French fries were the main attraction in West Reading as restaurants, food trucks and vendors filled Penn Avenue with everything from pulled pork and birria chicken fries to duck poutine and jerk chicken Alfredo.
The 7th Annual West Reading French Fry Fest brought crowds to the borough for an afternoon built around creative takes on the familiar favorite. This year, the festival expanded into the 600 and 700 blocks of Penn Avenue, giving visitors more room to walk between vendors, compare creations and decide which fries to try next.
And there were plenty of choices.
Some vendors kept the focus on the fries themselves, while others turned them into a full meal with combinations of meats, cheeses, sauces and other toppings.
At Nonno Alby’s, pulled pork fries started with hand-cut fries and pork roasted overnight in the restaurant’s wood-fired oven. The dish was finished with cheese whiz and the restaurant’s homemade honey hot sauce.
“We roast our pork in the wood-fired oven overnight, come in the morning, finish it off,” Massimo Grande, owner of Nonno Alby’s said while preparing an order. “Our hand-cut fries. Then we have our cheese whiz, and our famous homemade honey hot sauce.”
Elsewhere along Penn Avenue, another creation combined chicken with sour cream, melted cheese, onions and cilantro for birria chicken fries.
Duck also made its way onto the festival menu, both in the fryer and on top of the finished product. West Reading Tavern prepared fries cooked entirely in duck fat and served with roasted garlic aioli.
The fries were also used as the foundation for duck poutine, topped with duck leg, cheese curds and homemade duck gravy. The hot gravy was poured over the dish at the end, helping melt the cheese curds into the fries.
For visitors looking for something to drink between stops, Chuck Wagon Old Fashion Soda offered refreshments including root beer served in reusable festival cups and other vendors sold fresh-squeezed lemonade.
The creativity continued farther down the avenue.
Chef David’s Pizza & More described combinations featuring breaded chicken, mozzarella sticks, bacon and pepperoni, along with another creation pairing mac and cheese with fries. Cheesesteak and Buffalo chicken variations were also among the options.
At Doughboys Kitchen DBK Catering, owner Terrace White emphasized that the fries were prepared fresh.
“We have all fresh-cut fries. Ain’t nothing frozen but the ice, and fresh squeezed lemonade,” White said.
Doughboys’ menu included rasta fries, combining fresh-cut fries with jerk chicken and jerk Alfredo sauce, as well as pulled pork barbecue fries.
Visitors were doing their own comparisons throughout the festival. One attendee carrying pulled pork barbecue fries said he had considered the rasta fries before making his choice.
“It had jerk chicken and Alfredo sauce,” he said. “I almost got that one, but I went with the pulled pork instead.”
His assessment of the pulled pork fries was simple: “Real good.”
The variety is part of what makes French Fry Fest different from a typical food festival. Instead of vendors simply serving traditional fries alongside their regular menus, the event encourages participants to make the fries themselves the centerpiece.
That meant a walk through West Reading could lead from a relatively simple batch of duck-fat fries with garlic aioli to plates piled with barbecue pork, birria chicken, cheese curds or jerk Alfredo sauce.
With more vendors spread across an expanded section of Penn Avenue, trying everything was nearly impossible.
But at French Fry Fest, choosing what to eat next is part of the experience.
