How Ordering Fancy Kids Menu Food Became the Go-To Coping Mechanism of 2023

Regression, it's what's for dinner!

If my TikTok algorithm — which regularly serves me videos about how LMNT released its absolute banger, “Hey Juliet”, 21 years ago, or how “A Cinderella Story” debuted in theaters in 2004 — is any indication, nostalgia sells. Between our collective mania around the Barbie movie and the number of adults I’ve personally encountered wearing low-rise jeans and baby blue bucket hats, it’s not exactly surprising that our collective yearning for the recent-ish past has made its way to restaurant menus. But the sheer force of this trend is so overwhelming that I feel I have to ask the question — is everyone doing okay?

“We’re going into an election year, and last time, it was incredibly divisive and stressful for people,” says Alex Dayton, a psychotherapist with a private practice in New York City. “Memories are really grounding for individuals. They link us to this connection of our past, and they give us meaning and structure,” he explains.

I can’t tell you the last time I went to a buzzy new restaurant without encountering some sort of dish that felt like a distant (or close) cousin to something I’d have once upon a time been thrilled to order off the 12-and-under menu at my local Jersey diner, or something that could’ve fit into the plastic tray of a Lunchable. Over the past few months in New York City alone, I’ve eaten — and enjoyed — a mind-altering popsicle coated in pop rocks at NARO; crispy pepperoni cups presented alongside a bowl of ranch dressing at Bad Roman; and a giant blooming onion (also accompanied by fancy ranch dip) at Patti Ann’s. I’m wary of calling something a trend just based on menus in my own bubble, but in Los Angeles, French brasserie Coucou serves up L’Haute Dog, a pork frank slathered in cheese fondue, onion jam, and spicy mustard; In Washington D.C., newly opened Purl sends diners off with a '90s rainbow sprinkle cake for dessert.

Related: Taco Bell's Spiciest Menu Item From the '90s is Making a Comeback

Drinks menus, too, are catering to our inner child — and I’m not just talking about the Dirty Shirley. I’m coming across a surprising number of gussied up jello shots, like the limoncello offering at Twelve restaurant in Portland, Maine. Julie Reiner’s beloved dive bar Milady’s serves both a Midori and Faccio Brutto aperitivo twist on the co-ed classic. And then there’s the zhuzhed-up Dole Whip. “[The Dole Whip] is the most highly sold item in Disney World,” says Jason Santos, chef and owner of Boston’s Citrus & Salt, where his team prepares a spikable version that plays especially nice with rum; in San Francisco, Causwells has a Dole Whip with tequila, Select aperitif, and Prosecco.

While watching the Barbie movie or a reboot of Zoey 101 both invoke that ethereal feeling of nostalgia, Dayton says that smell — one of the primary ways in which we engage with food — is significantly more powerful when it comes to unlocking memories. As we emerge from a years-long pandemic that turned every aspect of our lives upside down, it’s not hard to see why restaurants are (however knowingly) capitalizing on the powerful link between nostalgia and our senses. “[Nostalgia] on menus can encourage people to get out to restaurants more, and to continue getting out to find that comfort,” Dayton says.

However, these dishes are in no way priced like a happy meal or a quick college dive bar bite. At The Polo Bar, famous for its prime people watching and country club-esque interior design, you can order a modest plateful of pigs in a blanket for $19, while a slice of five-layer chocolate cake costs $16. Grub Street diner-at-large E. Alex Jung says it might just be “the most delicious kids’ menu in the city.” Coucou’s hot dog, sans fries, is $25.

“We want to think of foods that are healthier, but fun and still familiar,” says Camille Becerra, chef and partner of As You Are, located inside the Ace Hotel’s Brooklyn outpost. Becerra’s new menu features housemade spaghettios in chicken soup, an effort to tap into what she calls “that comfy feeling”. Across the river and uptown, the team at Jupiter is serving homemade alphabet soup. Dan Kluger, whose new restaurant, Greywind, features a tantalizingly large platter of homemade, jumbo-sized Cheese-Its, says he’s already noticed an additional level of curiosity from diners when they have the opportunity to try a newly inspired version of a food that they are very familiar with.

“There’s this saying,” Dayton tells me. “‘Tradition is to the community as memories are to the individual.’ If you had no memories, you would have no sense of self and be flung into this existential crisis.” Maybe we’re all just trying to connect over the shared memory of eating chicken tenders at Denny’s after whichever club or sport practice made us feel part of something at age 13; Maybe we’re just trying to eat things that bring us back to a simpler time in our lives, before any of us knew what NPC stands for. Ice cream — so good.

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