This Delaware favorite won our best french fries poll ahead of National French Fry Day

If you want to eat Delaware's favorite french fries, our readers say you must go to Rehoboth Beach.

Thrasher's French Fries, the beloved boardwalk snack that's been a summer tradition since 1929, got the nod as the top fried potatoes in the state, just in time for National French Fry Day on Friday, July 12.

The Delaware fries voted by our readers as the best in the state are included in a story in USA Today looking at America's favorite french fries.

So why do Delawareans love Thrasher's French Fries? Is it nostalgia? Or are Thrasher's simply a quintessential taste of summer?

We think part of it is continuity. Traditions reign supreme at Thrasher's and there is no deviation from original procedures or recipes developed 95 years ago.

Thrasher's French Fries are best enjoyed sitting on or near the sand. (All three Delaware locations — two on Rehoboth Avenue and one on the boardwalk — are close to, if not within site of, the ocean.)

And the flavor of these piping hot, fresh-cut Idaho potatoes fried in peanut oil is somehow enhanced when accompanied by the soundtrack of the crashing surf and squawking seagulls.

Thrasher's are famously seasoned with only salt and apple cider vinegar. That's it. This is a condiment-free zone by choice. No ketchup. Not ever. Seriously.

Just read the signs at all locations that say, "We Serve No Ketchup."

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Dean Shuttleworth, a partner of the Thrasher's franchise in Rehoboth that's been operating since the early 1980s, said ketchup is not served because the Delaware french fries business honors the wishes of the company's founders.

And it's not just a Delaware Way thing. You also won't find ketchup at the three Thrasher's sites in Ocean City, Maryland, where the company was founded nearly a century ago.

(Last summer, in a cheeky move, Zelky's Beach Arcades on the boardwalk filled a coin-operated crane machine with single-serve packets of Heinz ketchup so people could scoop up packages of the condiment to squirt on french fries.)

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So how good is Thrasher's? One reader told us they don't even like french fries, but they travel to Rehoboth Beach just for Thrasher's. So there you go.

Other top votes in our french fry poll went to The Dog House, a Wilmington Manor landmark near New Castle since 1952; Gus & Gus Place, an iconic Rehoboth boardwalk restaurant since 1956; Nicola Pizza, which was founded in Rehoboth in 1971 and moved to Lewes in 2023; and Bethany Beach's DB Fries, a favorite of tourists and locals since 1987.

Patricia Talorico writes about food and restaurants. You can find her on Instagram,X and Facebook. Email  ptalorico@delawareonline.com. Sign up for her  Delaware Eats newsletter.