UPDATE 02/21/2018 06:50PM:
Freddy’s Frozen Custard and Steakburgers opens on Thursday, Feb 22nd at the Hoppes of Benton, on Interstate 30, near Alcoa Road. However, MySaline got a preview on Wednesday night, so here are some pictures and commentary, courtesy of Shelli Poole.
The restaurant was fairly crowded on this night, as they were giving away the food in order to have a training night for their new employees. Pictured above is the menu. See at left that they have containers of packed frozen custard, cakes with frozen custard inside, as well as some sandwich treats, with – you guessed it – frozen custard inside.
I ordered the double patty melt combo. This includes fries and a drink. The sandwich has melted swiss cheese and sauteed onions inside. The fries are cut very thinly, so if you like to dip them, there is a good opportunity to do so many times.
My grandson, Sage, ordered the beef hot dog combo, which also comes with fries and a drink. For dressing his dog, he went with the simplicity of a ribbon of ketchup.
A few minutes before we went inside the restaurant, a friend told us that there was something called fry sauce. They have ketchup, of course, but then there are two other sauces for dipping your fries. One is mild and creamy and is somewhere in the neighborhood of tartar sauce or Thousand Island dressing. The one on the right, with the more yellow hue, has a twinge of jalapeno that makes it a little spicier, but not too spicy.
This dessert is called a Hawaiian Sunday. Believe it or not, this is the miniature. It really was a decent-sized dessert though. It had pineapple, peanuts, strawberries, coconut, whipped cream, and a cherry. Oh, and frozen custard! If people shorten the phrase “frozen yogurt” to “froyo,” should “frozen custard” be shortened to “frocus?” I feel like while I was eating this dessert, I was unable to frocus on anything else. I feel like if you tried to take this frocus away from me it would probably create a fracas.
This is the vanilla Nutter Butter cookie sandwich. My grandson I hate this and said it was wonderful. Okay, that’s not exactly what happened. He chowed down on it and when I asked if it was good, he still had a mouthful and muttered through slobber, “Mmm-hmmmmm!”
As I said earlier, this evening’s meal was on the house, but they still gave us a receipt, so we would know what it normally would cost. Not bad, considering we both had combo meals and a dessert.
As I exited the restaurant property, I noticed that they are still hiring. I don’t know how many people were working tonight, but it looked like about 30 or more. It was a busy night, but I would imagine on a Friday and Saturday night, this would be close to the norm.
So what did I think of this restaurant? They have good food for reasonable price and they did good job of customer service, even though everyone was brand new on the job. I did have some confusion about the two separate pickup areas for the desserts and the meals. I could hear our number being called very well for the desserts, but I couldn’t hear it at all for our meal. This let to our meal sittings on the pickup counter longer than maybe it should have for the fries’ sake. We also learned that it’s good to make a separate trip through the line for dessert, because it will be ready a lot faster than your meal. Yes, we ate dessert first, because otherwise, it was going to melt. But that’s just logical.
Overall, if they had been open a month, I’d give them 3 out of 5 stars, but this was training day and I think they work out lots of kinks, so 4 stars out of 5 today.
Bonus: For some behind-the-scenes action of the minutes leading up to our dining experience, you can see a video we did live on Facebook.
ORIGINAL 02/09/2018 09:25AM:
We’ve been watching some new businesses come to life in Benton. You got your update on Red Robin a few weeks ago, so this is an update for right next door at Freddy’s Frozen Custard and Steakburgers. We’ve seen their building pop up much faster than Red Robin. They are both located in the new “Shoppes of Benton” mall on the north side of Interstate 30 in Benton, near Alcoa Road. Freddy’s is currently hiring and they are expected to open Thursday, February 22nd.
See related stories below: