Blake Lingle
Boise Fry Company
Boise, Idaho

Let’s face it: The Gem State is really the Potato State, and Americans tend to consume their spuds in the form of french fries. Restaurant Boise Fry Company makes its from predominantly organic potatoes.

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Why we chose these fries:

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Ninety percent of Boise Fry Company’s potatoes are sourced from within an eight-hour radius of Boise, and 80 percent of their potatoes are organic. Lingle won’t rule out a farmer if he or she lacks the official certification, however: “We usually will try to meet with those farmers to make sure that they’re [growing] the organic way.” Recently, Boise Fry Company started working with ReCab, a local biodiesel-powered cab company, to recycle its french fry oil. The cars bear a “Fueled by Fries” sticker.

The argument for “fries with a burger”:

“I’m from Idaho, but when I was living in D.C., it occurred to me that you never really got to choose your fries — they were always kind of thrust upon you,” Lingle says. “I remember just jotting down in a notebook: Wouldn’t it be interesting to have a restaurant where the fries were choice, and the burgers were the side?”

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