Fry’D & Chop’D: Epic fries, burgers and wings with a side of axe tossing

If eating epic hand-cut french fries, custom fresh-never-frozen hamburgers, and several varieties of savory chicken wings while chucking axes at wooden targets sounds like a fantastic evening to you, a new venue set to open in Huntingburg next month may become your favorite hangout.

The owners of Jasper Pub ‘N’ Grub, Jared Weisheit and Rob Caballero, teamed up with Tracey Price — Jared’s sister — to open Fry’d, a new fast-casual restaurant at 312 N. Main Street at the U.S. 231 entrance to Market Street Park.

Work is underway in the building that formerly held the Market Street Soup and Salad and the Huntingburg Music Hall upstairs. While build-your-own burgers and great wings are on the menu, the highlight of the new business and hence the name, Fry’D, will be the glorious golden fried potatoes topped with special seasonings, sauces and toppings.

The menu is still being developed but these won’t be ordinary fries. Think specially seasoned and loaded fries with different ingredients designed to expand your idea of how amazing something as simple as french fries can be.

How about smokey taco french fries featuring seasonings from Hot Hot Lover in Ferdinand or mango habanero french fries for starters? Not sure what you will want, order a flight of fries — three different seasonings with three different dips.

Why fries?

“We sit around here kinda thinking things up all the time,” Tracey explained Thursday morning.

That’s exactly what was happening when she and Jared and some other staff ended up in a conversation with the exterminator while they were playing around with some different french fries options to add to the menu at Jasper Pub ‘N’ Grub.

“It’s a funny story,” she admitted. “Our exterminator was here talking with us and he mentioned he and his wife had a building they were thinking about selling in Huntingburg.”

David Wayne, the owner of B&B Exterminating, hosted the Huntingburg Opry at the Huntingburg Music Hall in the building that has also served as the local office for the Red Cross and the Huntingburg American Legion.

When Wayne told them it had a restaurant in it, Tracey’s and Jared’s ears perked up.

“Within an hour we were driving over to take a look at this building,” Tracey said.

They went from talking about unique french fry options on the menu at Pub-n-Grub to joking about opening a french fry restaurant. “It kinda became a joke and now it is a real thing,” she said. “I have a box literally sitting here on my desk with 40 seasonings in it from different companies all of the country.”

But it’s not all about the fries at Fry’D. The burgers will be made to order when you walk up to the counter. Tracey says they’ll have a list of ingredients you can load one or two patties up with to accompany your special french fries — they will also have delicious regular french fries.

To appeal to the foodies in the audience, Tracey plans on having a different suggested burger and french fry combination up on the chalkboard on a monthly basis. “Like some suggested pairings,” she explained.

Of course, plenty of options will abound on wings too.

Plans at this point are to open the restaurant later in October and a few weeks later, open the axe throwing upstairs as Chop’D. Once the permit is approved, they will also add beer and wine to the menu.

When everything is complete, customers will be able to grab a flight of fries, a couple of burgers, some wings, and go fling some axes upstairs when Chop’D opens.

We are pretty thrilled to be coming over to Huntingburg,” Tracey said. “It’s a great place and it’s something people can just get excited about because it’s something new.”

You can follow the progress on Facebook here.