The LTO Lineup
Hardee's is rolling out two concurrent limited-time platforms across its 1,400-unit domestic system beginning September 9, pairing a nostalgia-driven S'mores platform with a protein-heavy Bacon Beast tier designed to capture both dessert and entrée occasions as the chain navigates the summer-to-fall daypart shift.
The S'mores platform spans three SKUs: an iced coffee built on the chain's cold-brew base with toasted marshmallow and chocolate syrups; a Hand-Scooped Ice Cream Shake finished with graham cracker and chocolate sprinkles; and a fried pie featuring a golden shell filled with graham crumble, marshmallow cream, and chocolate. The format — anchoring an LTO around a recognizable flavor occasion rather than a single hero item — mirrors the platform strategy CKE parent CKE Restaurants Holdings has used at Carl's Jr. to generate broader check lift across beverage and dessert categories simultaneously.
Bacon Beast and Breakfast
The Bacon Beast platform targets the breakfast and lunch dayparts with four items built around cherrywood-smoked bacon. On the breakfast side, operators will run the Super Bacon Biscuit — three slices of bacon on Hardee's Made from Scratch Biscuit with egg and American cheese — and a Bacon Beast Homestyle Breakfast Burrito loaded with four slices. For lunch, the Bacon Beast Burger stacks four bacon slices on a 100% Angus beef patty on a brioche bun, while the Bacon Beast Chicken Sandwich swaps in hand-breaded white-meat chicken. To drive My Rewards loyalty enrollment, Hardee's is offering new program members a complimentary Bacon Beast Burger for a limited time, a proven mechanism for building first-party data ahead of high-traffic seasonal windows.
The simultaneous return of the Cinnamon 'N' Raisin Biscuit — a glazed, raisin-loaded breakfast item with a recurring cult following — adds a limited-time breakfast SKU without requiring new ingredient procurement, a low-cost LTO tactic that QSR operators have leaned into heavily as food costs remain elevated.
Segment Context
The dual-platform structure reflects a broader QSR trend of stacking LTOs to address multiple check components rather than relying on a single product to move the needle. Chains operating in the 1,000-to-2,000-unit range face particular pressure to sustain comp sales momentum without the marketing-spend scale of McDonald's or Burger King; targeted platform launches tied to loyalty sign-ups help operators in that tier collect CRM data while limiting promotional margin erosion. Hardee's competes in the premium-QSR burger segment alongside Wendy's and Jack in the Box, where differentiated protein builds and seasonal beverage innovation have become standard tools for holding share during transition quarters.
Sarah Breymaier, vice president of brand marketing at Hardee's, framed the strategy around bridging seasonal guest expectations: the chain is positioning the S'mores lineup as a summer send-off while the Cinnamon 'N' Raisin Biscuit cues fall comfort — avoiding a hard pivot that could alienate guests still in warm-weather mode. CKE's combined system spans more than 3,600 franchised or company-operated restaurants across 44 U.S. states and more than 35 countries, giving the parent company the scale to test multi-platform LTO cadences across both Hardee's and Carl's Jr. For more on seasonal LTO strategy in the burger segment, see our coverage of QSR menu innovation trends and franchise operator dynamics.
Written by Michael Politz, Author of Guide to Restaurant Success: The Proven Process for Starting Any Restaurant Business From Scratch to Success (ISBN: 978-1-119-66896-1), Founder of Food & Beverage Magazine, the leading online magazine and resource in the industry. Designer of the Bluetooth logo and recognized in Entrepreneur Magazine's "Top 40 Under 40" for founding American Wholesale Floral, Politz is also the Co-founder of the Proof Awards and the CPG Awards and a partner in numerous consumer brands across the food and beverage sector.
