We asked and you voted. Here is the pick for best french fries in the Triangle

The Triangle’s top french fry is always on the go, but you probably don’t want to eat them in the car.

From 50 of the region’s very best french fries, readers of The News & Observer consistently picked one fry as the favorite.

The top french fry in the Triangle is served by the Not Just a Fry Guy food truck, which collected 38 percent of the final vote, topping Al’s Burger Shack in Chapel Hill and Durham’s NanaSteak.

The Golden Fry

The french fry food truck Not Just a Fry Guy is a third career for David Long, who spent 20 years in the restaurant industry, working in mom and pop joints and corporate hotels, and even for a phone company. He now wields a deep fryer like an artist with a brush.

To launch the Not Just a Fry Guy truck, Long cashed in his pension from the telephone company in January of 2019. A few bumps and hurdles and a global pandemic later, the food truck was born in 2021.

“The appeal, let’s face it: what does not go on a french fry?” Long said. “I can put just about anything on these potatoes and they’re delicious.”

The name comes from some reticence Long felt about starting a food truck in his mid-50s, with a menu built around plates of crispy potatoes.

“I told my wife (Lori West) I didn’t want to be just a ‘fry guy’ and she came up with the name ‘Not Just a Fry Guy,’” Long said. “When we came up with the concept I had black truffle, garlic Parmesan fries. I’m kind of the Bubba Gump of fries. We have poutine fries, shrimp garlic fries. You name it.”

Long was born in Rockingham County, the son of a Reidsville preacher. After his father took a church in Saskatchewan, Canada, Long grew up with gravy fries, similar to poutine but minus the cheese curds.

On the Triangle’s food truck circuit, Not Just a Fry Guy is often set up outside breweries, office parks, neighborhoods and as part of festivals.

Long spent months of french fry R&D to perfect his brand of crispy potato. Not Just a Fry Guy hand cuts its fries from seasonal Kennebec poatoes. In the summer months when those aren’t available, Long fries up the Burbank variety, the same potato used in McDonald’s famous fries.

All of the fries go through a double-fry process, Long said, ensuring a hearty crispiness that can hold up under loaded toppings.

Loaded fries top the (gluten-free) menu

Long said the most popular plate remains the Loaded Fries — a take on the loaded baked potato with a creamy cheese sauce, bacon, sour cream and chopped green onions. Other mainstays include the Cheeseburger Fries, a traditional poutine and the Philly Cheese Fries.

There are also plates of seasonal fries, which Long said allows him some creativity, serving up dishes of french fries built like a Greek gyro or topped with ratatouille, and the currently available pimento cheese and hot honey.

“That one is selling like crazy,” Long said. “Now Chick-Fil-A has a version, but I did it first.”

When Not Just a Fry Guy launched, Long said some family friends saw the menu and said they wouldn’t be able to eat any of the options, due to a severe gluten allergy. Long said that made him rethink the entire menu, which is now 100 percent gluten-free and has found a following within the local Celiac disease support community.

“Our customers, fans and supporters have really rallied around us,” Long said.

That includes support for one of the truck’s most popular seasonal plates, the upcoming Octoberfest Fries, which is made with onions braised in gluten-free beer, sauerkraut and smoked sausage.

“It’s a great honor (to be named best french fries),” Long said. “It’s a great thing just to be nominated, It’s validation we must be doing something right. We love doing it and will do it as long as we can.”

The Silver Fry: Al’s Burger Shack

A few years ago, a national burger round-up landed Al’s Burger Shack in the spotlight, with the Chapel Hill hot spot’s chili cheeseburger named the country’s best.

The burgers are smashed and griddled and part of an early adopter of the red hot smashburger trend, all modeled on the classic American roadside joint.

That model goes right down to the french fries, which at Al’s are crinkle cuts, with deep crispy ridges that play up the crunch. But these fries get a few gourmet updates — most notably, the sprinkle of chopped fresh rosemary that’s sprinkled on while the oil is still dripping from the potatoes, lightly frying the herb and perfuming the air.

For Charlie Farris, who with Jason Kessler bought Al’s Burger Shack last year from founder Al Bowers, these crinkle cuts are a sweet kind of nostalgia.

“The fries were a very important part of the decision to buy (Al’s),” Farris said. “Crinkles are my favorite...It’s kind of nostalgic, I like to put extra salt on mine and the ridges seem to hold salt better and help you scoop the ketchup.”

Farris said his first job was at Dick’s Hot Dog Stand in Wilson and that the fries are almost identical to Al’s, but without the modern touch of rosemary.

“The rosemary elevates them a little, making them more of a bougie fry,” Farris said. “When you put that fresh rosemary on the very hot fries, it’s such a nice fragrance and obviously a great taste.”

Bronze Fry: NanaSteak

Humble as they may be, there’s a grand tradition of fancy fries at fine dining restaurants.

From the 50 french fry joints we started with at the beginning of this journey to find the Triangle’s top french fry, NanaSteak’s always stood out as one of the fanciest, served in a setting with chandeliers and white tablecloths. Such a dining room can be a lot to live up to for a french fry, but NanaSteak serves its spuds double fried and then dunked in a dedicated deep fryer filled with wagyu beef fat.

The fries are then sprinkled with cheese and herbs and salt and served with bearnaise sauce.

As fries go, they’re fancy for sure, but NanaSteak co-owner Graham Weddington said there’s real affection out there for these french fries.

“Diners will tell us they come just for the french fries,” Weddington said. “And neighbors who live in the nearby apartments say they’ll cook burgers at home and then when the burgers are halfway done pop over and grab an order of our fries.”

Situated next to DPAC, NanaSteak is a popular dining destination for those looking for an occasion. Weddington said the fries aim to reflect the rest of the menu, with flavor built in layers.

“Once we discovered wagyu beef fat, it changed the way we did fries,” he said. “We’re always trying to put the best products out there and it just adds another layer of flavor....For us it’s one of those things where it seems like once you do it right it’s hard to ever do it any other way.”