Pretzels are popping up on menus everywhere

Food fads come and go. If you run a restaurant and are fast enough, it's possible to jump on this bandwagon and attract an audience before the next taste sensation comes along. So what's trending now? According to the menus of some of the world's most popular chain restaurants, the answer is pretzels. The dense and salty breads are showing up as bread for sandwiches and as rolls for burgers. According to the research firm Mintel, there were 60 new pretzel products released in the US in 2009 and 160 pretzel products released last year, which represents a significant increase. The pretzel roll is having its moment. Some examples include Wendy’s, a fast food burger chain that's offering a Pretzel Bacon Cheeseburger and a Pretzel Pub Chicken sandwich. 7-Eleven, a global convenience store, is selling the Diablo Chicken Ranch Sandwich on a pretzel bun. Dunkin’ Donuts offers a Pretzel Roll Roast Beef Sandwich, and Ruby Tuesday’s, a fast casual chain restaurant sells a whole slate of pretzel burgers. How long pretzel-mania lasts is anyone's guess, but ours is that it will have subsided by this time next year.