Fiction frightens more than french fries
Have you ever seen someone pass out? I am not talking about a moment when someone blacks out and then immediately regains consciousness. I mean watching someone fall from a chair to the floor, completely passed out, eyes rolled back in their head, with absolutely no movement. Just be glad that you weren’t with my when I grabbed Belgian fries from Pommes Frites with a friend Saturday afternoon.
But, let me start at the beginning. It was lunch hour and the location was East Village. My friend and I both wanted to avoid breaking the bank for Saturday lunch but also knew we wanted to eat at a place with good food and a friendly atmosphere.
Pomes Frites is a small restaurant, if you can even call it a restaurant—I think that eatery would be a better word. Three tall, welcoming, wooden chairs decorate the exterior. The rustic outdoor wooden siding invites you inside to review the menu and enjoy the antique interior. Immediately upon entry you spy the fryers (which, from what I noticed, used clean, fresh oil, nothing black and old), the bar to order at and a few tables in the background. The menu consists of Pommes Frites, French for French fries, and the array of sauces available for dipping.
At first glance, the menu of sauces looks daunting. There is everything from organic black truffle to sweet mango chutney to Parmesan peppercorn. But, do not be discouraged! After your eyes bulge, the friendly staff will ask if you want to sample anything. Allison and I tried the three listed above (they even included enough fries for us both to sample each sauce).
Once you decide the size of French fries– regular, large or double– you can choose to either have one sauce on top or several on the side. The prices for single sauces and several vary, but it is certainly worth the additional few dollars to choose three. And since the regular size fries is plenty large, you can walk away with fries, sauce and sodas for two people for about five dollars each.
Pommes Frites cuts its fries in-house and fry them fresh. You can even watch the chef in the back kitchen mix together the delicious sauces. The fries are served in a paper cone and you can’t just set a cone piled with fries on the table. So, Pommes Frites developed a unique design into all their seating areas—holes to place your cone into! Enjoy your hot fries, fresh sauces and cold soda in style.
Back to the story though—someone passing out is much too interesting to leave out of the experience. Allison and I had enjoyed almost all of our fries over Coke and great conversation when, all of a sudden, I hear a– THUD. The woman sitting beside me hit the floor. Her book was poised on the table next to her sunglasses beside a novel, but both she and her fries were on the floor. The entire restaurant gasped. Allison and I jumped out of our chairs beside her, and a few people sitting at the tables behind us rushed over to gently turn her head over. When she regained consciousness almost 20 seconds later, they refreshed her with water. The lady was quite apologetic to have created a disruption and credited her book’s gripping novel for her tragic fall. To all who eat fries and read books: be warned!