Trending this week: Pizza Hut is getting into the burger business

This week on Nation’s Restaurant News the top story was Here’s why Dutch Bros is doing better than Starbucks right now. It’s hard not to compare the most recent quarterly performances of Dutch Bros and Starbucks. Starbucks, the undisputed leader of the coffee/café restaurant category, had its worst fiscal quarter since the peak of the pandemic three years ago, with global same-store sales down 4% and a decline in rewards members from Q1 to Q2 (the first time that has happened in a decade). Meanwhile, Dutch Bros was one of the few success stories this quarter, with the Oregon-based coffee chain reporting 10% same-store sales growth and positive traffic trends.

In other news, Pizza Hut is trying to get into another popular American menu category — burgers. The Plano, Texas-based restaurant introduced the Cheeseburger Melt to menus nationwide.

The Cheeseburger Melt is a handheld with a parmesan-crusted thin crust that’s folded and filled with beef, applewood-smoked bacon, onions, mozzarella, and cheddar, served with the brand’s “Burger Sauce” on the side.

See what else was trending on NRN.com this week.