SPOKANE, Wash. – Fry sauce. It’s an Inland Northwest delicacy with an interesting history.
Utah-based restaurant Arctic Circle claims they invented the trendy condiment more than 60 years ago.
Article Circle chief operating officer Kasey Christensen said the restaurant’s founder Don Carlos Edwards and his brother JR Edwards tried dipping French fries in ketchup and white sauce one day. The rest was history.
“He [Don Carlos] thought it tasted good and it turned into a pink sauce. He told his buddies it tasted good and they started messing with it until they perfected the recipe,” Christensen said.
At its core, fry sauce is mayonnaise-based with ketchup.
John Carlson has owned the Zip’s location at 2125 E. Sprague Ave. in Spokane for 19 years. It was originally a Rutherford’s Triple XXX and changed its name in the early 1970s.
“Sprague was kind of the turnaround spot in the 60s and 70s,” Carlson said. “You got fries and a soda, and head back downtown.”
Carlson said he could not reveal the specific ingredients in the eastern Washington and North Idaho chain’s fry sauce but he could reveal the quantities of the stuff.
Zip’s makes new batches of both fry and tartar sauce several times a week, Carlson said.This adds up to about 40 gallons of tartar sauce and 30 gallons of fry sauce a week.
“We like to have it fresh…and we’ll usually make about ten gallons of both [fry sauce and tartar sauce]. We go through all of that in a few days,” he said. “We like to do small batches because fresh is better.”
The love of fry sauce with Zip’s crinkle cut fries is a given in the area, he said. Customers often request the sauce on their burgers, too.
“Kids like puppies. People like fry sauce…and tartar sauce,” Carlson said. “It’s something in our DNA in the northwest.”
KREM 2 asked its Facebook followers where they could find the best fry sauce in town. Many replied with, “Zip’s... obviously.” Other fan favorites included Waddell’s, Burger Express and Thrifty Scotsman Drive-In.
Christensen said the Edwards brothers of Arctic Circle sold their fast food bites as traveling salesmen of sorts.
“What’s kind of fun and en vogue right now is these food trucks. Way back when, Don Carolos Edwards and JR would go to fairs and rodeos. They had these little carts that would sell corn dogs, French fries and burgers,” she added.
When popularity reached a high point, the brothers opened a brick-and-mortar restaurant. By the late 1950s and into the early 1960s, its soft-serve ice cream was all the rage.
“We’ve got pictures of people lined up to get an ice cream in that little restaurant,” Christensen said.
The restaurant later changed its name to Arctic Circle, a chain currently operating 64 units across the western half of the U.S.
Arctic Circle locations were open in Spokane from 1967 to 2008. On the KREM 2 Facebook page, many locals lamented its departure – and the fry sauce’s departure – from the area.
Christensen said fry sauce is “unique to Utah,” giving the state a competitive edge.
Whether you are from Utah, Washington or North Idaho, fry sauce clearly remains a fan favorite.
