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When you're trying to decide where to eat, knowing what's on the menu is important. But for restaurants trying to bring customers through the door, what's not on the menu is just as important.

Secret menus aren't new. In-N-Out Burger has had one for years. But experts say that more companies are now adding secret menu items, and they're even catching on overseas in places like the United Kingdom and Singapore.

Especially in this economy, restaurants want to set themselves apart. And in order to do so, they have to connect with customers.

"If you have a secret menu or if customers know the secret menu, they feel like they're insiders," says Bret Thorn, senior food editor of Nation's Restaurant News, a trade publication. "They feel kind of a personal connection to the restaurant; they feel they know something that maybe not everybody else does. And everyone loves that."

Nowadays, secret menus pretty much have the same items you'd find on a regular menu, just mixed up in a different way. But the menus make people feel like they're in on something. It's like they've become restaurant insiders, or like they've cracked some big code.

The latest player to jump into the secret menu game is Panera Bread. Last month, the company rolled out six new items.

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