Wendy’s is baking up something sweet this Valentine’s Day.
On Feb. 14, Wendy’s revealed its latest breakfast item, teaming up with the source of America’s favorite mall scent, to create it: the Cinnabon Pull-Apart. The partnership’s innovation will be available at your local Wendy’s starting Feb. 26, during breakfast hours.
Wendy’s says its new wake-up treat is a spin on the classic cinnamon roll, and its team worked through the concept in partnership with Cinnabon. John Li, Wendy’s global VP of culinary innovation, said during a Wendy’s Culinary Spotlight event that after the success of its French Toast Sticks, which debuted in 2022, the culinary team decided to give customers another sweet option on its breakfast menu.
The new Cinnabon Pull-Apart features Danish dough dunked in a glaze, baked with cinnamon, brown butter and sugar, then topped with Cinnabon’s cream cheese frosting.
“Four years ago in the U.S., and three years ago in Canada, when we built this breakfast program, we knew there were a lot of options for consumers that were just OK,” Li said at the event. “We made the decision to do breakfast in a way that Dave Thomas would be proud of — using quality ingredients and delivering food in a way that is better than the others out there.”
Wendy’s breakfast menu first launched in March 2020 with the Breakfast Baconator, Honey Butter Chicken Biscuit and other croissant breakfast sandwiches, as well as drinks. The chain has been steadily rolling out more items — such as the aforementioned French Toast Sticks, Breakfast Burrito, English Muffin Sandwiches and Frosty Cream Cold Brew — in the years since.
If Wendy’s Cinnabon Pull-Apart reminds you of something you can’t quite place, you may be remembering a dish from McDonald’s past: Cinnamon Melts (aka Cinnamelts). Before being quietly discontinued, it featured chunks of bread mixed with butter, brown sugar, cinnamon and cream cheese, which were then baked and drizzled with cream cheese icing.
McDonald’s also introduced a Cinnamon Roll as part of its McCafé Bakery in 2020, but then scrapped the entire bakery lineup in 2023.
Fans have been begging Mickey D’s to bring back Cinnamon Melts, so another red-headed fast-food chain decided to take the matter into its own frosting-covered hands.
