Restaurant Owners Physically Threatened Over New Fry Shape

What has a Maine woman worried for her family's safety? French-fry fury, that's what. Some customers are getting so worked up over the switch from crinkle-cut to straight-cut fries at Bolley's Famous Franks in Waterville, Maine, that co-owner Leslie Parsons is posting online to ease the rage, Central Maine reports. "Within the last week, we have encountered some pretty disturbing and hostile customers apparently very unhappy with our straight cut French fry," she writes on the restaurant's Facebook page. "While I fully understand the crinkle cut has been the long standing traditional fry of Bolleys, I was forced to make an unpopular business decision for reasons as a business owner one must make from time to time."

Opened by the Genest family in 1962, Bolley's has had locations in Augusta, Hallowell, and Waterville, but Hallowell never served crinkle fries; then Waterville went straight-cut after Leslie and Jim Parsons took over in 2017. The issue is cost: Blades that cut crinkle-cut fries in a heavy machine are pricey and need replacing every month or so. "The blades are extremely expensive," Jim tells the Bangor Daily News. "We spent about $2,000 last year on blades." But try reasoning with crinkle lovers, like the guy who got so mad he threatened Jim and got kicked out. Or with those who simply grieve: "... With the new cut, it's generic like all other establishments," writes a Facebook user. "Bolley's is a resturaunt that I have been going to since I was a child, and traditions die hard." (More french fries stories.)