French Fry Diary 450: Allen's Clam Bar

Allen's Clam Bar, on Route 9 in New Gretna, New Jersey used to be my late father's favorite restaurant. Now, keep in mind, my father was a man who did not go out to restaurants. Once he was retired, he went to McDonald's in the morning for coffee and gossip with the other old men, and would grudgingly accompany the family out when my sister from Nebraska would swoop in once a year - but other than that, he was not a restaurant guy.

My father was a woodsman and a hunter, a farmer and a country boy. I could see how this place in the middle of nowhere would appeal to him. And as I accompanied him on many instructional and fun walks and rides in the woods, I can easily see how he would enjoy the one to two hour drive through the Pine Barrens to get to Allen's.

He and my mom would go there on summer weekends to enjoy the air, and the ride - and I suppose also the food and the ambiance. I had the opportunity to go to Allen's twice. The first time I think was my dad trying to show me what he thought a 'real' restaurant was like, and second was the truly painful experience of the parents taking me and a girlfriend to a 'real' restaurant. I miss my parents a lot now that they're gone, but even in hindsight, this latter trip holds no joy.

Allen's Clam Bar is a place out of time. If I recall correctly, and this is going back nearly three decades, the place had a dirt parking lot and a wood floor porch. The inside was more of a small but empty general store out of the 1920s that someone had awkwardly set up tables and chairs in. Cramped and dusty, although not on the tables, I was greeted by a very simple menu, printed on the placemat. As I recall, the waitresses also exude a rustic Piney charm - take that any way you want to.

The menu consisted of a variety of seafood items, most of them fried, that all came with two sides, the only one of which this catastrophically picky eater would eat was the favorite fried food. On both trips I got the fried scallops and two sides of French fries.

Each of my orders - the scallops, the fries, and the fries - came on a big paper plate, so I had three piled high paper plates. I remember that the scallops may as well have been Mrs. Paul's (nothing wrong with that, I love Mrs. Paul's scallops) were it not for their large size. The fries were definitely from the grocer's freezer (regular or crinkle cut, although pics online may indicate they're now natural cuts) and deep fried in the same oil as everything else, so they had that unique fishy tinge - not necessarily a bad thing.

Allen's Clam Bar is still there, but I haven't been back. I understand why my dad liked it, and I'm sure my folks had good times there. I found some pics of the place online. It doesn't seem like it's changed much. I don't remember the shark though. Maybe I'll get back there someday, and have some fries for my dad.

Burger Lounge for Hurricane Relief

We've talked about California-based Burger Lounge, home of the original grass-fed burger, here before. Today, and this week, they're doing something very special for folks in this geographical area.

“Hurricane Sandy’s wrath has left thousands of people in New York, New Jersey and surrounding areas without shelter, power and water. Many of us here in Southern California have friends and family in these devastated areas. Our heart goes out to all whom have been affected by this terrible storm. As thousands of individuals and business generously reach out by donating to the relief effort, we at Burger Lounge will donate to the American Red Cross a full week’s sales revenue from our two newest stores located in West Hollywood and Beverly Hills. It is also our hope that this donation encourages others to make contributions, small and large to help get these people back on their feet.”
– Dean Loring, President & CEO, Burger Lounge

Thank you, Dean, and Burger Lounge, and to the folks dining at those two locations this week. You rock.

French Fry Diary 322: Smashburger 2012

Smash. Sizzle. Savor. That's what it says on the windows at Smashburger, and it pretty much says what the burgers there are all about. They are fantastic. And after re-reading my first review of Smashburger last year, the burger, and the Haystack Onions, are why we came back.

Like last year, The Bride and I were in North Jersey for New Year's Eve -good friends and good fun- and we decided to again hit Smashburger in the Riverside Square Mall in Paramus for lunch. It was just the two of us and we were hungry, as opposed to exploring the menu or writing reviews (although you knew it was coming, I couldn't let you folks down), so we just got the usual fast food staples.

However, remembering the grease factor of our first visit, I ordered the Haystack Onions over the Smashfries, although The Bride did get them. The fries - shoestrings with rosemary, olive oil, and garlic - were as bad as last time. The burger on the other hand was better, an almost perfect roll too, and it was less greasy than I remember, as were the onions. I wished I had remembered to sandwich them though, that would have been great. The Bride still held on to her opinion about the greasy burger while I was thoroughly satisfied with mine. We also shared a terrific vanilla Butterfinger shake.

I walked away from this visit much happier than I did last New Year's, and anxious to try it again. I think perhaps next year we'll make Smashburger an official annual tradition, and invite some of our party mates along as well. Maybe I can convince someone to try the various flash-fried veggies next time.

French Fry Diary 296: Zinc Café

This is where we went for The Bride's birthday this year. She had a late night at work and then a Pineland Players meeting so we had to schedule dinner in a tight schedule and also do it somewhere in Medford so we would have time. I got online with Urbanspoon with my iPhone and found the Zinc Café, a place with perfect timing and location that we all agreed on.

The Zinc Café is kinda tucked away on Stokes Road, so if you don't know where it is, you might miss it, but you'll also be missing out on one of the best local restaurants around too. This was a rare find indeed. It's a little small, but you can also eat outside. It's cozy, and a little dim, but it's great atmosphere. Small town meets fancy coffee shop, friendly and cool, I liked it a lot.

The menu has an amazing selection, both healthy and bad for you, both simple and exotic. No Coca-Cola products but they had Boylan instead. My cane cola was a welcome change of pace. They also had appetizers of thin crispy breadsticks that tasted like matzo, very addictive. I could have been happy just with the soda and the sticks.

The Bride and her mom got salads with some amazing add-ins, and we were all surprised by the crisp, fresh and colorful vegetables. The Bride got a grilled cheese sandwich (it's what she wanted for her birthday) with a few cheeses I couldn't pronounce. I got a burger (surprise), which was just terrific, and of course, with the burger were fries.

The French fries were natural cut shoestrings, another sign of high class, at least by this fry guy's estimation. They were very crispy, and had a certain kick we couldn't quite identify, but it was a good kick. All in all, it was a wonderful experience. I really think I have found a new favorite restaurant.

Random Tater Pic of the Day #22

This is the legendary Nathan's Famous without fries at the Thomas Edison Service Plaza on the New Jersey Turnpike. If you want the favorite fried food here, you have to go to Burger King or Popeye's. That's just wrong.

French Fry Diary 259: The Capital Grille, Cherry Hill NJ

My good friend Ken came up from Kentucky to spend some time with us here in the wretched state of his birth, New Jersey. My job, while he's here, is to ruin his diet. Also, because he'll let me. The problem sometimes with doing French Fry Diary is that many of my friends and family are on diets, and they won't/can't come out to play with me when it comes to reviewing fries. So, sometimes, I save the big ones for when Ken visits. Such was the case with the Capital Grille at the Cherry Hill Mall. We decided to go there for a late winter lunch and see what we could see.

The Capital Grille is a very ritzy place, various ceramic animal heads and a few birds of prey around a classic wood decor and an onsite wine reserve and butcher shop. Regarding that last bit, our server Christopher, who was very friendly and informative, says TCG specializes in dried aged beef. And extra points for Christopher - he didn't discriminate against us in t-shirts and jeans as opposed to everyone else there in office suit attire. We felt very out of place, but he made us feel at home.

I ordered, go ahead and guess what I ordered, folks, yes, a burger. Even in a classy restaurant, this catastrophically picky eater and fast food junkie still goes for the burger. This was a wonderfully rich chopped sirloin burger, but still a burger. Bread came and included a crispy flatbread that tasted a bit sweet. The burger was superb (dried aged beef, remember?), one of the best burgers I've had in a while, but that's not what you're here for, you want to hear about the favorite fried food, right?

The French fries were regular cut natural cuts called Parmesan Truffle Fries. Now truffle is one of the Holy Grail ingredients when it comes to fries, both truffle oil and truffle salt. The third in the triumvirate is of course duck fat. These fries were cooked in a garlic truffle oil with Parmesan and shaved parsley. They were very crispy, possibly deep-fried - very very good, but underneath it all they weren't that special. On the other hand, Ken said they were best fries he'd ever had, and that the spices made them. I thought they were great but if anything the truffle oil might have overpowered them a bit.

So despite the difference of opinion on the fries, my trip to the Capital Grille, and my first encounter with truffle oil, was a terrific lunch with a great friend. Good food, good conversation, good times.

Random Tater Pic of the Day #4

This one comes from my buddy Ray who says, still concerned about the lack of Roy Rogers outside of the turnpikes in New Jersey, "Not a dream - a real Roy Rogers in Toms River!"

French Fry Diary 229: Return to the Molly Pitcher Travel Plaza

So here I am, on Memorial Day weekend, back at the Molly Pitcher rest stop on the New Jersey Turnpike. The last time I was here, neither Arthur Treacher's nor Dick Clark's American Bandstand Grill nor even Nathan's were open.

Surprisingly, tonight, Sunday of one of the busiest traffic weekends of the year at 10:45 PM - they were in the process of closing again. So it was Roy Rogers by default again. No complaints there, I love Roy Rogers, but I did want to try the others.

It should be noted that the real Dick Clark's American Bandstand Grill is in Banson, Missouri, and that I could find no record of this one on the internet. Also, this Arthur Treacher's Fish & Chips is one of those affiliated with Nathan's, and not one of the 'real' ones from Ohio that has the 'real' Arthur Treacher's chips. All I would have gotten here is Nathan's fries anyway. Again, no complaints, but I want the real chips, you know?

Now I have to figure out if these closings are something deliberate against me or do these restaurants have weirder hours than those at Harrahs. You know, the casino, another place that is open twenty-four hours a day. I just find it funny. I mean, do 7-Eleven or 24/7 convenience stores close up parts of their store at inopportune times?

The Pop Shop Cheesy Poetry Contest

From The Pop Shop in Collingswood, New Jersey:

Cheesy Poetry Contest - Enter today!

April is National Grilled Cheese month and The Pop Shop - with over 30 grilled cheese variations on its menu - is the place to celebrate! Along with being National Grilled Cheese Month, April is also National Poetry Month. The Pop Shop loves both, so we're hosting our fourth annual Pop Shop Poetry Contest.

We're looking for great poems, limericks or haikus about something Pop Shop related. The winning bards - one child and one adult - will each receive a free T-shirt and a gift certificate for a free lunch.

To enter, e-mail The Pop Shop or snail mail your entry to:

The Pop Shop Contest
729 Haddon Avenue
Collingswood, NJ 08108

The deadline is April 26, 2010. Winners will be named on May 4 in a ceremony at The Pop Shop.

Click here to see poems from last year's contest.

And don't forget that Pop Shop fries go great with Pop Shop grilled cheese!

French Fry Diary 101: The Pub, Pennsauken NJ

The Pub has been a fixture on the Airport Circle (or what’s left of it) for decades. I had stopped going there some time ago because of difficulties with the no smoking law in NJ restaurants. With that cleared up I finally went back. It was never a question of the food, only the air.

The Pub is a beautiful place, somewhat out of time. Great bar lounge, semi-ancient video games off in a hidden corner and a gigantic dining hall reminiscent of medieval times. A couple of the prime features of The Pub experience are the enormous help-yourself salad bar, and the hot fresh loaves of bread brought right to your table. Mostly though, The Pub is known for its open-air char-grilling. It’s a thrill to see the open flames billowing from the ovens and knowing that your steaks or other meats are being perfected there. Sorry, barbequing – it’s a guy thing.

I got my usual, the chopped steak, basically a glorified hamburger, but it made me very happy. The best chopped steak of its kind in my opinion, and it comes with a big thick wonderful onion ring with some delicious au jus ladled over it. But that’s not why you’re here – you’re here for the favorite fried food.

I ordered the steak fries I remember from my last visit some eight years ago, although it should be noted that The Pub also serves a terrific baked potato as well. Either choice is usually amazing. Unfortunately, it seems the steak fries are not what they once were, or at least weren’t this trip. They were kind of unspectacular, but tasty with the au ju. On previous visits, the steak fries were almost perfection.

I did notice something odd during dinner. Other guests who had ordered the crab cakes or the actual hamburger (as opposed to the fancy one I ordered) also got fries as a side, but they weren’t steak fries, they were regular cuts. It made me wonder how many different fries are available at The Pub, and why it doesn’t say anything about it on the menu.

French Fry Diary 87: French Fry Gun

We don’t have Roy Rogers in South Jersey any more. Well, if you check the map, we do have a Roy Rogers in Cherry Hill, but you have to get on the turnpike to get there and then ride it out to the next exit to get back. A long trip and an annoying toll does not a quick lunch make, so Roy’s is a rare treat. Usually a trip down 95 and a rest stop is the only time I get to go to Roy Rogers.

The last time I went to Roy Rogers was on my recent trip to Baltimore for the Comic Con there with my friend Ray. While there, discussing the fries (what else?), the conversation went thusly...

Glenn: “What’s not to love? The fries come in a holster!”

Ray: “That’s why I’m surprised Roy Rogers never did well in the South. You could get a gun as a prize.”

Glenn: “Mmmm... Fry gun…”

Yeah, I’ve been doing this far too long.

French Fry Diary 41: Friendly’s Family Restaurant

I haven’t been to a Friendly’s Family Restaurant in quite some time, due to a difference of opinion regarding what constitutes a non-smoking section. In other words, the non-smoking section should not be a row of booths in the very center of the restaurant where everything else is a smoking section. That just doesn’t work. And considering that NJ restaurants have been smoke-free for quite some time – that should tell you how long it’s been since I’ve been to a Friendly’s.

Now onto what we’re here for today, the favorite fried food. In the past, maybe a decade or two back, Friendly Fries (and I believe they may have been trademarked at one point) were among the best available at family restaurant franchises. Thin regular cuts, but not thin enough to be shoestrings, were hot, crisp, tasty and quite enjoyable. Unfortunately, those days and those fries are long gone.

What Friendly’s now offers are what diners used to have before the advent of Invisicoat – greasy, sub-standard regular cuts. Adequate, but then again, often not. The quality and the consistency have vanished. Nobody who liked fries is going to Friendly’s for fries anymore.

Also in the potato arena, Friendly’s has the “Jumbo Fronions and Waffle Fries” with onion rings and seasoned waffle cut potato wedges. The ones I tried were overdone and the seasoning left an unwanted aftertaste. The onion rings were thick - but not thick enough to merit being called thick – and otherwise unspectacular. This again is sad, as twenty years ago Friendly’s had the best onion rings – thin and crisp, just right. And ten years ago they had the Frunions (sp?), which were tasty and spicy onion straws (gone as well). One serving of those was enough for a meal in itself – but this sampler is barely enough for one, and definitely not for two.

Friendly’s is not a complete disaster though. The ice cream is still excellent and they still have those great large (very large) Cokes, as long as they don’t over-ice the glass. But then again, what am I really saying if I say Friendly’s has really good Coke, ya know? The service was less than pleasant, but that’s true of many places. Suffice it to say, if you want fries, drive past Friendly’s.

French Fry Diary 39: Sonic Hysteria

I knew there was something weird when I drove past the site of the new Audubon Sonic Drive-In a month ago and people had their hands on the chainlink fences just staring at the nearly built structure. I think the folks at Sonic have put something in the water in this area of New Jersey…

Now they are open, and it’s dinner time in early September, and traffic is lined up around the place, past the Chick-fil-A next door and into the intersection of the Black Horse Pike. There are at least three police cars in attendance, and everyone, and I mean everyone, wants to get into Sonic.

I’m not sure about why this particular site is getting so popular. Yes, Sonic is fairly new to this area, but there are others. There’s been one in Vineland for a while, one just opened in Mount Holly and I’ve even reviewed the one across the river near Philadelphia Park. But somehow, this Audubon location is driving folks to hysteria.

As I turn into the Sonic, an employee tells me all the stalls are filled, would I like drive-thru or patio. When I say drive-thru, she checks via headset if that’s doable. Two more employee checkpoints along the trip to the drive-thru do the same. It’s like crossing over into Canada, but a much smoother operation.

Yep, Sonic is prepared for this as if it’s some well-planned invasion. Someone should check the water. I think we’re under attack. Now if they could only bring this military precision and quality control to their less than stellar fries…

French Fry Diary 32: Olga’s Diner 1949-2009

Originally it was located in Camden NJ and first opened in 1949. In 1960 they opened the location most people know it by on the circle where Route 73 and Route 70 meet. For sixty years Olga’s Diner was a South Jersey icon and landmark.

Whether you were on your way to Philadelphia or down the shore, Olga’s was the place you met and got together – though if you were local it was not necessarily the place you ate. Being open twenty-four hours it was sometimes where you ended up at four in the morning.

At one time the food must have been good. Supposedly the bakery was legendary. But for as long as I’ve been aware of Olga’s it was not the place to eat. Maybe get coffee or a Coke (although I think they gave you Pepsi no matter what you asked for) but nothing else.

For those wondering about the favorite fried food, they were typical diner fare. Regular straight cuts, probably frozen and then deep fried, and they were replaced by those awful Invisicoat things when that came into style. Bad fries to match the rest of the place.

It has been in serious decline the last decade. Closed due to health violations, pest problems (when it snowed you could clearly see the rats running in the parking lot), seriously defeated by the vastly superior Medport Diner down the road in Medford and the recent Marlton Diner right up the street, for sale several times, seized due to backtaxes, and now, possibly, finally dealt the deathblow of the Circle being demolished to facilitate a cloverleaf.

It looks as if now it will soon be torn down, and South Jersey will lose a friendly and familiar if tarnished landmark. I don’t know if there really ever was an Olga, but we’ll miss her and her Diner. Rest in peace.

French Fry Diary 29: Tornado Fries

Traditionally a treat on the streets of Seoul, South Korea, the infamous Tornado Fries have finally made it to the States.

For those of you who don’t know about the tornado potato, we’re talking about an entire potato, thinly spiral-cut, and deep-fried on a skewer. Check the pic for further illumination.

According to Serious Eats, it will be available at the Minnesota State Fair this summer, as well as being available in this French fry lover’s back yard, on the New Jersey Boardwalk.

The Original Tornado Fries is now open on the Wildwood Boardwalk and doing a brisk business. You can get them with a variety of seasonings and toppings.

So if you get down to the Wildwood shore, and you’re an aficionado of the favorite fried food, don’t forget to stop by and get your Tornado Fries.


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