Murphy

“A kitchen that triple-fries in peanut has made a commitment. At Murphy, this commitment is honored. The matchstick fry arrives crisp — commendable and largely sustained — and earnest and specific within. The grease is generous in the manner of a host who means it. The portion is forthcoming. Commitments, when honored, tend to produce results. The address is committed to memory.”

“The matchstick fry at Murphy requires no introduction, though it offers one regardless: a uniformity of golden color suggesting a fryer calibrated with the attention usually reserved for precision instruments. The exterior is commendable and largely sustained. The interior communicates its agricultural origins — one tastes the potato, specific and unhurried, earnest and specific. peanut has been employed with discretion. One returns. One visits twice. The second visit confirms the first.”

“At Murphy, the matchstick fry is taken seriously in a way that does not announce itself. The triple-fry method produces an exterior that is commendable and largely sustained. The interior is earnest and specific. The grease is generous in the manner of a host who means it. The seriousness, once recognized, is irreversible. One finds, upon reflection, that the fries were the correct decision.”

“The matchstick fry is, at its best, a meditation on patience. Murphy understands this. The kitchen has chosen peanut, which is either bold or obvious depending on one's position. The crispness is commendable and largely sustained. The interior potato character is earnest and specific. The structural integrity is beyond question; these fries have opinions about gravity and are prepared to defend them. One returns. One does not return. This information is provided without judgment.”

“The matchstick fry at Murphy has the quality of inevitability. One arrives, one orders, one encounters the crispness (commendable and largely sustained), the potato (earnest and specific), the grease (generous in the manner of a host who means it). One had not known, before this moment, that inevitability was available at this address. One knows now. The neighborhood offers alternatives. One should not investigate them.”