Walrus Alley in Westport Goes Seed Oil Free!
Walrus Alley owner Joe Farrell has made the move to exclude all seed oils from his menus and, he’s getting quite the education. Only a week into the experiment he’s learning on the run. The popular Southern food & burger go to in Westport is now cooking with grass fed beef tallow and avocado oil. Yep! And Joe’s committed to staying the course despite the learning curve. Sure, he’s always done that popular fried chicken in tallow, used duck fat too. But it’s the fries they’re fighting with. And he and the crew are fighting a worthy fight.
Walrus Alley uses a special potato for their fries and that’s just the beginning. “Cooking with Tallow & avocado oil is a new experience. We’re starting from scratch,” Joe revealed. “And we are doing this while we are open!”
I learned that to get a good fry took some finessing. There were numerous prep-steps for those spuds. And to make a long story short, they are cooking in a new medium. Like riding a bike for the first time, it’s a little wobbly. But everyday gets easier. “The team is experimenting with different potatoes. All kinds and not just French fries, but fried fingerlings and smashed potatoes too. The tallow affords us some versatility we didn’t have with canola.” He loves working with tallow, but the avocado oil allows a vegetarian to pull up to the table too. Joe forgoes canola in the mayonnaise and salad dressing; it’s now Zero Acre- a complete shakedown of the unhealthy seed oil.
Reading the menu, “some notice, others don’t,” says Joe. “Remarks like, ‘so what’ to ‘this is great’ are remarks they are initially hearing.” The amazing thing I’m hearing from Joe is that his customers taste the difference. And they like it a lot. “One of our regulars, unimpressed by the conceptual change to the menu, came back with a huge thumbs up.”
Joe reckons that most people are reading labels at the store, “deciding what is healthier and what’s not.” But going to a restaurant is different. You’re guessing or begrudgingly accepting the dirty little secret that anything “fried” is getting a bath in canola oil. Listen, I myself love a good burger with fries but since I’ve been avoiding seed oils I know what I’m in for when I succumb to eating fries cooked in canola oil. I’m always sluggish after and worse, sometimes I’m pardoning myself for a trip to the bathroom.
Joe leveled with me, “Walrus Alley is my house, my home. I eat here most of the time and so does my team. And we want to eat clean and healthy. I’m actually proud of what we are doing. It feels right. Feels honest. You can have your fries, and eat them too!” We both laughed, and had ourselves some fries.
