Frencheez brings a 'little bit of everything' to Rouses Point

Jun. 24—ROUSES POINT — It all started with French fries.

That's right — the idea behind Matt and Brandie Hammons' new restaurant "Frencheez" in Rouses Point was born out of their shared love of French fries.

"And how everything is good on French fries," Matt said.

"And that kind of evolved into well, what else could you put it on? You know, what else could you do this stuff with? and that led us to rice bowls and nachos and salads. and just looking around, there's a lot of fantastic Italian food in Rouses Point, there are a lot of great options, but we wanted to bring something different."

And they did just that.

With Greek, Mexican and typical American dishes, Matt calls the type of food they offer at Frencheez "American-fusion."

"Which is just my way of saying, 'Well, we've got a little bit of everything,'" he said.

"Again, we steer clear of what some of the other places around here do, because they do it exceptionally and we're not trying to imitate anyone, we're trying to bring another option to people."

Brandie also highlighted the inclusivity of Frencheez, saying all ages are more than welcome there.

"I wanted it to be like a family place, because we have children (Madelyn and Brayden) so ... we have a little lounge with toys, we have a kid's menu and crayons that they can color with, just to kind of make it more fun for parents to enjoy themselves," she said.

"The first day we were open ... all these kids were just playing in that little area."

Matt said owning an inclusive, fun restaurant like this was always something they wanted to do.

But before deciding on the building at 90 Lake St. in Rouses Point, where the Old Tyme's Cafe and Nico's Pizza used to be, he said they looked at a number of potential restaurant locations from Champlain to Plattsburgh to Chazy.

"And everywhere in between. Really, this location just spoke to us when we saw it. Brandie called me and said, 'You have to see this place; I think it's the one.' and the fact that it was a restaurant before, there's a lot of character and a lot of charm to this building," Matt said.

"More so than anything else that we looked at, we said this is where we want to be."

Brandie's father, Randy Davison, then purchased the building for them in November of last year.

Since then, Davison has been busy rehabbing, fixing and turning the building into Brandie and Matt's dream restaurant.

"He's been with us every step of the way," Matt said.

Now, the building is finished and decorated with a 1970-era theme — the exact look Brandie wanted — which she said just felt right for the place.

"We decided on the '70s theme, made those records — my dad and I did that — and then we decided to just put flowers up and wallpaper," Brandie said, adding that neither she nor Matt were actually born in the '70s.

"My mom always said I belonged in the '70s."

The two were finally able to celebrate all of their hard work coming to fruition on June 16, when they soft-opened Frencheez.

"We're very happy that people were so supportive and so patient," Matt said.

"We've had an incredible response from the community. Lots of support, lots of positive feedback and we're really excited to keep receiving that feedback."

A grand opening will be held at a later date, but now they are officially open Thursday through Monday, and the hours of operation are 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. everyday except Sunday when they close at 8 p.m.

Matt said it would be ideal to open more days in the future.

"At this time, we don't have the staff to be open beyond five days a week."

The hectic and fast-paced restaurant industry, though, is nothing new to neither Brandie or Matt.

Up until a few days before Frencheez opened, Brandie was a long-time server at Sip in Plattsburgh and Matt was most recently a cook at MHAB in Plattsburgh.

Both had to quit their jobs to run Frencheez and Matt acknowledged how big of a risk that was.

"I believe that you have to be all in to succeed and we are betting on ourselves and our future and we're going for it," he said.

"I always say, having the skills that I have, having the skills that Brandie has, we can always go back to work if we have to. We can always work for other people if we have to, but ideally, we would like to work for ourselves here. and that's what we're set out to do."

He then called Frencheez their own "American Dream."

"It's always been our dream to have a place of our own, something that we could leave behind to our children, leave a legacy and just do what we love and do it for ourselves," Matt said.

"This is truly our dream and our life's work and we're excited to share that."

Email: cnewton@pressrepublican.com

Twitter: CarlySNewton