The guys behind the fries
We’re Jesse and Ben, two friends & restaurateurs who set out to make not only the most delicious fries but ones that are better for you, too.
But the story doesn’t start there. Like all the finer things in life (like fries), the best things take time. The journey of making the best fry on the market began back in 2010 when we met in college..
A duo that goes way back
A duo that goes way back
2010-2014
COLLEGE DAYS
We met freshmen year of college and became fast friends. We decided to start a food business on our campus circa 2013. We caught the food industry bug and were ready to go all-in after graduation.
So in 2014, we picked up and moved to DC after graduating and bought our first food truck. We launched it by October of that year.
2015-2018
FOOD TRUCK TO FAST FOOD
The food truck business worked! We were able to grow to two food trucks, a bunch of farmers markets, and a mobile catering business.
As just-out-of-college newbies, we learned a lot in those years—especially about sourcing and how bad the status quo is in the food industry. And we learned that the food industry tough. Really tough.
We had a big decision to make. If we wanted to stick with working in the food industry, we needed to do something we were excited about. We needed something that could make a big impact. So, we went for it. We pivoted our niche food truck business from gourmet hot dogs to 'better fast food'.
We’ve always had house-cut fries since our first food truck!
2019-2020
UPS AND DOWNS IN THE RESTAURANT BIZ
By 2019, our burger business was working even better than we hoped! People lined up for our burgers and fries at farmers markets. We even raised enough money via Kickstarter to convert one of our hot dog trucks into a burger truck.
Since we had a ton of momentum, we took the leap and signed a lease to open our first restaurant in Spring 2020. Yes, that 2020….
We were in the middle of building out our restaurant when world shuts down. Our food truck business was basically dead & we were just trying to survive.
THE DELICIOUS DISCOVERY
2020-2023
During the slow time, we started working on making our own frozen fries as a way to streamline anything we could to survive.
We eventually got the restaurant open in November 2020, but it was a struggle. Our frozen fries, though, were tasting great. So we walked the grocery store freezer aisles & realized there were no new fry brands—all the shelves had the same brands we saw as kids in the 90's.
We realized that our frozen fries we’d made for ourselves might just be the answer.
We wanted to make fries so good that we’d be proud to put our names on the front of the bag. We wanted fries that we could serve to our friends & family.
So we created Jesse & Ben’s. We hope you love our fries as much as we love making them!
Made with Avocado Oil
Made with Avocado Oil
Made with Grass-fed Beef Tallow