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QSRs say 'XO, XO' during Valentine's Week

When plucking the petals off the "loves me, loves me not" daisy, QSRs have definitely landed on "loves me," with a bevy of offerings this Valentine's Week designed to inject a little love and heat into even the coldest consumers' hearts.

Photo: iStock

February 13, 2020 by S.A. Whitehead — Food Editor, Net World Media Group

Love may be a matter of the heart, but showing it at this sublimely smoochy time of year still revolves around the stomach for many consumers. And on that score, quick-service brands everywhere are not about to let the chocolatiers get all the action. They're luring lovers into their doors with a big velvet-covered heart-full of specials this week running the gamut from miniature chicken sandwiches to pinkened  espresso.   

And while it's true that pizza brands are really beginning to steal the Valentine's Day show with their variations on that heart-shaped pizza theme (as will be summarized Friday

Bruegger's heart-shaped bagels (Photo: Bruegger's Bagels)

by sister site, Pizza Marketplace)  QSRs are still very much in the game. Here are some sweet specials that QSRs are sharing this month:

Auntie Anne's is giving in-store customers a reason to get all knotted up inside with its buy-one, get-one free deal on heart-shaped pretzels through its Pretzel Perks app. A sure bet for all those love-lorn patrons with a slightly twisted sense of romance. (Oh, come on, you know who you are!).

Baskin-Robbins has heartily embraced Valentine's Day's most long-held tradition with Valentine's Day Card Cakes in five designs that we're certain are way better than eating the traditional Valentine's Day cards of the paper variety. And the brand's Date Night ice cream flavor of the month is also offered now as a mix of the salty and sweet — like some romances — we suspect.  

"Our new Valentine's Day Card Cakes are our sweet take on the valentines and candy grams we all love, and are a new special and fun way to share the love," said Shannon Blakely, Baskin-Robbins U.S./Canada vice president said in a news release. 

Bruegger's Bagels is the place for the really hot and heavy romantics, since the brand actually immerses its hearts in boiling water — just like the rest of their trademark bagels. And these little devils come out shaped not in the round, but in a heart, are available in plain, cinnamon-raisin and blueberry through Valentine's Day while they last, according to Bruegger's website. Customers must preorder the heart-shaped bagels, however.

Photo: Chick-fil-A

Chick-fil-A said on it's Chicken Wire blog that it's offering 30-count nuggets, 10-count Chick-n-Minis or 6-count chocolate chunk cookies in heart-shaped containers for the beloved chicks (and roosters) in consumers' lives, through Feb. 29 or while supplies last. 

Dunkin' is also circling the heart this Valentine's Day with its heart-shaped doughnuts and a pinkened espresso drink, the Pink Velvet macchiato, as well as Pink Velvet Signature lattes. The drinks are imbued with red velvet cake flavor, topped with whipped cream, mocha drizzle and hot chocolate powder. Meanwhile, the brand's Valentine's doughnuts this year include the returning brownie batter flavor, as well as a Cupid's Choice concoction — both bedazzled in Bling Sprinkles.

Krispy Kreme is also making heart-shaped doughnuts, only these pastel-toned pastries take an old-school romantic approach with their kitschy phrases

Photo: White Castle via Twitter.

on top, including the old-time candy hearts mainstay, "Dreamy," as in "Golly-gosh, Betty Sue, isn't he dreamy?"

Mrs. Fields has baked, dunked, swirled and iced just about every configuration of sweet for the annual day of love and is also giving consumers $15 off orders across its website when they use the code "LOVE." Included in the day's delights are everything from heart-shaped cookies, cakes and chocolate- or yogurt-dipped berries, to baskets, boxes, tins and trunks brimming with sweet stuff of every variety. 

And lastly, we come to one of the world's oldest QSRs, White Castle, which has been around the block on this whole "love thing," thank you very much, and isn't about to let other fast food joints upstage it at this time of year. That's why the brand — increasingly THE place to be on Feb. 14 — has its 29th Valentine's Day dinners planned at participating stores. It's a reservations-ahead thing, that includes host or hostess seating, table service and lots of red and pink decorations to augment the brand's typical gold-and-blue branding.

About S.A. Whitehead

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Pizza Marketplace and QSRweb editor Shelly Whitehead is a former newspaper and TV reporter with an affinity for telling stories about the people and innovative thinking behind great brands.