Our nation is obsessed with fried food. Why wouldn’t we be? The golden crunchiness, the delicious knowledge that it’s absolutely terrible for us, the lovely way it blurs the edge of our hangovers–it’s glorious! Generally, the best place to grab these golden heart attack-producing items is at state fairs, but the people of Plano, Texas (and those of us who will do anything to get there) are about to get a new place for deep-fried happiness. According to Dallas News, a new fried food restaurant is opening in a Walmart in Plano on September 20. You should maybe start lining up now.
This nirvana is called State Fair Treats, and it’s coming to your rapidly-expanding bellies from famous fry-man Isaac Rousso, frequent finalist and winner of the Big Tex Choice Award at the State Fair of Texas. Rousso wants to expand this idea to other Walmarts and told the site, “At the end of the day it’s incredible that you have someone like Walmart believing in a small entrepreneurial guy and seeing the potential of what we can bring.” The restaurant will feature a 45-item menu “celebrating the treats families enjoy every year when they make an annual pilgrimage to the fair,” according to a press release. 45 items? That’s a lot, and though you can fry anything, according to a chef friend of mine, it stretches the imagination. It seems like Rousso’s up to the challenge. He apparently won contests for items like Rousso’s Cookie Fries, Deep Fried Cuban Roll, and Fried Pop Tart. They can fry butter. Did you know they can fry butter? And Jello. Someone really did that at the Texas fair.
State Fair Treats will be open from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily, though if Rousso is smart, he’ll do an all-nighter on the weekends for those with the munchies. Hey, it worked for Taco Bell. Rousso has six year-round workers, but his expansion plans are pretty extensive, though right now the restaurant isn’t funded by Walmart. They’re the landlords. Rousso estimates that about 2 million people hit that particular branch of the store every year, so the likelihood that this will be a hit is high.
We don’t know the menu yet, but if you do a little Google search for weird fried foods, you come up with some delightful items like fried beer, fried Kool-Aid and fried ice cream cheeseburger. There is even a fried Twinkie hamburger and fried bubblegum. You know why this restaurant is brilliant? You stuff yourself with greasy snacks, then roll yourself over to the pharmacy section of Walmart and purchase some items for your gastric distress. Genius!
So, would you go here for lunch every day? Maybe for Sunday brunch to fix the damage you did to yourself the night before? Tweet me/us @JennaBusch/@Nerdist and let us know your very favorite fried food (or the one that terrifies you the most). Because we love you, we’re including this video from The Culinary Institute of America, teaching you to fry food safely. You don’t want to become a fail video on YouTube, do you?
Featured image: Lee Cannon/Flickr
