Am I Influenced By Lunch Partners?

Good evening, morning, day, or whatever it is to you!  I'm way overdue for a new blog entry, so here we go.  It's always entertaining to have someone introduce you as "the guy who writes the fry blog" when you haven't updated in close to 4 months.  I'm sure there are plenty of desperate people just waiting on what I have to say about fries!

RED ROBIN

I had the pleasure of dining with Kyle Roe who is an agent for Kentucky Farm Bureau in Nicholasville.  Great guy who obviously has great taste in french fries.  I had not reviewed Red Robin in quite some time, so I thought this was the perfect opportunity.  As you will see in the picture below, Red Robin has the same fries.  They have been improved though.  Someone really smart in the Red Robin corporation must have figured out that customers don't need them to put their seasoning on the fries.  Instead they have put a large shaker of their special seasoning on the table for the customer to make their own choices.  SMART MOVE!  Unfortunately you have to ask for a shaker of regular salt, but it's worth it for the fresh pure fries you receive now.  I couldn't stop myself from ingesting these perfect steak fries.  Each one was fluffy on the inside, as they were slightly crisp on the edges.  Thankfully they still are bottomless orders, so I was able to get multiple baskets delivered to our table.  If you don't have Red Robin as one of your go to places, you are making a giant mistake.  These fries are worth going out of your way, and they have moved up to #2 on the list by not preseasoning the fries.  Well done Red Robin.  Well done.  

 I couldn't get a picture of a full basket of fries.  They somehow kept disappearing.

BAD WOLF BURGER

It's not all good news on this blog.  In the past I had given a top 10 review to Bad Wolf Burger.  They had bottomless golden crinkle fries that were wonderful.  I took a trip some time back with Kyle Wicker and Chris Reames (Financial Consultant for Hilliard Lyons) who both have discerning taste.  Also along for the ride was Chris Henry who has the discerning taste of a garbage disposal.  This was proven when the food came out to us.  I was excited to get some top 10 quality fries that day, and boy was I disappointed.  Pictured below are the new fries at Bad Wolf Burger.  Gone are the wonderful golden crinkle style that made for a perfect consistent fry.  Instead was this abomination which is a natural cut fry.  My guess is that someone at Bad Wolf decided they needed to make fresh fries that would impress the foodies in town.  Fresh cut fries are notoriously hard to consistently serve in a quality fashion.  They hold too much moisture on the outside of the fry which makes for a flimsy fry that cannot be crispy.  In the picture you will see that they also cannot be cut in a consistent shape which causes portions to be overcooked.  All of this leads to a taste that varies from cold to undercooked to overcooked.  You can see that they used coarse salt to distract the palate from this inconsistency.  It didn't work.  Human garbage disposal Chris Henry had no problem finishing off his fries.  I could not finish the order I was given.  These fries have dropped off the list.  

What a disappointment.


LOGAN'S ROADHOUSE

To many in the Central Kentucky area, Logan's Roadhouse is the first casual style steak place they ever encountered.  For the longest time, the Broadway location would be overflowing with customers.  Parking was next to impossible due to the crowds, and they kept on coming back.  Recently that location closed, but there is still one open in the Hamburg area of Lexington.  I went there with two great people, Ashley Avery from Baptist Health and Tyler Reliford from Safeway Moving & Storage, whose combined age is less than mine.  I could go on and on about my lunch partners who are both heavily involved in the community, and they have great plans to help improve things for Kentuckians all over the state.  You would think that their presence along with the history of Logan's would lead to an amazing french fry experience.  No.  I really wanted to write a great review for these fries.  Instead they were at the level of eh.  Eh doesn't get you on the list.  Sorry Logan's.  The peanuts, steak, and rolls were great.  The baked potato was great.  The fries?  Eh.

The fries just weren't exciting.

RAMBLINGS

Someone recently taught my son Teddy to say, "Teddy Rocks!"  I heard this said about thirty times tonight.  It was pretty entertaining the first 5 times.  After that?  Thank you to the person who taught Teddy.  I owe you one.

He also learned how to say, "Bless you Daddy" after I sneeze.  I give credit to Polly for that.  That's a nice feeling.

I also need to give thanks to top 10 fry place Burger King.  You may remember that they belong higher on the list, but their portion size and prices keep them in the lower half of the top 10.  Well I purchased a kid's meal for Teddy, and it had what was called a "Rabbid" inside.  This is a hard plastic figure of a bunny with eyes that protrude from the skull.  It's holding a flip flop like a phone, but it's nothing exciting.  Teddy sees it as the greatest thing on Earth.  Tonight on the way home, Teddy was inconsolable, as I dared to not have a purple sucker for him.  I had a red one.  This caused a HUGE meltdown.  I tried music to soothe the beast in the child seat, but it didn't work.  I was at my last nerve when I saw the Rabbid on the seat next to me.  I held it up in the air, and Teddy went silent immediately.  I said the Rabbid wanted Teddy to calm down and eat the red sucker.  He complied with no issues!  Thank you Burger King!  Thank you whoever made the Rabbid!  This is something that I will use for as long as it works.  Maybe when Teddy is 16, I can make sure the Rabbid keeps him as a fine respectful young man.  We'll see.  

I want requests for new reviews.  Give them to me.