{"id":265100,"date":"2026-08-14T06:02:07","date_gmt":"2026-08-14T06:02:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/265100\/"},"modified":"2026-08-14T06:02:07","modified_gmt":"2026-08-14T06:02:07","slug":"french-fry-lovers-unite-annual-festival-returns-to-west-reading-with-70-vendors-reading-area","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/265100\/","title":{"rendered":"French fry lovers unite: Annual festival returns to West Reading with 70 vendors | Reading Area"},"content":{"rendered":"

WEST READING, Pa. – “You want fries with that?” is not a phrase you’re likely to hear this weekend at the 8th Annual French Fry Fest in Berks County.<\/a><\/p>\n

Because there, the fried spuds are the main entr\u00e9e.<\/p>\n

David Calvo owns Chef David’s Pizza & More, just down the street from the big event.<\/p>\n

“Last year, we did something very simple, but it was my first year,” Calvo said.<\/p>\n

Chef David’s “simple” french fry concoction combines chicken, mozzarella sticks, bacon, pepperoni and \u2014 of course \u2014 french fries, smothered in vodka sauce, all bitable atop a pizza pie.<\/p>\n

He calls it “wallah.”<\/p>\n

“Wallah, baby,” he said. “Made with love. Always.”<\/p>\n

That’s just one of many ways vendors get creative at the West Reading French Fry Fest.<\/a><\/p>\n

Organizers estimate that among the 70 vendors \u2014 24 of those French fries, the rest, other food, art and retail \u2014 thousands of pounds of fries will be served.<\/p>\n

“Oh, my God. Hundreds of different types of fries,” Calvo said. “Waffle fries, curly fries, Jersey fries, a lot of different types of sauce.\u201d<\/p>\n

The various fries are arranged in favorite dishes from around the world.<\/p>\n

“We’re going to have a lot of different types of fries, and I promise you, everybody’s got good fries,” Calvo said. “Not only Chef David \u2014 everybody,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

An event that began with just four vendors and 500 people, organizers say, last year turned up some 18,000 people. This year, they’re expecting even more to come out.<\/p>\n

“It’s getting better and better every day,” Calvo said.<\/p>\n

The West Reading French Fry Fest happens between the 600 and 700 blocks of Penn Avenue this Saturday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. It’s free, and food is pay-as-you-go.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WEST READING, Pa. – “You want fries with that?” is not a phrase you’re likely to hear this…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":264754,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[349,111778,111776,5792,71168,111766,28,128,130,129,111777,111775,707],"class_list":["post-265100","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-reading","tag-berks-county","tag-chef-david","tag-curly-fries","tag-food-festival","tag-french-fries","tag-french-fry-fest","tag-pennsylvania","tag-reading-city","tag-reading-city-headlines","tag-reading-city-news","tag-steak-fries","tag-waffle-fries","tag-west-reading"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265100","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=265100"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265100\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/264754"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=265100"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=265100"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=265100"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}