In cartoon food news, Dallas will be one of 12 cities serving up "Krabby Patty" sandwiches in a nationwide celebration of Nickelodeon cartoon SpongeBob SquarePants.

The beloved cartoon, which is celebrating its 25th anniversary, stars an adorable yellow sponge named SpongeBob SquarePants, who lives in the city of Bikini Bottom on the floor of the Pacific Ocean and works as a fry cook at an underwater fast-food restaurant called the Krusty Krab. The Krabby Patty is their signature dish.

The national promotion is called The Krabby Patty Kollab, launched by Viacom/Paramount, which owns SpongeBob SquarePants; they've already created a website.

The official launch date is October 8.

The promotion will feature the participation of numerous restaurants across the U.S. and Canada. Each will create their unique rendition of the famed Krabby Patty sandwich, which they'll serve for a limited time during October.

The promotion will also include a fast-food chain, which has been revealed to be Wendy's; their involvement was leaked via an in-house memo sent to Wendy's franchisees on August 16.

According to the memo, Wendy’s Krabby Patty entry will be a cheeseburger with fresh produce and a secret Krabby Patty sauce. Wendy's will also issue an accompanying limited-edition pineapple-flavored Frosty — their frozen dairy dessert — made from vanilla ice cream and pineapple mango purée. (SpongeBob famously lives in a pineapple home.)

Some Wendy's locations have already begun quietly serving the combo ahead of the October 8 launch.

But in addition to Wendy's, a multitude of independent restaurants across the U.S. have been invited to join the program by submitting their creative Krabby spinoff.

The promotion will take place in a dozen cities including Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, San Francisco, and Seattle; plus three cities outside the U.S.: London, Mexico City, and Toronto.

Restaurants and support personnel who've been hired to oversee the program in individual markets have all signed nondisclosure agreements, but the roll-out was confirmed by at least one source involved with the promotion who asked not to be identified.

Participants were requested not to use seafood as their entry; in the show, the Krabby Patty is a meatless hamburger, featuring a mystery patty served on seaweed buns.

Paramount did not respond to a request for more information.

The program is part of a SpongeBob revival set for this fall, which began in August with a Netflix film called Saving Bikini Bottom: The Sandy Cheeks Movie; it was No. 1 for two weeks.

On Thursday, October 10, Nickelodeon will premiere a new SpongeBob SquarePants two-part special: Called Kreepaway Kamp, it's a story about the entire cast — SpongeBob, Patrick, Sandy, Mr. Krabs, Pearl, Bubble Bass, Kevin C. Cucumber, Larry the Lobster, Mrs. Puff — attending a reunion at Kamp Koral. The episode will also stream on Paramount+.

There's a new film in the works called The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants, directed by series veteran Derek Drymon starring the show's regular voice cast plus Mark Hamill, scheduled for release for the Christmas movie season in December 2025. And a new video game, "SpongeBob Squarepants: The Patrick Star Game," coming to Nintendo Switch on October 4.

Previously, there were three SpongeBob films: The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie in 2004, The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water in 2015, and The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run in 2020.