Don't Elected Officials Deserve Better (or at least protesters and lobbyists)?

Hello all!  Time to brag a little bit.  Part of the reason these fry blogs don't hit every week is that I'm not exactly the most tech savvy guy.  My father worked at IBM until retirement, but that just meant that I learned how to do a little bit of basic Basic.  If you don't know what that means, you probably could teach me how to update this blog from my iPhone.  Anyways I just figured out that I can see how many people read this blog.  There have been a couple of blog posts that hit over 1000 readers!  Thank you for reading, and I'll try to update more often. 

This time around I have two reviews for everyone to enjoy.  The first one is County Club in Lexington, KY, and the next is the fries from the Capitol in Frankfort, KY.  Yup.  The Capitol.  Did you know they sold fries?  I believe that I may have classed up the place. 

County Club

I'm not a giant fan of fresh cut fries.  Lots of places are thinking it's cool to make fries from scratch, like that makes them any healthier.  Usually the people who like fresh cut fries are the types of people who love to tell me about their diets and workout plans.  No offense to those who like to be healthy.  I just don't need to have you sell me on your lifestyle.  Am I selling you all on my lifestyle by giving my thoughts on fries?  Yes, but that's different.  My opinion holds a lot of weight here (no belly jokes Chris Henry).  Fresh cut fries are usually soggy, and they often have lots of unneeded spices to hide the terrible feel of the fries.  

I was told by my good friend Ken Osborne from AD-IOS Media told me that there are fresh cut fries that could change my mind.  Ken is a Sales Account Manager for AD-IOS Media.  They do local internet marketing, and they set up websites.  They could probably help me make a much better blog.  I may have to look into that when one of you readers decide to sponsor the blog.  That's coming soon right? 

Anyways Ken decided to take me to County Club in Lexington to try to change my mind on fresh cut fries.  When I pulled up the place looked to be the size of a storage container that someone would make into a tiny house.  The building is set up to where you enter where all the windows and doors are.  Then you see a bunch of community tables with some booths set up.  I didn't want to sit with strangers, so I grabbed a booth while I waited for Ken (of course I was early).  After Ken got there, we got down to business.  This place sells Coke in the bottle.  For those who don't know, that means this is Mexican Coke.  It's made with real cane sugar, so it's awesome.  Does that mean I'm trying to tell people to eat natural?  Nah.  It's just really good.

The fries came out, and I was initially really happy.  The fries had a crunch to them that is normally missing from fresh cut fries.  They were all cooked roughly the same amount with a good amount of crunch on all the fries.  A couple of strays were less crunchy, but they had the same fluffiness on the inside of the fries.  I decided to let them sit for a few minutes to see if they suffer from the normal issue with other good fresh cut fries.  Often if they sit for too long, the fries become cold and limp quickly.  I was shocked to see these fries held up.  How is this possible?  County Club preps their fries in a serious way.  They fry them once, and then they fry them again to order.  These fries are no joke.  

Bottom line, this place is pretty good.  It's a good spot for a business lunch or a cool place to take a date.  It's kind of pricey, but the food is good.  Mexican Coke is always good, so they have that going for them too.  The fries are not top 10, but they are at the top of the list of fresh cut fries.  Congrats County Club!  

The Capitol

Why would someone allergic to politics dare to go to the Frankfort, KY to visit the Capitol?  I sit on the board for Lexington Hearing & Speech Center.  I've had some great service from those folks, and they do wonderful things for everyone from babies to senior citizens with hearing, speech, or language impairments.  I went to Frankfort to lobby on behalf of LHSC, and I'd like to think we were successful.  No one kicked us out of their office at least.  

After we were done, we were given a pass to order whatever we wanted from the Capitol Cafeteria.  The Capitol Cafeteria may sound like an exciting thing, but it's about as exciting as watching a 0-0 soccer game.  Imagine a high school cafeteria.  That's it.  It's the same thing, except they do have what should be a second line which would be mostly fast food type items.  Of course I went right for that line.  

Before getting into that, I must say that I spent a bit of time with my new friends lobbying with me talking about this blog.  Oddly enough they were entertained by the idea of the blog, and they jumped in with lots of questions about favorite fries.  These were all good folks, although I do remember a few people talking about curly fries or other spiced fries as being anything other than demonic.  Hopefully they all get a chance to check this one out.  Of course now this means that one of our board members introduces me as the guy who writes the fry blog.  Thank you Mary Beth.  I'm obviously extremely proud to be known as the dude who knows where to get quality fries.  I'm sure at some point this will make me insanely rich, and I will have you to thank for it.  

Back to the fries.  First I was about 2 minutes late getting into line.  I was behind a group of high school kids who were on a tour.  A couple of them decided to chat me up asking about my background.  After a few questions, I figured out they thought I was an elected official.  I didn't know whether or not to be insulted.  Thanks to them, I was in line for a good 15 minutes.  With all of those people in line, at least the fries would be fresh right?  Right?

Nope.  Don't be fooled by the picture below.  They look good.  They have the right golden look, and they all look to be perfectly processed and cooked to a nice crisp.  Instead they were pretty cold, and they were stale.  I'm assuming that the Capitol Cafe decided to cook up a bunch of fries and keep them in a warmer for when they are needed.  Of course this is an awful thing to do, and you should never spend a dime on fries at the Capitol.  Thankfully I didn't, but I did get a good drive through on the way back in to work that day.  Congratulations Capitol Cafeteria!  You have given me the highest level of disappointment on any fries that I looked forward to trying.  No spice, so it doesn't go on the worst list.  I think it may be the worst of the best though.

There you have it.  Good fresh cut fries at County Club, and stay far away from the fries at the Capitol.  Also if you need help building a website that is actually useful, let me get you in touch with Ken Osborne.  If you need a great non profit to donate time or money to, Lexington Hearing & Speech Center is your place!

I need some inspiration for my next blog entry.  Have I not reviewed your favorite fries?  Let me know.  My lunch time is ready for you.