On any given morning, countless students roam the halls of Orono High School sipping their piping hot coffee drinks. Continuing on throughout the day, a handful of students are caught sneaking out to enjoy a quick meal with their friends at their favorite restaurants in the surrounding towns.
Every morning, junior Parker Roth sips one of the various drinks offered at the Caribou Coffee in Long Lake. Similarly, senior Allie Potter can be seen strolling the halls of the school with at least one Starbucks beverage in her hand throughout the day.
Both of these students would consider themselves “regulars” at their preferred establishments. But what if there was a new menu, a secret menu full of various flavorful drinks and foods for everyone to order from? For a select number of restaurants there is: the secret menu.
Favorite restaurants of Orono students that have these secret menus are Jamba Juice, Caribou Coffee, Starbucks, Chipotle, Panera Bread and McDonalds.
“The idea behind the secret menu is predicted to be for those ‘regular’ customers who want some new options at their favorite restaurants,” Caribou employee Meggie Dumas said.
Although these menu items tend to be more expensive, items at some restaurants tend to be healthier than those offered on the regular menu.
“Panera’s secret menu items are actually some of the healthiest items on the menu, for example [the] Mediterranean chicken salad,” senior and Panera employee Claire Mayhew said.
At all of these restaurants, items on the secret menus are made up of ingredients already found on the regular menu. A secret item for those die-hard Chipotle fans is their “Quesaburrito,” a burrito made inside of a quesadilla.
Any of these restaurants will try something new with their ingredients for their customers according to secretmenu.org.
Customers are able to gain access to these restaurants primarily from word of mouth. Given the technology used today, all of these items can also be found online at www.secretmenuaholic.com or the Caribou Facebook page.
Fast food restaurants are not the only establishments catering to secret menus. A favorite sit down restaurant located in the heart of downtown Wayzata, Sakana also has a secret menu that any customer can see upon request.
“These items take longer to cook, and are usually much more expensive,” senior Allie Potter said.
Along with Sakana, there are various sit down restaurants in the Minneapolis and St. Paul area that offer these secret menus. One of these is Devil’s Advocate located on Marquette Ave. S and South 10th Street. This particular restaurant has a secret macaroni
and cheese featuring smoked Gouda with spinach and buffalo chicken balls.
Another restaurant featuring a secret menu in the Minneapolis area is Republic, which recently opened in Calhoun square off of Hennepin Ave. This secret menu includes a burger called the “Matty Special.”
This burger contains a beef patty with brie cheese, a slab of pork belly, a fried egg on top, finished off with kale/quinoa/feta/tomato salad and sherry vinaigrette on the side.
Refer to the graphic to the right to find out the a few items from the secret menus at Chipotle, Jamba Juice, Caribou, Starbucks, Panera and McDonalds.
Follow the QR Code to find the full menu on the Spartan Speaks website.