Halloween Menus Multiply as Smoothie King Bets on Protein in Rhinestone Cups

Just over a week into October, Halloween-themed limited-time offers are proliferating across national chains, from BJ's Restaurants to convenience-drive-thru upstart 7 Brew. The seasonal push is the standard October playbook: novelty packaging, themed names, and short windows designed to move incremental traffic before the holiday retail season begins.

BJ's is leading with a Spooky Pizookie, a dessert built on the chain's signature skillet cookie format with a hard chocolate shell and a seasonally appropriate color scheme. Dave & Buster's has rolled out themed cocktails. Krispy Kreme is running doughnut specials featuring Looney Tunes characters in costume — licensed IP doing the merchandising work that ingredient stories cannot.

Which chains are leaning hardest on the gimmick?

On the beverage side, Scooter's Coffee and 7 Brew both have drink specials with names evoking ghosts and ghouls. Smoothie King has taken a different route: a new high-protein smoothie served in a rhinestone-studded cup, which is arguably a costume of sorts. The move pairs the chain's protein-forward positioning — a menu-engineering bet on functional nutrition — with the seasonal merchandising language of its competitors.

What is new beyond the Halloween set?

The non-seasonal launches are arguably the more substantive menu news:

• Bojangles has introduced doughnut bites made from its biscuit dough — a sourcing play that stretches an existing raw ingredient into a new daypart and category.
• Culver's is celebrating cheese curds all month, giving a regional signature item its own promotional window.
• Portillo's has added Oreo cakes and shakes.
• Marco's Pizza has brought back its Margherita Magnifico Pizza, a returning LTO (limited-time offer) rather than a new build.
• Smashburger and Bad Daddy's Burger Bar both have pastrami specials, a signal that the beef-cured protein continues to spread beyond deli concepts.
• Ono Hawaiian BBQ is offering shrimp sticks that resemble fish sticks — a familiar form factor applied to a different protein.
• HTeaO has new chai options, extending the tea chain's hot-beverage board.

What changed on full-service menus?

Margaritas Mexican Restaurant has revamped its menu — the broadest structural change in this cycle, though details of the rework were not disclosed. Tocaya, the California-based fast-casual Mexican brand, has added ceviche, moving a chilled seafood preparation into a format where it can command a premium price point.

Rutters, the Pennsylvania convenience chain, is now selling pasta — a notable crossover, as c-stores continue copying QSR menu categories to defend prepared-food margins.

Flying Biscuit Café has new pumpkin specials, staying squarely in the autumn lane rather than the Halloween lane. Velvet Taco's Weekly Taco Feature, the chain's rotating LTO program, is running shrimp and peanuts, continuing its pattern of unconventional protein pairings as a standing traffic driver.

The pattern across the board is menu engineering over invention: existing dough, returning pizzas, cured beef, and licensed characters. October rewards operators who can dress up what they already make, and this year nearly everyone has arrived in costume.