Carl's Jr. is a fast food chain we have here on the west coast- and well, it is my favorite of them all. I know, I know White Castle is great, In-and-Out Burger is legendary and Sonic is memorable....but Carl's Jr and I go way back- let me explain......
My elementary school had a Carl's Jr in the way farthest corner of the school yard facing the side street. You could smell the charbroiled goodness while playing handball too. And you could practically be on school property except for the last 10 steps inside- and WE DID. Unbelievable to me now, but on Thursdays we had "long-lunch" (extra 15 minutes for an unexplained reason- I suppose it was so the teachers could get in one more snack/smoke/martini/ before going back to kids).....and on the long-lunch days we were allowed to go to Carl's Jr by our. self. I went every Thursday. Religiously. "Happy Star, fries and a coke please" ...and it cost $2.15 for all that. One day my 4th grade teacher announced we were going on a 'walking field trip' to the beloved mecca of burgers. We trotted right over to Carl's Jr. and were given hair nets and a tour of the kitchen and equipment. And I remember with bizarre clarity the insanely large bag of frozen fries which were then scorched in gallons of hot oil. It was exciting. It was deep fried. It was the beginning of my love affair.
Well, today folks-I went to Carl's and found that they have changed their fries completely. They are 'Natural Cut' in a poor attempt to mimic In-and-Out Burgers cut-in-front-of-your-face freshness. But these don't taste fresh..they taste mushy and greasy and not at all like the old fries. The good fries. MY FRIES. So if you are listening Carl's Jr.....I want my fries back. Either that or $2.15 for my anguish. You pick.
Post-it-note: My omni-friends Shan and Dan first alerted me to this tragedy and share my love of the old fries. As do my kids. And my husband. And everyone else I talked to before writing this post. Looks like Carl Karcher (founder) has been dead less than a year and they are messing with perfection already. And without doing market research either.
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14 comments:
In-n-Out has the most heinous french fries in existence, second prize goes to Jack in the Box, which also jumped on the natural fry band wagon a few years back. I will forgo fries from either of these places, that is how bad they are. I am SOL at INO but at least I have o-rings as a backup at JitB.
Does Carl's still have 0-rings and fried zucchini on the menu? Please tell me they do otherwise it's McD's or Farmer Boys for me. Like I need any of it!
I like in-n-out fries! I can't eat fast food anymore, the Littles burned me out.
I haven't been to Carl's Jr. in ages... This is sad. I don't understand why places have to change what works and is loved... Why???
I'm in shock. I loved the fries.
When I was in 6th grade we used to walk 3 or 4 blocks to a place and got a HUGE cheeseburger, fries and a big mug of rootbeer for 52 cents! It was their "52 special".
Insane!!
I hate to admit it here, but I like McDonald's fries the best. I have no allegence, and Ronald isn't paying me to make this statement, I just like them, but they must be eaten while warm. Otherwise - not so much.
http://organizeddoodles.blogspot.com/
We encountered the enw fries also at Carl's and are not impressed at all. Please lets go back to the original fires. The chili cheese fries won;t be the same with the enw fries!!!!
I am addicted to the fried zuchinni at Carl's (side note: it SUCKS when they forget to give me the ranch to go with them!), so I probably won't miss the old fries too much. However, I will never get over the fact that they no longer serve the pastrami burger. I'm probably seven years closer to a heart attack for all of the pastrami burgers I've eaten, but they were just sooooooooooo good.
Thanks for the kind return visit. Just so you know... Yes, School House Rock. That takes me back, but I do remember it - although I'm not so versed in it that I could recall any one particular caricature like you.
I SO agree here. I hate those new fries.
we dont have these in the South. But if we did I'm sure I'd be ticked off that they took my fries away too.
I'm having sympathy gas-pains with you. :)
WHAT? This is a travesty. No, really. WTF? Whoe likes natural cut fries? I swear we were just there and natural cut fries were no where to be seen. Maybe they are testing it out in your area?
I totally agree with you. I used to LOVE Carl's fried the best when I was a kid....the ones that were crinkle cut and totally NOT fresh cut. Those ones have been gone a long time. I also hate Jack in the Box and most other french fries in the world. Along with several other post-ers (sp?) here, the only fries I like, and I actually love them, is McDonald's. Probably because they aren't "natural" and don't try to be. They just taste good-whatever they are. I hope they never change them. McDonald's is pretty smart and I don't think they ever will. Consistency is what they sell. (Their stock has been one of the few decent performers this year).
I think I'm the odd one out here because I like Burger King's fries if I eat fries at all. Carl's fries always seemed stale to me.
I do like their menu though, especially the chicken.
This is just unacceptable. McDonald's now has the only edible fast food french fry.
Carl's Jr has a long history in my husbands family who have been part of Anaheim since the 30s. My husband's grandmother even babysat Karl Karcher's children back in the day. My mother-in-law worked at Taco De Carlos, remember those?
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