Maine Hot Dog Restaurant Threatened After It Removes Crinkle-Cut Fries From Menu

The owners of Bolley's Famous Franks in Waterville apologized to customers but said there's no excuse for being so salty.
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A hot dog hot spot in Waterville, Maine, stopped making crinkle-cut fries this summer, and some customers feel burned.

Bolley’s Famous Franks started making only straight-cut fries in June in order to cut costs.

“The blades are extremely expensive,” Jim Parsons, who owns the store with his wife, Leslie, told the Bangor Daily News of the tools needed for crinkle-cut fries.

“We spent about $2,000 last year on blades,” he said. “When you look at the profit margin on french fries and you take $2,000 out of that, it really hurts.”

But the change has not gone over well with certain customers, some of whom have yelled and caused a scene in the shop. Parsons said one man came into the restaurant earlier this month to gripe about the straight fries and threatened to start a fight over the change.

“People come in with a negative attitude that the fries aren’t going to be the same,” Parsons told CentralMaine.com. “That’s a tough sale for us.”

Leslie Parsons apologized to customers who miss the crinkle-cut fries but also admonished those who had had violent responses to the change.

“I just want to say I will absolutely not tolerate being sworn at, threatened physical harm to myself, my husband and children,” she wrote in a Facebook post. “It is unacceptable here at Bolleys and should NEVER be tolerated anywhere.”

The post had attracted more than 350 comments as of Friday afternoon and received mostly positive comments.

Leslie Parsons has also said customers should put things into perspective.

“When someone is hostile, you don’t know where the endpoint is going to be,” she told CentralMaine.com. “If you’re getting into fights over french fries, you’ve got bigger problems.”

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