If you find yourself driving in San Francisco or anywhere in the Bay Area, you’ll find great weather, tech companies, expensive housing, and beautiful views. Although all of these are Bay Area staples, none compare to the food. The Bay is home to many delectable food options, from clam chowder served in sourdough bread bowls to Dungeness crab sandwiches. However, the real showstopper—a smell that attracts you as if it were divine intervention—is the sizzling garlic grilled on kitchen stoves that are to be placed on one of the Bay’s most delicious creations, the garlic fries.
Garlic fries—as the story goes—were invented in the 1980s during the Gilroy Garlic Festival (where else but the garlic capital of the world?). However, this dish didn’t become associated with the Bay Area until Dan Gordon and Dean Biersch, co-founders of the Gordon Biersch brewery, created their own garlic fries that they sold in San Jose. Shortly after, garlic fries were served to baseball fans in San Francisco’s Candlestick Park, becoming an iconic ballpark food for fans of the San Francisco Giants. Later, the newly opened Oracle Park decided to partner with Gilroy’s Christopher Ranch to supply their garlic. This is how garlic fries became an infamous snack in the Bay that made locals and tourists alike fall in love.
With all this talk about garlic fries, I have taken it upon myself in the name of journalistic integrity (and hunger) to celebrate the golden, garlicky goodness that are garlic fries. Something that’s not just food but a tradition in the Bay Area, and a reminder that some of the best things in life come in small, garlicky packages.