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Summer's up: Fast casuals featuring the season's hottest LTOs

With the sun and school both out, customers are ready to embrace the flavors of summer. Many fast casual concepts are happy to give them that chance and are serving a variety of new menu items, including shakes, protein drinks, green smoothies, frozen lemonade, salmon and coconut shrimp.

June 14, 2016 by Cherryh Cansler — Editor, FastCasual.com

Hydration station
Just in time for the hot summer months, Smoothie King just launched a line of Summer Hydration Smoothies that replenish fluids better than water, according to a company press release.

The line uses a combination of fruits packed with potassium, a vital electrolyte for hydration, and coconut water and strawberries to fulfill Smoothie King's goal of keeping devoted customers hydrated through the summer months, according to the release.

The Summer Hydration Line will feature:

Watermelon Hydrator: Strawberries, Watermelon Juice Blend, Coconut Water, Lemon Juice Blend, Turbinado, Protein Blend
Strawberry Mango Hydrator: Strawberries, Mango Juice Blend, Mango Sorbet, Coconut Water, Water, Electrolyte Mix
Passionfruit Peach Hydrator: Peaches, Strawberries, Coconut Water, Passion Fruit Juice Blend, Turbinado, Electrolyte Mix
Watermelon X-Treme: Strawberries, Watermelon Juice Blend, Coconut Water Turbinado, Protein Blend

Professional beach volleyball players Brooke Sweat and Emily Day will help market the drinks, making appearances at Smoothie King units and community events, according to the release.

Nekter Juice Bar is also serving several nutritious menu items to start the summer on a healthy note, according to a company press release. They include:

Mango Delight Smoothie
Acai Mango Bowl
Acai Superfood Bowl
Tumeric Shot
Superfood Add-Ons
Tumeric Skinnny Lemonade cold-pressed juice
Lean Greens cold-press juice
Strawberry Pitaya Superfood Protein cold-pressed juice
Green Superfood Protein cold-pressed juice
Advanced Cleanse

"With longer days and warmer nights, summer is the perfect time to ramp up your wellness routine, starting with a healthy diet rooted in nutritious fresh fruits and vegetables," said Alexis Schulze, co-founder of Nekter Juice Bar. "Our new offerings were created to provide a unique combination of tremendous nutritional value and fantastic taste. What they don't include are unnecessary ingredients such as artificial sugars or fillers that can actually negate the many positive benefits provided by fresh and natural foods."

D's goes a little (coco)nuts
Captain D's Head Chef Jason Henderson said its guests remain committed to the chain's shrimp offerings, which the brand is "summer-fying" with a little touch of the tropical. The offering, available through July 24, has been dubbed D's jumbo coconut shrimp and includes coconut-crusted shrimp, hand batter-dipped fish and a sweet pineapple sauce for dipping. The creation was inspired by customer feedback, Henderson said.

"Our shrimp has been and continues to be a standout favorite among customers, so we wanted to take it up a notch and create a dish packed with a variety of flavors," Henderson said.

Lobster meets burrito
To celebrate summer and National Lobster Day on June 15, Burrito Beach is serving a Lobster Palapa, featuring ($9.95) a steamed Maine lobster tale-stuffed avocado with corn salsa, pickled red onions and tomatoes, served on a bed of lettuce and accompanied with house-made tortilla chips.

Salmon time at Rubio's
Rubio's has added sustainable Wild Alaska Coho Salmon to its menu as part of its ongoing “Made With a Mission" commitment, which is to serve coastal food that not only tastes great, but that its guests can feel great about eating, according to a company press release.

The salmon is available grilled or house blackened and will replace Atlantic salmon in entrees across the menu, according to a company press release.

To celebrate the introduction of Wild Alaska Coho Salmon, Rubio's is bringing back its Chimichurri Salmon Two Taco Plate and Burrito, available for a limited time. Each features the sustainable, grilled Wild Alaska Coho Salmon topped with Rubio's chimichurri sauce — a blend of basil, parsley, chives, garlic and olive oil.

"It's always been important to us that our guests feel good about what they are eating, and that starts with the ingredients we use," said Rubio. "The introduction of sustainable Wild Alaska Coho Salmon demonstrates our commitment to food quality and our promise to continue evolving our ingredients."

We know our guests love the Chimichurri Salmon Two Taco Plate and Burrito from when we offered it a few years ago, and we hope they enjoy the new take on these bold, savory dishes all summer long.

Bacon pulls into the station
Penn Station East Coast Subs is adding a grilled bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwich to its menu for the month of June.

"A BLT is a summer classic, and we love to add it to our menu as a limited-time offer during the summer," said Penn Station President Craig Dunaway. "We're especially excited to offer it this year right after we launched our new loyalty program and app. We'd love for our customers to be able to earn and receive rewards while enjoying our BLT throughout June."

Penn Station's BLT features extra thick bacon, iceberg lettuce and Roma tomatoes, all served on Penn Station's fresh baked bread. The BLT sandwich will be available in Penn Station's usual six-inch, eight-inch, 10-inch and 12-inch sizes. It will be available at all locations in June.

Black & White
Wayback Burgers is celebrating summer by giving customers a free Junior Black & White Milkshake June 20. The Black & White Milkshake is made with premium vanilla bean ice cream, fresh milk and a blend of vanilla and Hershey's chocolate syrup, according to a company press release.

Guests are encouraged to share their shakes using the hashtag #FreeShakeDay on Twitter or Instagram, and leave a comment on Wayback Burgers' Facebook page.

The chain's summer menu also includes a Chicken Bacon Ranch-A-Que Hero, Sea Salt House-Made Chips and Frosted Lemonade, a frozen twist on a classic summertime sipper, according to the release.

The new menu items will be available at all Wayback Burgers locations nationwide from May 1-July 31.

Summer chickens out
Chicken Salad Chick has launched its limited-time summer menu, which includes Dill-icious Diva chicken salad, Key Lime Pie and Strawberry Pecan Salad, according to a company press release.

"We couldn't be more excited to bring back Dill-icious Diva for the second year in a row," said Stacy Brown, Chicken Salad Chick founder. "The fan favorite really connected with our guests last year, and we're happy to be able to satisfy their craving this summer and introduce new guests to the fresh and flavorful Dill-icious Diva."

Food & Beverage

About Cherryh Cansler

Cherryh Cansler is VP of Events for Networld Media Group and publisher of FastCasual.com. She has been covering the restaurant industry since 2012. Her byline has appeared in Forbes, The Kansas City Star and American Fitness magazine, among many others.

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