Potatoes: The gateway food to adventuresome flavors

There’s a general consensus that American consumers, troubled by the rising price of everything and stressed out about the state of the world, are not seeking high adventure when eating out. They want food that is a little different, but still safe enough that they know they’re going to enjoy it.

Restaurants, for their part, are scrambling to get customers to order more often as overall traffic continues to decline, and they’re looking to offer items that they can sell inexpensively while still making a profit.

So it should come as no surprise that a lot of innovation is happening around the potato.

Sonic's Groovy Fries with sauce

Some major chains have been refurbishing their potatoes and adding new options, including Arby’s, Sonic Drive-In, and Long John Silver’s, and others are adding different toppings to their fries as check-boosting limited-time offers.

Independent restaurants, meanwhile, are also taking their potatoes seriously, often sourcing them from local farms and selecting different varieties depending on the preparation.

Many Sonic customers are fans of its tots, but in May the 3,500-unit chain upgraded its fries. The new crinkle-cut item, which Sonic has dubbed “Groovy Fries,” was specifically designed to be crispy on the outside and soft and fluffy on the inside, and they’re served with a new Groovy Sauce, a ranch dressing-based condiment with herbs and Sriracha sauce.

“Sonic has long been a leader in sides, but fries have lagged behind our other offerings for years,” said Sonic vice president of culinary and menu innovation Mackenzie Gibson via email.

She said that although the brand’s tots are “iconic,” “fries are a top driver when consumers are deciding between burger brands. As our brand grows and we enter new markets where people might not be as familiar with or have as strong an affinity for tots, we want to make sure we have the craveable side they’re looking for — and that’s typically fries.”

She said that over the couple of years that were spent developing the new fries, she and her team focused on three main attributes: “Creating a fry that holds its crispiness, is perfectly seasoned, and offers improved heat retention.”

Holding crispiness and retaining heat are becoming an increasingly important issue as a growing number of orders are for takeout and delivery.

Chris Lamb, senior director of potato foodservice marketing for McCain Foods, a major potato supplier, said that his company is focused on making sure that its fries hold up “in a 30-minute travel in a bag on a bike.”

“Fries are a bit of a litmus test for quality post-delivery,” he said. “When you get delivery, the first thing you do is pull out fries and take a bite.”

But fewer potatoes are ordered for delivery than in restaurants, according to restaurant research firm Technomic, which reports that 66% of on-premises restaurant orders include potato items, mostly fries, compared to 50% overall.

Lamb said this is a problem when it comes to profitability. Restaurants already pay a premium for delivery, and that difficulty is compounded by the fact that few takeout and delivery orders include soft drinks, and fewer include alcohol, both of which are typically high-margin items and incremental to entrée orders.

“And if everyone’s swapping fries for salad, it’s a hard equation,” he said, since salads are considerably less profitable.

To help mitigate customers’ tendency not to have fries delivered, it makes sense to ensure that they stay crispy and hot for as long as possible. Lamb points to visible batters and less visible coatings with which fries can be treated to help retain heat, but there are also steps that operators can take to help ensure that fries arrive as intact as possible without changing the fries themselves.

“A plastic bag will kill the crunch of fries and all the attributes that you look forward to,” he said. Instead, he suggests packing fries in containers with holes that allow them to vent moisture that builds up.

Arby's potato cakes

Like Sonic’s tots, Arby’s had a signature potato item for decades: potato cakes. The triangular side item of finely diced potato is crispy on the outside and tender and potatoey on the inside, and just returned to the menu as an LTO starting on July 1.

The item had been removed in 2021, replaced by increasingly popular crinkle fries.

Arby’s also has curly fries, which are a fan favorite and were placed on the menu in 1988.

The chain, which like Sonic has around 3,500 restaurants, said a strong fan base for the potato cakes remained even after it was removed from the menu; over the past year they were mentioned on social media more than 10,000 times, the chain said, adding that it even has dedicated fan accounts.

Arby’s vice president of integrated marketing communications, Tiffany Cameron, said in an email, “It’s great to see how our potato products are loved and embraced by our fans. We heard our Potato Cakes devotees loud and clear and are happy to offer the fan favorite again for a limited time.”

Arby’s, which, like Sonic, is a subsidiary of Atlanta-based Inspire Brands, declined to say how long the potato cakes would remain on the menu.

Long John Silver’s Crispy Waffle Fries

Long John Silver’s introduced Crispy Waffle Fries as a permanent addition to the menu in late July. A spokesperson for the seafood chain of around 530 restaurants said the fries were several months in the making, and finding crispy ones was key.

“Nobody should have to settle for soggy fries, but with the growth in drive-thru, delivery, and take-out orders, sad soggy fries have become more common across the restaurant industry,” the spokesperson said. “As the fish and fries expert, we knew we had an opportunity to make mealtime better by improving our fries. After several months of testing, we found a waffle fry that pairs perfectly with our famous fish, chicken, and shrimp, and that also stays crispy on the drive from our shore to your door.”

But crispiness and portability aren’t always what customers want in their fries, according to Lamb of McCain, who said that the popular item is also a common gateway to more adventuresome flavors.

“Fries are a great canvas for chefs and restaurateurs,” allowing them to add rather adventuresome flavors in a familiar setting.

Celebrity chef Maneet Chauhan has long had an Indian version of poutine at her Chauhan Ale & Masala House in Nashville. Her current iteration is topped with tandoori chicken, cheese curds, and makhani sauce, a buttery and creamy tomato sauce generally made with cashews, onions, and a wide variety of spices.

Variations on poutine, or chili fries, or disco fries, are popping up at chain restaurants all over the country, often reinforcing a brand’s identity or piggybacking on other LTOs.

Photo: Starbird offered Loaded Bánh Mì Fries this winter.

Starbird, a chicken concept in the San Francisco Bay area, offered Loaded Bánh Mì Fries this winter. They were topped with hoisin & Sriracha aïoli sauces, an Asian herb mix, and fried shallots.

Taco Cabana tested fries topped with carne asada steak and fries topped with queso and chile con carne in its El Paso, Texas, locations.

The Pour House, a casual-dining concept with three locations in the Philadelphia suburbs, introduced Loaded She Crab Fries as a permanent item this spring. It’s seasoned waffle fries topped with creamy she-crab sauce, cheese sauce, smoked bacon, and Old Bay seasoning.

The Pour House's She Crab Fries

Dave & Buster’s added Loaded Barbacoa Fries as part of its menu revamp in April. They’re topped with queso blanco, shredded beef, pico de gallo, cotija cheese, and guacamole.

Also in April, Carl’s Jr. brought back its El Diablo items as permanent menu items, including El Diablo loaded fries topped with habanero sauce, shredded cheese, and jalapeño coins.

Shake Shack has taken to offering the limited-time sauces that it develops for its burgers and chicken sandwiches on its fries as well. Earlier this year, during a Korean sandwich promotion, it also offered its crinkle cut fries with kimchi seasoning and a side of Korean barbecue sauce, and as part of its summertime barbecue promotion it’s offering the same fries with barbecue seasoning and a choice of smoky barbecue or Carolina barbecue sauces.

Checkers & Rally’s, whose seasoned fries get called out as craveable more than any other chain, according to Technomic, is offering them with smoked brisket, melted cheddar cheese, diced red onions, and dill pickles.

TooJay's Deli Pastrami Reuben “Knishwichx"

TooJay’s Deli, the New York-style deli concept based in West Palm Beach, Fla., is using Jewish-style potatoes for carriers of other items, reinforcing its brand identity. Currently on the menu are brisket latkes: potato pancakes topped with braised brisket, mushroom demiglace, caramelized onions, creamy horseradish sauce, and scallions on a bed of arugula. It’s also offering a Pastrami Reuben “Knishwichx.” A knish is a hand pie, usually filled with mashed potatoes, as it is at TooJay’s. It is used as a bun for a classic Reuben sandwich with pastrami, Swiss cheese, sauerkraut, and Russian dressing.

Among independent restaurateurs, Alejandro Najar, who competed in Season 21 of Hell’s Kitchen and is now the chef of The Butcher’s Cellar, a steakhouse that recently opened in the Waco, Texas, suburb of Woodway, offers a “thousand layer potato.” To make it he thinly slices Idaho potatoes and brushes them with melted butter. He then layers them in a deep baking dish, sprinkling each layer with a little potato starch and salt. He bakes them for a couple of hours and then presses them down with a weight in the refrigerator overnight. The next day he cuts them into cubes, deep-fries them, and serves them with crème fraîche, trout roe, and chives.

He explained that the dish evokes sour-cream-and-onion potato chips, with the crème fraîche filling in for sour cream and chives playing the role of onions. The trout roe is for added umami.

1000 Layer Potato at The Butcher’s Cellar

“It takes like an hour-and-a-half of prep and two hours to cook, and then you need to press it down overnight, so it’s a two-day process,” he said, adding that one reason he offers it is to challenge his cooks.

“Being in Waco, Texas, I’m not sure how many cooks have seen cool stuff like that before,” he said. “I want to show them that it’s worth taking two days to make a potato that’s going to be devoured in two minutes.”

Besides, his fries take three days. He gets Kennebec potatoes from Oklahoma, which have lower moisture than the russets he uses for his French-style buttery, cheesy mashed potatoes called pommes aligot.

He cuts them thickly, like British “chips,” soaks them in water and then rinses them to remove the starch. Then he boils them for five minutes, turns off the water and lets them rest for another three minutes until they’re fork tender. Then he dries them on a cooling rack overnight. The next day he blanches them in oil at about 260 degrees Fahrenheit, cools and dries them, and fries them to order on the following day.  

Whitney Amero Caceres, executive chef of Primrose in Washington, D.C., also uses Kennebecs, or their cousins the Chipperbecs, for her fries, which she brines in salt, vinegar, and water for two hours, drains them, blanches them in oil, and then cools them and fries them to order.

She uses a variety of local potatoes, depending on what’s available, for her confit potatoes.

“It changes week to week,” she said.

She poaches the potatoes in a combination of olive oil and canola oil along with thyme, bay leaves, rosemary, garlic, and oregano. She uses them in her Liege salad, which also has green beans, bacon, and crunchy seasonal vegetables, as well as in her brunch home fries, for which she smashes them and then fries them.

The latest potato addition to Caceres’ menu was inspired by an episode of the hit FX TV series “The Bear.” In the episode titled Omelette — Season 2, Episode 9 — the chef makes an omelet topped with potato chips.

“I was watching it and I thought, ‘I want to eat that,’” she said.

So she found local potato chips, bought the sour cream-and-onion variety, and served them on an omelet with a house-made version of Boursin cheese.

“We sold a good amount of them over the weekend, so we’ll keep it on the menu for a while,” she said. “And it’s really tasty. Who does not love potato chips?”

Contact Bret at [email protected]