There are many rare and elusive things in this world. Four leaf clovers. Coelacanths. Unicorns. Sasquatches. Almost as rare is an order of nachos made with waffle fries. Fortunately after years of checking field cameras, making plaster casts of footprints, and collecting and carefully logging hair samples, one of these elusive creatures has been located at The Coop in Millbury, Massachusetts.
Firstly, this is the picture that greets you when you enter the restaurant. It’s undoubtedly the Picasso’s Guernica of our time.
Of the two options, Waffle Fry Nachos or Waffle Fry Cheeseburger Nachos, I went with the standard Waffle Fry Nachos. Partially this is because The Coop is a wings AND BBQ place so I wanted some of that sweet sweet ‘que, but also because Waffle Fry Cheeseburger Nachos can be found in Recipes From The Nachonomicon with almost the exact same recipe. Coincidence I’m sure, but I want something new and delicious, not something I’ve already had to make a bunch. The nachos soon arrived on a mini serving tray (BTW, if you’re not following the ongoing overarching plot of the Nachonomics website, more nachos should be be served straight up on trays) and I dug into deliciousness.
It’s not often you find just straight up waffle fries, and even when you do they’re frequently too soft or too hard or too bland, so when biting into one of these and finding that they’re Goldilocks (i.e. “just right”) it was quite a miracle. Also nice, a wider variety of vegetable toppings than are usually found on restaurant nachos. Typically you’d get the jalapenos and maybe some sliced tomatoes, but then they’d just slap on a little container of salsa and that would be that. Here you get peppers and corn too for some colorful and welcome additions to both the dish and your palette.
The downside of nachos on a tray is whatever sort of paper used between said tray and said nachos. Sometimes you can peel your baked cheese and chips right off of it, but sometimes, like in the case here, that cheese is cemented to the paper and not coming off without a chisel. When I got to the bottom of the nacho pile many a good looking fry or topping bit was left stuck to the paper, never to be removed for fear of having a chunk of paper ripped off with it and spoiling the morsel. I don’t know if there’s a way around this other than carefully placing every piece of cheese so that none of it is touching the paper or buying the highest quality tray paper, but perhaps rewriting the laws of physics so that cheese is friction free is the only way. Also, the menu said there would be sour cream, and as you can see from the picture THERE WAS NO SOUR CREAM!
The Coop is a small establishment with not a lot of seating, so small in fact that it looks like you need to walk through part of the serving area in order to use the bathroom, so if you want to eat there it could prove a little tricky. They do have local delivery and take out though so don’t let that deter you, providing you live within the delivery area or don’t mind driving there. Now that I have fulfilled my personal and court ordered nacho eating requirement I will definitely be back to check out just the straight BBQ dishes as I had some wings this time (also tasty) and it’s only fair the other beasts of the fields fall before me as well. Would I eat these nachos again? Yes. Would I even mix it up and try the Waffle Fry Cheeseburger Nachos? Who can say...