A Moment for the Sauces at The Local Fry—Which Can Completely Alter Your Eating Experience

As the Food Network, social media, and food-focused travel continue to blur our borders and make the world a smaller place, consumers are craving international flavors from tahini to turmeric.

At Hampden’s The Local Fry, this trend has been going strong for a decade. Using fries, wings, tofu bites, chicken tenders, and sandwiches as a blank canvas, the spot incorporates global flavor profiles through its rubs and a wide variety of sauces, offering a gateway to the far-flung flavors of Korea, Vietnam, and the American South.

“What we love about sauce is that it can change a sandwich completely,” says Liz Irish, who co-owns The Local Fry with her husband, Kevin. “Someone can have a Korean-style chicken sandwich if they toss the tenders in the gochujang sauce or tofu with nuoc cham fish sauce from Vietnam—it’s all the same ingredients but the sauce changes the profile of the dish.”

The Local Fry’s fusion fare was inspired by Liz and Kevin’s diverse backgrounds. She’s Korean American; he was born in Ireland.

“We were hosting dinner parties at home,” recalls Liz. “We love cooking and entertaining and that sparked the idea. Because Kevin is from Ireland, we ate a lot of chips and potatoes, so we started putting dishes we make at home on fries—and it worked really well. And that became the basis for a lot of our menu items—from the bánh mì fries, which has Vietnamese influences, to the Korean BBQ cheesesteak fries inspired by the bulgogi we eat all the time.”

And while Kevin and Liz are avowed globetrotters, Liz asserts that you don’t need to travel to be transported.

“The Local Fry is a local destination,” says Liz. “But even while staying in your neighborhood, you can still experience these different flavors around world just by ordering something at our restaurant.”