Philly Food Finds: Byrne’s Tavern’s Potato Logs
“People will try to order French fries. And I’ll have to tell them, ‘We don’t have French fries. We have logs.’ ”
Food writer Carolyn Wyman wrote a regular feature for Philadelphia City Paper that probed the stories behind some of Philadelphia's most popular dishes. Alas, City Paper ceased publication. We're proud to continue Carolyn's fine work here at philly.com/food.
The three-story-tall drawing of a crab on the side of the brick building advertises Byrne's Tavern's longtime specialty to passing motorists on I-95. It's a little misleading. Today, the Port Richmond bar's buffalo chicken wings sell best, especially during Eagles season.
But if you're looking for something different, turn to the potato logs.
Frank Byrne bought the former Struck's Polish watering hole in 1978 and turned it into an Irish bar known for its sandwiches and later, crabs. Byrne's became a wings specialist when the price of crabs rose in the late 1980s.
About that same time, Frank visited a York wings restaurant that was willing to share its trade secrets -- the principal one being its high-pressure fryer. The logs followed in about 1990, the result of Frank's search "to see what else I could cook in that fryer."
Crab cakes were a literal bust: "They blew apart," says the taciturn Frank. So one day, he gave potato wedges a try.
They're cut in one fell swoop in a wall-mounted slicer, dredged in seasoned flour, fried, and served alongside cups of stuffed-potato toppings, nacho cheese, and sour cream.
Despite their being unglamorously named for the unpeeled wedges' resemblance to split wood and its bark, the logs become a best-seller.
About 800 pounds are eaten each week by "90 percent of people who are having wings as a main course" and as a shared appetizer at tables of pizza and sandwich eaters, according to Frank's sister, restaurant manager Cathy Byrne.
Their popularity long ago earned the logs their own dedicated high-pressure fryer and spawned a five-year-old "crabby logs" variation: logs sprinkled with crab seasoning in a nod to Byrne's crab heritage.
Why are they so popular?
As with all the other food at the bar, the primary ingredient is "fresh and of good quality," says Cathy from a table in one of Byrne's three compact, beer-ad-and-Irish-memorabilia-decorated rooms.
It's a real Idaho potato - not a processed frozen product. And the high-pressure fryer gives the outside a nice fry-like crunch while the inside is like a perfect baked potato. "In a regular fryer, the inside of a potato slice this large would still be hard when the outside was crispy," Cathy notes.
A similar high-pressure fried potato wedge product dubbed jo-jos is a regional favorite in Minnesota and the Pacific Northwest. But Byrne's newbies sometimes need to be educated to the joys of logs.
Waitress-hostess Jen Smith says: "People will try to order French fries. And I'll have to tell them, 'We don't have French fries. We have logs.' "
Some customers will then ask if they're like KFC's wedges and Smith will explain, "That's the shape of it, but KFC's are smaller." She's not kidding. Logs' 100-count spuds produce near half-foot-long wedges that one Yelper dubbed "the Godzilla of French fries."
Logs are, in fact, mentioned in almost half of all of Byrne's Yelp reviews (only wings get more acclaim), although the Yelp photos aren't all that appetizing. Then there is that wooden name.
Still, a lot of Byrne's customers call this French fry/baked russet hybrid pure bliss.
Get it: $4.30 for eight logs at Byrne's Tavern, 3301 Richmond St., 215-423-3444, kitchen hours 11 a.m.-11:30 p.m. Monday to Saturday and noon-8:30 p.m. Sunday, www.byrnestavern.net.
Carolyn Wyman is the author, most recently, of The Great American Chocolate Chip Cookie Book: Scrumptious Recipes and Fabled History from Toll House to Cookie Cake Pie (Countryman Press, $19.95)