Two of NJ's best french fry spots are featured in USA TODAY's national list

The question used to be: "Want fries with that?"

Now the question is: "Want that with fries"?

You can get yours with chili, hamburger meat, and all sorts of other delights at Sidelines Bar & Grill in Fairfield , one of the top eateries in USA TODAY's countdown of Best French Fries in the U.S. Sidelines was previously voted by NorthJersey.com readers as the best fries in the region.

Loaded fries, disco fries, truffled garlic parm fries, are among the many potatoey creations that earned Alexandra DiIorio, the owner, the votes to make her a regional champ.

Her's was one of the dozens of food spots, from Milwaukee to Rochester, from Nashville to Cape Cod, that were voted reader favorites in their areas. Some 100 affiliated newspapers participated. The results were announced July 8 by USA TODAY.

"It's always fun to win things and get noticed for stuff that you do," DiIorio said. "I love winning anything."

The fries at Sidelines in Fairfield NJ

On Saturday, she and her chef Jimmy Bryant were experimenting with a new variation: cheeseburger fries. "That's french fries with melted cheese with burger meat chopped up in it, and it's going to have mustard and ketchup and spiced pickles," she said. "We're always coming up with new ones. There's no rhyme or reason to any of our french fries. I throw stuff in and the chef and says, 'Let's do it this way.'"

Once upon a time, french fries were french fries. They were sheer salty, calorie-laden deliciousness. Nothing more was asked, or expected. Crinkle-cuts, steak fries or shoestrings — that was your choice.

But now chefs are getting creative. And as they do, french fries have gone from being a side dish to, in many cases, a centerpiece — a meal in itself. The wonders of poutine, brought to us from Quebec, changed the game. Now chefs like DiIorio and Bryant are changing it again, with fancy creations like taco fries, chili fries, pizza fries, Buffalo chicken fries, and sweet and spicy loaded sweet potato fries.

"I think people are always trying to recreate the wheel," said DiIorio, a Bloomfield resident. "I just love french fries. I wish they were healthy. I would eat them all day. Who doesn't love french fries?"

Sidelines has more than french fries going for it. The bar and restaurant, launched 10 years ago, also gets rave reviews for its hamburgers ("they're blended meat, so it tastes better," DiIorio said) and for its live music, with an emphasis on country-western. Then too, it's a woman-owned business, with a friendly atmosphere that customers seem to enjoy. "They're like family," she said. "It's very homey."

But whatever the customers come in for, it's the fries that seal the deal.

"We have six varieties on our menu," she said. "And then we alternate between other ones."

Best fries in NJ

But it's not just what you can do with french fries that make them special. It's how you make them in the first place.

Another of USA TODAY's poll winners, House of Fries in Seaside Heights and Ortley Beach, has some very specific ideas about that.

Their fries go into the oil twice. It's the only way to get the crispness their customers love — and that ultimately won them votes with readers.

"We have a really long process, to be honest," said David Cappello, co-owner with Kevin Stewart of the eatery, which open five years ago on the south end of the Seaside boardwalk (a second location opened in Ortley Beach last year).

"Each one of our fries is cut fresh," said Cappello, from Toms River. "We buy russet potatoes from Idaho, and each potato is first cleaned, and then they are put through the french fry cutter — we have an old-fashioned hand cutter — and then we put all the fresh french fries into buckets. Each bucket gets filled with water, and just a little bit of salt, and then those sit for at least three hours in the refrigerator. Then the buckets are dumped, the potatoes are strained, and when they dry off a little bit, we put them in the fryer for the first fry."

After three minutes, they're taken out of the oil and put back in the refrigerator again. When they've cooled, they go into the oil for the second fry.

A painstaking process. But the difference is one that customers can see, and taste, Cappello said.

"It's 100% the crispiness," he said. "You can taste it. There are other places — I won't name any names — where the fries are soggy. But by doing it this second time, you get an extreme crispness you're not going to get any other way."

It's extra work for them, he said. But the customer feedback — and the recognition from USA TODAY — makes it worthwhile.

"I'm pumped," he said. "It’s a huge deal."

Visit Sidelines in Fairfield and House of Fries in Seaside Heights

Sidelines Bar & Grill. 198 Route 46 East, Fairfield, New Jersey; 973-521-7430, sidelinesbar46.com.

House of Fries. 2 Ocean Terrace, Seaside Heights, New Jersey, and 1960 Route 35, Ortley Beach, New Jersey; 732-250-1525, houseoffriesnj.com.

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Two of NJ's best french fry spots are featured in USA TODAY's national list