MOUNT DORA — With more people opting for gluten-free, Amy Dornsife and Dale Duffy opened The Salted Fry in downtown Mount Dora, which specializes in one of America’s most popular foods: French fries.
“Who doesn’t love French fries?” Duffy said. “They are yummy and easy to take on the go, but for people who are gluten-free, they can’t eat them because many of them are mixed with some form of gluten or are cooked along side something that has it. So we wanted to offer people a place where they wouldn’t have to worry about that.”
Dornsife knows a little something about not being able to eat at many places because of her severe gluten allergy, which inspired the concept of the eatery.
“I have to really watch where I eat because I could end up in the hospital,” Dornsife said. “And it’s not just me. There are thousands of people who struggle with this on many levels, which is why we decided to open The Salted Fry.”
After reconnecting on Facebook after many years, the pair would often spend date nights in the kitchen cooking up new recipes.
“This restaurant is at least three years in the making,” Dornsife said. “It took a lot of research and experiments to make sure everything was right.”
After finding the right kind of potato — which is a secret — they are cut and prepared Belgian-style to make the fries crisp on the outside and soft on the inside.
Guests can choose a regular for $6.96 or a large for $8.83 and pair their choice with a signature sauce. Dornsife and Duffy said they have spent years perfecting the restaurant’s sauces.
Classic ketchup and bacon ketchup are complimentary, but customers can choose a specialty sauce, including gnomes garden (basil and garlic aioli), kerfuffle truffle (white truffle and garlic aioli), fox island aioli (light orange sauce), happy gnome (cheese, sour cream, bacon and spring onion), blue chee-zing (blue cheese with chipotle aioli), cheese please (warm aged cheddar cheese), spicy dicey (jalapenos in warm-aged cheddar cheese), maple bacon onion jam or their new Chesapeake sauce. Sauce add-ons range from $.75 to $1.80.
A salt and sugar bar is also available at no additional charge with flavors such as caramel apple sugar, vanilla pumpkin spice sugar, wasabi sea salt, salted chocolate or smokey bacon.
They are also offering a variety of gluten-free sandwiches, including a fresh chicken salad sandwich and the hungry gnome roast beast sandwich, featuring roast beef, fresh tomatoes, lettuce, horseradish cheese and gnomes garden sauce for $11.95.
The eatery also offers a self-serve wine bar, Virgil’s soda, kombucha, hard ciders and gluten-free beer.
The Salted Fry, 342 Dora Drawdy Way, is open from 11:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday. For information, go to facebook.com/thesaltedfrymountdora.