They’re back.
One year after Shake Shack shook things up by changing from its previously frozen crinkle fries to a thinner variety cut by hand from fresh potatoes, the burger chain has announced it’s reverting to the original this fall. Some locations, including the Theater District and Madison Square Park shacks, never even made the change on the fry.
“Sourcing the best potatoes, cutting thousands of them by hand, soaking and double frying wasn’t easy,” Shake Shack CEO Randy Garutti said in a statement. “We weren’t satisfied and neither were the overwhelming majority of our fans. No matter how hard we tried, inconsistency remained, and we found ourselves unable, 100 percent of the time, to deliver what our guests loved most about our crinkle cuts.”
I can’t understand what Shake Shack fiends find so lovable about the crinkles.
Sure, they have a nostalgic appeal, conjuring up those frozen Ore-Ida products defrosted by Mom way back when, but they’re not good french fries. Too thick, sometimes soggy, with little exterior crunch and too much interior potato mush, they’ve always been the franchise’s weak link. The best I can say about them is that they’re adequately salty — the better to offset a sweet chocolate concrete.
Better yet, skip the fries altogether and save room for that frozen custard. Once those fat, mushy fries return, that will be easy to do.