When friends Micah Lubens and Evan Chiacchiaro took a hard look at DC’s late-night food scene, they didn’t see a tantalizing stream of jumbo slice, falafel, and greasy Chinese. They saw a French fry-sized hole.
“We both love food, and we were talking about how other cities have these great places for French fries and dipping sauce,” says Chiacchiaro.
Thus Fry Brothers was born. The duo, who both have day jobs in consulting, currently operate out of the food incubator Mess Hall, and serve their double-fried Belgian-style frites and creative dipping sauces at pop-ups and events like Blazed & Glazed this weekend. Though free Heinz ketchup is always offered alongside the spuds—they openly admit Heinz does ketchup better than they ever could—other house-made sauces are the draw. The Brothers (who aren’t actually brothers, despite the strong resemblance) took inspiration from Washington’s signature foods, creating dips like pho sauce that’s infused with the broth’s classic spices, charred onion, hoisin, and ginger. The DC fry sauce—a mix of homemade mayo and ketchup—comes spiked with Ethiopian berbere. And of course, there’s mumbo sauce.
Currently Lubens and Chiacchiaro are hunting for a permanent location for their concept. Let’s hope for all of our late-night cravings (and morning hangovers) they find one.
Anna Spiegel covers the dining and drinking scene in her native DC. Prior to joining Washingtonian in 2010, she attended the French Culinary Institute and Columbia University’s MFA program in New York, and held various cooking and writing positions in NYC and in St. John, US Virgin Islands.
