Pomme Frites Shop

Buffalo,NY.....

This town loves its:
Ted's char grilled Hotdogs w/ chili sauce and a side of curly q fries...
Duff's chicken wings 'swimming' in tabasco...
Schweibels' beef on weck, slathered in horseradish...
La Nova pizza dipped in bleu cheese...
Fish fries everywhere every Friday...w/coleslaw and fries...
But we also love, french food, steak houses, Asian fusion, Sushi, Indian...

Like many American cities Buffalo has its roots deeply seeded in a culinary/pulminary 'fun' food. These foods have strong roots...

see NYC store...
http://www.pommesfrites.ws

Now I fully realize Bflo is a MUCH smaller market than NYC....we suffer daily for this

Yet...

My dream is to open a pomme frites shop...

right here as soon as possible...I ask you..

Dear Professional...

Would you seek out a 'Pomme Frite' shop?? Why or why not??

Would you...
Lease space or buy a 'pushcart"....

I am trying to get as much feedback as possible before investing...

My sincere thanks to all for your advice and comments..

Buffalogal, Buffalo NY

You'd have to be located, I think, in a very high foot-traffic, touristy type area to make such a business successful. People just aren't going to stop in for only fries, other than people who are in that kind of vacation trolling mode.

If you're not in a very high traffic, touristy area, my advice would be to also sell lunch items (burgers, dogs, sandwiches) but still make the frites your specialty.

i don't think pushcarts are even permitted here. A little kiosk with no seating would be my guess for having a chance to cover rent. Besides that, those better be some goddamn good french fries.

The way it reads to me is that she wants to do this in Buffalo, not Chicago.

I have been other places in the world, and frites carts do well. This is in summer, by the parks - so if you have a touristy area, or an area that people use a lot, maybe. Smell of frying potato might be hard to resist I have also gotten fries on the boardwalk in OC Maryland, and walked along eating them. It works there.

Pomme Frites in Manhattan is popular with tourists, but because it's open very late (til 1am Su-Th, 3:30am Fr & Sa), it's packed late at night almost exclusively with locals: young hipsters & the post-bar crowd (a.k.a. drunks).

Since Buffalo's got a fairly large college student population, I feel like something like this might succeed if it were located near UB campus, or at least where the SUNY students drink.

And as phillipfoss said, those fries should probably be really damn amazing. I don't know about anyone else, but if a place that explicitly advertised itself as specializing in pomme frites opened to much fanfare, and then served anything less than what I would expect in Brussels, I would consider it to be kind of a laughingstock.

I had some fantastic pommes frites in Canada, purchased from 2 guys in a van who were driving around, stopping for business, then moving on to another spot. They put them in paper cones and had vinegar, ketchup, and sea salt available for seasoning. They had a large van with a propane fueled deep fryer. Pretty nifty.

That sounds crazy dangerous to have burning hot oil moving around like that. Sharp turns, hills, accidents?

The top could be sealed for travel. It seemed to work like a charm.

Cogito wrote:I had some fantastic pommes frites in Canada, purchased from 2 guys in a van who were driving around, stopping for business, then moving on to another spot. They put them in paper cones and had vinegar, ketchup, and sea salt available for seasoning. They had a large van with a propane fueled deep fryer. Pretty nifty.

Yes, they have french fry places, generally located in "lunch wagons" in many smaller and larger towns in Eastern and Central Ontario.

Most also serve poutine.

Sounds great to me. Like the potato version of the elotes and tamale vendors. Hit the lakefront or various summer parks and neighborhood centers. Could do well. Here or Buffalo.
They'd have to be good fries, sure, but why any better, relatively, than the tamales or elotes or ice cream, etc. that get sold?

I've been to that NY pommes frites shop a few weeks ago. It is amazing that so many people don't mind spending 5-10 dollars for fries and sauce, but their fries are top notch, and their 20-30 difference sauces keep things interesting.

That pommes frites shoppe on St. Mark's is well-known. Been there forever it feels...it's subsequently retreated, for me, into the background noise of that locale along with sunglasses vendors, cd bootleggers, and cabbies that which refuse to chauffeur one to Brooklyn.

I make a great fry, such that friends almost persuaded me to open a stand near Butler...offering backing, even. Me: I'm happy you like my fries and I'll offer them upon request, but hell's naw am I opening a french fry stand for drunken matriculaters. Them: sigh.