Big John's Fast Fries

 

Happy New Year! Well friends, I took a longer hiatus than I thought I would for the holidays, and promise to catch you up from some of the cool things we ate earlier in December at a later date. But today, I want to tell you about my experience at a new place in town. 2020 wasn't the easiest of years. And while we lost some good restaurants, we gained some new ones to try! Since I had most of the week off of work, I thought I would take a trip across town (when you can't eat inside a place, that's a trek!) to try out Big John's Fast Fries. 

Big John's Fast Fries follows a similar menu model as Raisin' Canes - have a limited number of items, but make them awesome. Big John's has only one item on their menu - French fries. Genius, because who doesn't love fries? (Except for what I would assume is a small handful of people.) So take the fries, but dress them up. Kind of like how we all love a good grilled cheese and then restaurants offer us a "grown-up" version that has some fancier than Kraft singles cheese and maybe some bacon and/or tomato and we fall back in love, Big John's does the same thing with fries. 

So, ordering your fries is a very simple but difficult three step process. Simple because you only have to make three decisions. Difficult because narrowing those three decisions down is TOUGH!

Step 1: What kind of fries do you want? This is the easiest step, in my opinion. I went with the regular fries, but you can also be fancy and order garlic parmesan or spicy pepper fries. (Spicy pepper might happen next time.)

Step 2: Pick your gravy. This is where it gets a little difficult. You have 5 options that all sound amazing. It really comes down to what flavor profile you are in the mood for. 

Creamy Chicken: Shredded chicken in a white gravy - a cross between an Alfredo and a stroganoff 

P'Tator Pork: Sweet shredded pork in a mac & cheese style sauce

Roast Beef: Shredded beef with savory gravy

Pizza: Sausage and pepperoni in a fresh veggie sauce with peppers and onions

Taco Chili: A blend of taco flavors and chili beans

Step 2 was a hard one for me, but I went with roast beef. Shocking, right friends? Many of you would have expected me to get the pizza fries. Fooled you! 

Step 3: CHEESE ME! Y'all know I love cheese. This was the hardest step for me. The cheese options are mild cheddar, sharp cheddar, mozzarella and pepper jack. For me it was a tossup between mozzarella and pepper jack, so I asked which cheese they would recommend. When they said pepper jack, I didn't need to debate anymore. I went with the experts and go the pepper jack. 

So, how good were these fries? Well, let's just start with me telling you that I enjoyed them in a strip mall parking lot. Thanks to Covid, I couldn't go inside the restaurant and since I live about 20 minutes away, I was very concerned about the fries getting soggy by the time I got home. So I pulled over into a strip mall parking lot and dug in!

How cute is this box?! Also, how dusty is my dashboard? Don't judge. 

The finished product on first opening

It may not look like much, but y'all ... that little box was JAM PACKED with flavor. When I say it tasted like poutine on crack, I mean it. The pepper jack really takes this thing to the next level. The roast and gravy was like it had been sitting in a crockpot forever (or like 10 hours or so) and was so tender and the flavors reminded me of when my grandma would make us roast and rice and gravy for multiple meals a week growing up. It was heavenly. I didn't need to eat the entire box, and probably shouldn't have since I was beyond full with just half of the box but I wasn't going to let those fries get soggy and that gravy and cheese go to waste. Oh no, I did my part for the good of everyone to leave no fry behind. 

One thing I didn't get was the dessert fries. I know, I was also like "DESSERT FRIES?!" I'm intrigued, very intrigued. But considering ordering savory fries was decision overload, I couldn't make a decision on dessert fries in the same thought process. Guess it means I have to go back, right? 

If you haven't been to Big John's yet, go. Don't wait for another invitation. And if you go, tell me what you ordered so I can copy you the next time I go. Oh! And if you get the dessert fries, fill me in on what that's like, ok? Or just buy me a box...either way. Can't wait to eat our way through 2021 together!