August has only just begun, but Wendy’s has already rolled out its plans for fall with the Pretzel Bacon Pub Cheeseburger, Pretzel Bacon Pub ChickenSandwich, Bacon Pub Fries and Apple Crumble Frosty Fusion.
“From the Pretzel Bacon Pub lineup to the Apple Crumble Frosty Fusion, this season’s menu is packed with the bold, elevated flavors fans are craving,” Wendy’s chief marketing officer Lindsay Radkoski said in the company’s announcement. “It’s the kind of menu inspiration you’d expect to find at your favorite neighborhood pub, now at Wendy’s.”
While was Wendy’s was busy declaring that it was fall, we were in the Outer Banks this past week. (I fully endorse The Beer Garden and Corolla Pizza in Corolla.) We stopped at a Wendy’s on the way home, which gave me the chance to try a few of these new menu items.
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The cost
I didn’t save my receipt, so there’s a chance the Wendy’s we stopped at had different pricing, but the Wendy’s website lists a Pretzel Bacon Pub Chicken Sandwich Combo at $10.89 and an Apple Crumble Frosty Fusion for between $4.19 and $5.49 depending on the size.
The pics
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If I was doing this taste test at home, I’d usually get one of each of the new menu items, but since we were making a quick lunch stop before continuing our drive, I chose to go with the Pretzel Bacon Pub Chicken Sandwich along with the Apple Crumble Frosty Fusion.
This isn’t the first time that the Pretzel Bacon Pub Cheeseburger has been available at Wendy’s. The burger, which features “Beer Cheese Sauce, Applewood-smoked Bacon, Smoky Honey Mustard, Crispy Onions, Pickles, and a slice of Muenster Cheese all on a soft, pretzel bun,” won the restaurant’s Bring It Back Bracket contest back in April. I’ve eaten the standard Pretzel Bacon Pub Cheeseburger on previous road trips, and it’s one of my favorite Wendy’s items.
But since the Pretzel Bacon Pub Chicken Sandwich was new, I went with that fella for my lunch on Saturday.
That was a mistake.
For the Pretzel Bacon Pub Chicken Sandwich, Wendy’s swaps out the classic square burger patty (or two ... or three ...) for a chicken filet. While the burger patties squish together with the beer cheese sauce and pretzel bun in a delicious way, the chicken filet refuses to cooperate with the toppings and bun. The bite isn’t fun. Everything slides around. It doesn’t even have the crunch that you get with the “reimagined” Spicy Chicken Sandwich.
The Apple Crumble Frosty Fusion is an OK entry into Frosty canon. I gotta give Wendy’s credit for going “beyond pumpkin spice,” but this Frosty Fusion flavor really didn’t connect for me. I could’ve used more spiced apple syrup and fewer oat crumbles. (Credit to the Wendy’s we stopped at somewhere in southern Virginia for doing a fantastic job really distributing that apple syrup, though.)
Unlike other limited-edition Frosty flavors, the Apple Crumble Frosty Fusion is only available with the vanilla Frosty base. I’m sure you could ask your local Wendy’s to use the chocolate base, but I don’t think these flavors would work together.
The Omnicosm founder. Snackology, Popculturology and The Cold Open writer. A Rochester, N.Y., native now living in the Washington, D.C., area. Won’t pass up a Genny Cream Ale.
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