Part of the nature of fast food is that the menus change constantly, and it's not uncommon
for discontinued items to suddenly develop intense fan followings once they are no longer
available. Here are some discontinued fast food items that have made major comebacks
over the years.
If you are a child of the '90s who grew up on a steady diet of sugar-laden fast food,
you might've been obsessed with Burger King's original Cini Minis. Cini Minis are exactly
what they sound like: a four-pack of miniature cinnamon rolls, complete with a sidecar of
frosting that was more or less a straight shot of sugar. This dessert-for-breakfast
was initially released in 1998, a time when, according to a Burger King press release,
one-third of consumers ate breakfast in their cars. The original Cini Minis were developed
exclusively for Burger King by Pillsbury and baked fresh daily at participating stores.
In a 1998 commercial, which featured Minnie Riperton crooning about just how swoon-worthy
these little morsels were, Burger King advertised Cini Minis as being the best part of a cinnamon
bun, where you get pure cinnamon swirl encased in light, fluffy dough smothered in frosting.
They weren't wrong.
After Cini Minis were discontinued in the early 2000s, fans began begging Burger King
to bring them back. In 2018, their wishes finally came true. The product was re-released
in partnership with GrubHub, and customers could opt to receive a free box of Cini Minis
if they ordered at least $10 worth of delivery. Sadly, they were only available for a limited
time, and they've not been available since 2018.
"It's more than a salad, it's a meal!" proclaimed a 1982 television spot promoting Wendy's Taco
Salad… a commercial, we might add, that did not age well. The original Wendy's Taco
Salad was little more than an elaborate alternative vehicle for the chain's signature chili, which
was poured over a bed of lettuce, chopped tomato, and shredded cheese couched in crunchy
taco shells.
The popular offering was discontinued by the chain in 2010, so by the time it was reintroduced
as part of a National Taco Day promotion in 2016, there were die-hard fans old enough
to have kids who had never tried it.
Wendy's VP of Brand Marketing at the time Carl Loredo had this to say in advance of
the re-release.
"We love how nostalgic and passionate our loyal Taco Salad fans are and look forward
to introducing it to a new generation of fans with the same build and quality ingredients."
If you want to try it for yourself, you just have to visit your nearest Wendy's it's still
on the menu.
What's a P'zone? Watching any of the original fast food television ads for, quote, "the
pizza you eat like a sandwich" will provide you with a lengthy explanation, but it's essentially
a twelve-inch pizza folded in half. It gained a particularly enthusiastic cult following.
The P'zone was briefly retired before being relaunched for a limited time in 2007 as part
of a campaign with professional eater Takeru "The Tsunami" Kobayashi, according to a press
release. The PR stunt included an actual "P'Zone Chow-lenge," where the winner received a golden
P'zone. Shortly after, it was discontinued again, then briefly brought back in 2011.
Pizza Hut put a massive marketing effort behind another relaunch in 2019, and teased out the
re-release on social media with the tagline, "A Legend Returns" before re-launching the
P'zone as part of a $5 menu lineup meant to compete with the value combos offered by rival
Domino's. The P'zone hung around.
Without warning or explanation, Wendy's quietly pulled its Spicy Chicken Nuggets off of menus
in 2017. Fans were devastated, and a Change.org petition calling for their reinstatement eventually
garnered over 10,000 signatures.
In May 2019, Chance the Rapper started his day by tweeting some positive affirmations,
including his hope that Wendy's would finally bring back his beloved spicy nuggets. The
Wendy's marketing team jumped on the chance and responded by challenging fans to get at
least two million likes on one of their pinned tweets. After less than two days, fans had
risen to the challenge, and Wendy's continued to put promotional efforts behind the relaunch.
Who says the internet can't be used for good?
These fiery nuggets are still a staple on the Wendy's menu, and hopefully, the chain
won't take them from us again.
Any discussion of discontinued fast food must include McDonald's Szechuan Sauce, the condiment
that literally caused riots during a brief promotional re-release after it was featured
in an episode of the animated television show Rick and Morty.
McDonald's originally released its Szechuan sauce in 1998 as part of a limited-time promotion
for the release of Disney's Mulan. Commercials featured the sauce while simultaneously hyping
the newest Disney heroine as "a cool girl who saves China."
The McDonald's promotion ended, Mulan went on to gross over $300 million worldwide, and
the Szechuan sauce disappeared from the collective consciousness until 2017. The condiment was
featured in the Rick and Morty episode "The Rickshank Rickdemption," and fans went absolutely
insane. McDonald's sent a jug of the sauce to the show's creators, then released a special
edition of the sauce for a single day. When some fans couldn't get the sauce on October
7, 2017, their response shocked the nation, and McDonald's responded with a wider second
release.
The Szechuan sauce now exists primarily as an internet legend, although you can buy sealed
packets of sauce on eBay for anywhere from $34 to $3,000.
KFC put a ton of fast food marketing behind the original release of Chicken Littles, including
featuring an eye-catching bubblegum-pink Volkswagen convertible in the commercial. The sliders
were introduced in 1987, and at a 39-cent price point in a pre-dollar menu market, it
was hard to compete with them in terms of value. Fast forward to 2012, more than 20
years since the beloved little sandwich was first available for purchase. KFC replaced
its Chicken Littles with the KFC Snacker in 2005, and although stores were selling upwards
of 1,000 units per week upon release, it never achieved the cult status of its predecessor.
After phone calls, petitions, and fan pages, KFC brought back its classic slider. The brand
claimed that the updated version was even better than the original. Fans, however, strongly
disagreed. People wrote open letters asking KFC to bring back the real Chicken Little,
the one that tasted like it came out of an elementary school cafeteria. You can still
get the revamped version at most KFC locations across the US, but if you grew up on the '80s
version, it won't be the same.
In 1985, Hardee's launched its Original Roast Beef Sandwich with an advertising campaign
that called out other popular chains like McDonald's and Burger King for not having
roast beef sandwiches.
The story of how Hardee's started selling roast beef sandwiches in the first place is
often tied to the chain's relationship with Imasco, a Canadian company that acquired a
controlling interest in 1981. Imasco also owned popular roast beef restaurant Roy Rogers,
and the roast beef sandwich sold at Hardee's in the '80s and '90s was said to be based
on the Roy Rogers recipe.
"Howdy, roast beef sandwich."
The fast food sandwich disappeared for the most part sometime in the '90s before returning
to menus nation-wide in April 2019. The re-launch was heralded by an ad campaign with the slogan
"Save the Veggies," and as part of the promotion, Hardee's partnered with the American Community
Gardening Association to plant millions of vegetables across the country.
Hardee's still sells the classic roast beef sandwich under the name Big Roast Beef, and
it's also added the Monster Roast Beef to the lineup, which includes American cheese
and bacon but no veggies.
"Are we almost there? I'm starving…"
"Only 5 miles to a Hardee's big roast beef."
"Five miles….?!?!"
Taco Bell's original Beefy Crunch Burrito debuted in 2009. The new fast food burrito
featured seasoned beef, nacho cheese sauce, sour cream, seasoned rice, and spicy corn
chip bits to give it that signature crunch. For the next three years, it was one of the
chain's best sellers, but the restaurant announced that it would be removed from menus in 2011,
which is when the saga of the Beefy Crunch Burrito truly begins.
In April 2016, Taco Bell penned a thank you note to an official open letter to what had
become known as the Beefy Crunch Movement. The chain re-released the Beefy Crunch Burrito
alongside another cult favorite, the Cheesy Double Beef Burrito, as part of a dollar value
menu, and fans could finally get their burrito fix for a limited time. In 2017, Taco Bell
re-released the Beefy Crunch Burrito in yet another limited release. And according to
Business Insider, 2018 saw a similar re-release ... but only in 30 locations.
Unfortunately, you'll no longer find the Beefy Crunch Burrito on Taco Bell's menu. But diehard
fans can still hold out hope. With so many re-releases in the past, it's not unfathomable
that this favorite could come back for another limited-time run.
As the comeback commercial says, in the South, pimento cheese is practically its own food
group. If you aren't already aware of this Southern food staple, pimento cheese is a
peppery spread made from cheddar cheese mixed with chopped pimento, seasonings, and a host
of other ingredients, depending on who's making it.
North Carolina-based fast food chicken and biscuits chain Bojangles' first introduced
pimento cheese to its menu in July 2019 as a limited-time offering after successful testing
in Wilmington, North Carolina.
In 2020, the chain brought back its much-loved pimento cheese, adding a warm, velvety dipping
sauce in addition to the classic grated version. Customers could get it on just about any Bojangles'
menu item, and if that's not enough, they could also buy a family-sized 15-ounce tub
of straight pimento cheese. There was a major catch, though: the sauce and spread were only
available "while supplies last."
Krystal is a fast food slider-style burger concept restaurant that's only available in
nine states: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina,
and Tennessee.
Because its range is relatively small, the launch of its Country Fried Menu in 2016 really
spoke to its target demographic. The concept started with a Country Fried Steak Krystal
that was developed as part of a partnership with the National Cattlemen's Beef Association,
but the ideas kept coming.
The limited-time menu was released with several items, including the Country Fried Steak Krystal,
Country Fried Chik, Country Fried Chik Biscuit, and Country Fries, which were Krystal's standard
fries topped with gravy and crumbled bacon. After an enthusiastic customer response, the
chain brought Country Fried offerings back for a three-month period in 2017.
For now, the Country Fried Menu at Krystal is unavailable, but as the brand's former
VP of Marketing told PR Newswire,
"As a Southern company, we know and love Country-Fried food, and we've been thrilled at the enthusiastic
response to our Country-Fried menu."
Based on how closely the concept ties in with Krystal's Southern heritage, we wouldn't be
surprised to see Country Fried options on the menu again.
During the first eight weeks that the Wendy's Baconator was available, the chain sold 25
million sandwiches. The Baconator starts with a full half pound of fresh beef, which is
then topped off with six strips of applewood-smoked bacon, American cheese, mayo, and ketchup
to create a true heart attack waiting to happen. The fandom around the original Baconator has
spawned a slew of spin-offs including the smaller Son of Baconator, the Breakfast Baconator,
and of course, the Baconator Fries. Because everyone loves everything bacon, right?
"What do you call bacon the size of a dinosaur? Jurassic Pork."
According to PR Newswire, Baconator Fries were first introduced as a limited-time-only
fast food menu item in 2015. The brand was hoping to cash in on the fact that American
bacon sales were at an all-time high, so Wendy's took its classic french fries and topped them
with a warm cheese sauce and crumbled some applewood smoked bacon and shredded cheddar
cheese on top.
A year later, after a brief hiatus, QSR Magazine reported that the Baconator Fries were coming
back. The cheesy bacon fries have remained a permanent staple on the Wendy's menu since
2016, and in 2019, the chain even started giving away free orders of Baconator Fries
as part of a promotion meant to challenge rival McDonald's.
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