookie flights saw a 384 percent bump.

Restaurateurs of all types are empowering customers to choose their own dining adventure. Snooze an A.M. Eatery offers a Signature Pancake Flight featuring Pineapple Upside Down, Cinnamon Roll and Strawberry Shortcake options, while Baskin-Robbins recently launched Flavor Flights. The indecisive ice cream lover can now indulge in four 2.5-ounce scoops of different flavors, each of which is topped with a bite of waffle cone and served in a travel-friendly container.

On the beverage side, Starbucks Reserve Roastery’s six locations have stepped up with curated samplers like Espresso Martini Flights and last year’s Roastery Affogato Flight promotion, which tapped into the growing interest around the Italian coffee-cum-dessert trend. A trio of delights featured Caramel Mocha Drizzle, Whiskey-Barrel Aged and Banana Crisp Oatmilk mini-sized affogatos.

And Twenty Three Grand, which dishes up modern American cuisine in New York City, recently announced a menu of Spritz Flights and Ice Cream Cocktail Flights. Meant to provide customers a cooldown on sizzling summer days, the former offers options like Cucumber-Pickle Collins Spritz, while the latter features Pistachio Espresso Gelato Martini among other hot-weather refreshers.

Opportunity Knocks II: In Living Color

Credit: Taco Bell | Dunkin’ | 16 Handles | Pizza Inn

Taco Bell and Dunkin’ are letting purple reign supreme with, respectively, an Ube Strawberry Cookie (top left) and a spider donut (top right). 16 Handles embraces its dark side in the Squid Ink Black Matcha Frozen Yogurt (bottom right), while Pizza Inn went spring yellow-and-green with its peep-adorned pie (bottom left).

The truism that we eat with our eyes has taken on real resonance in the era of social media. Color on the plate and in the glass has become an operator’s digital calling card and a reliable lure for ’Grammers and TikTokers looking to build their followings. The barn-burning success of the Barbie film in 2023 encouraged operators to think pink with rosy-hued drinks, desserts and donuts that harkened to the movie and sent social platforms into swoons.

The menu color cycle of the moment features attention-grabbing neons, like the electric green and sunny yellows of Pizza Inn’s promotional Peeps Pizzert. The dessert pie celebrated springtime and Easter with 10 Peeps atop colored sugar crystals and a bed of Bavarian cream.

A bona fide O.G. of vibrant quaffs, Sonic Drive-In has a long history of putting color in the cup, and the current fiery-red Strawberry Mangonada Slush and bright-green Limeade Slush join long-running favorites like Ocean Water that gets its watery hue from blue-colored coconut syrup.

Purple has been having a menu moment, too, thanks to the rising popularity of lavender-accented items, growing crossover of ube and the unmitigated success of the Grimace birthday promotion from McDonald’s two years ago. A violet haze is also settling over menus at Taco Bell, which announced the upcoming addition of Purple Chile Sauce and an Ube Strawberry Cookie. Snooze uses trendy butterfly pea flower, which turns violet when acid is added, in the new Butterfly Lemonade. And Dunkin’ celebrated last Halloween with a Potion Macchiato enhanced by purple marshmallow-ube flavor and a bright-purple spider donut.

Edgy and eye-catching, black really pushes the culinary visual envelope. Charcoal had a moment a while back, boosted by its presumed health benefits and shading everything from coffee to darkened burger buns. Squid ink, which has a history of blackening pasta, is turning up in unexpected applications. At Michelin-recommended New Heights Restaurant in D.C., the premium ingredient lent a smoky tone to the Spooky Squid Ink Martini on offer last autumn. Around that same time, 16 Handles offered a dark twist to its existing matcha flavor in anticipation of the return of the popular “Squid Games” series on Netflix. The Squid Ink Black Matcha Frozen Yogurt and corresponding “Black Tongue Challenge” highlighted the dessert’s dye effect.

Opportunity Knocks III: Cheesy Cocktails

Credit: La Zozzona | Nicole Duncan

The Vodka Zozzona (left) and Garden of Eden (right) incorporate cheese in a measured way, with the former fat-washing the spirit in mozzarella and the latter tapping clarified Greek yogurt.

Dairy has an easy affinity for spirits like brandy or bourbon and a long-running history with alcoholic beverages. Milk punches, nogs and syllabubs date back centuries, though contemporary American versions trace their history to New Orleans in the mid-1940s, when Brennan’s Restaurant popularized milk punch as a breakfast libation. Cream-based cocktails like the brandy Alexander and grasshopper, which both achieved roaring success during the roaring ’20s, are enjoying a second wind as part of the vintage cocktail trend.

Now, some contemporary mixologists are pushing the dairy envelope further. At La Zozzona in Scottsdale, Ariz., the special Vodka Zozzona uses vodka that is fat-washed with mozzarella cheese, a technique that imparts a savory mouthfeel when combined with pomelo and onion juices. Similarly, speakeasy-styled Sous Terre in Raleigh, N.C., recently introduced the spring-fresh Garden of Eden, with cucumber vodka, tzatziki shrub, seltzer and clarified Greek yogurt for an herbaceous sip with a slightly creamy texture.

In Chicago, the old-line Italian Village, a venerable downtown temple to Italian cuisine, got a new-age glow-up with the opening of Bar Sotto in its basement space. On the menu is the Reggiano, a take on the popular espresso martini made with Parmesan-infused vodka, which adds salinity to the coffee liqueur and espresso.

Across town, the Four Seasons Hotel Chicago began a special residency program last fall in conjunction with Mexico City’s Handshake Speakeasy, which ranks No. 1 atop the list of the World’s 50 Best Bars. The menu features an eclectic mix of sweet and savory, as with the Cariño, which combines rum with yellow Chartreuse and Greek yogurt, and the Butter Mushroom Old Fashioned, which adds brown butter, mushroom, maple and walnut to the bourbon classic. Originally slated for a four-month run, the pop-up has proved popular enough to extend its stay into June.

In Northern Virginia, two-location Thompson Italian is a family-friendly restaurant with a killer cocktail menu that features a best-selling liquid version of a current food favorite. The Cacio e Pepe Gimlet infuses vodka with Parmigiano-Reggiano and tops it with a pretty sprinkle of pink peppercorn dust. The result: a drinkable “pasta” that’s as memorable as it is innovative.