Serious Eats
Montreal and New Orleans Midwestern French Fry Mashup at fRedhots and Fries in Illinois
Regional delicacies suck. Not in taste, but precisely because their goodness rarely transcends geography. Whether it’s the water (New York pizza, Montreal bagels, Philly cheesesteak bread) or stubborn (but smart) non-franchising ingenuity (Chris Bianco’s pizzas, Doug Sohn’s sausages), the really good stuff makes you come to it. Rare is the reasonably good re-creation of a local food stuff star. Rarer yet, or maybe unprecedented, is the genius in which three great regional delicacies get mixed together and somehow come out better in a place in which none of those items is native.
Until now.
Somehow, Fred Markhoff of fRedhots and Fries, the goateed sausage king of Chicago’s Northwest suburbs, has stolen the best of New Orleans’ roast beef po-boys, Belgian frites, and Montreal’s poutine in creating his BBQ Debris Frites. The frites are crispy and dark brown, and while not simmered in horse fat (due, no doubt, to the local custom of frowning on the use of animals we tend to bet the superfecta on at Arlington Park more than we eat) are tasty enough on their own. But then the dude goes and throws the gravy-slathered remains of his lean, juicy, and incredibly well seasoned Italian beef roast, aka the "debris" (which I frankly prefer to the occasionally tougher cuts you find at Mother's in the Big Easy), and slathers it with a sweet spicy barbecue sauce. Put together, this concoction is on its way to being a singular legendary Chicago treat. The only way to make it more regional would be to throw some Wisconsin cheese curds on top. Of course, that wouldn’t be very local now, would it?
Fredhots and Fries
1707 Chestnut Avenue, Glenview IL 60025 (map)
847-657-9200
fredhots.com