only in ny #12: chip shop.

  

snack: fried twinkie
drink: r. white's lemonade

my wicked smart doctor sister is totally obsessed with groupon. she gets it from my mother, who was always careful with money & on the hunt for deals. on sis's phone, at all times, she has access to handfuls of groupon deals. if you're in our immediate family, she already has a good idea of what she's getting you for christmas, as she's already found an applicable groupon for your interests. this past sunday, we met up on atlantic ave to take advantage of a chip shop groupon she had that was set to expire in a few weeks.

chip shop's a british-inspired joint known for their ability to fry (almost) everything under the sun. they have two brooklyn locales--one on atlantic ave & one on 5th ave/park slope. personally, i've only been to the park slope locale and wasn't very impressed. the groupon was for the atlantic locale, which is a whole different story. it has about as many tables as the park slope locale plus a full bar that, when we visited, was offering sixteen beers, including three sorta-obscure beers by founders brewing. too bad i'd gotten drunk twice the previous day & wanted nothing to do with beer at the time.

we started with a meal of battered cod & chips and an order of the fried mac & cheese, both of which i'd show you photos of if my sis (who was in charge of photos due to her orientation to the sunlight) had worn her glasses & been able to judge blurriness. i wasn't impressed with either dish, so i guess it's fitting that i don't show any photos. once we were done with our fried fish & chips and mac & cheese, we decided to pick a dessert.

they have fried twinkies, twix, snickers, mars bars, reeses' cups & bounty bars (whatever the fuck those are). unfortunately, the sis is allergic to chocolate, so our options were limited to the fried twinkie ($3.50). when it came out, it was in the shape of a heart, an assembly that i REALLY hope was par for the course & not some lame attempt to create romance through dessert shapes. as for the experience of eating a fried twinkie, it was aight. the cream pretty much disappears & they add powdered sugar, so in a way, it's sort of like funnel cake. it also comes in some sort of berry sauce, which helps add a little sweetness & tartness to the overall snack.

since it was a sunday afternoon & i'd had enough alcohol the previous day, i ignored the beer selection & went for a can of r. white's lemonade ($2), which i sipped on throughout the entire meal. it's a british soda that's "made with real lemons" & has been around since friggin' 1845 but in recent years has changed the original formula from one that uses just sugar as a sweetener to one that also incorporates aspartame, saccharin & acesulfame K. i thought british folks were against that sort of stuff, but i guess not. it basically tastes like a sprite without as much of a bite. while the added sweeteners are definitely apparent in the flavor, they're not all that off-putting unless you're allergic to aspartame & saccharin, as the sis is. luckily her sip of the soda prior to reading the full ingredients didn't make her drop dead at the table. that would've sucked.

will i go to the atlantic ave chip shop again? definitely. on a related note, due to the fact that it's clearly inferior, the park slope one is dead to me. will i get the fried twinkie again? unless they get me drunk on their impressive selection of beers, probably not. it's a tasty but fattening treat. will i give the atlantic ave chip shop a thumbs up? sure. why the hell not? while i'm not huge on fried food, they do a good job of it. if you've never been & are looking to try it out, you should probably wait til the fall though. no matter what the british think, fried food on a ninety-degree summer day is ultimately kinda gross.

chip shop, 129 atlantic ave, brooklyn, 718-855-7775