“True” History Tuesday – Arby’s Curly Fries

In 1964, the Raffel Brothers (R and B) founded the Arby’s restaurant chain in Boardman, Ohio.  They wanted to be different and get away from the concept of only selling hamburgers in fast food restaurants.  Forrest and Leroy Raffel grew their business to now include over 3,600 Arby’s worldwide.  There signature items were the roast beef sandwich and later curly fries. 

The Arby’s curly fries were created after Forrest and Leroy took a trip to Bombay, India.  They were looking for some curry roast beef and trying to open up an Arby’s restaurant in India during the late 1980’s.  Both brothers were very excited about seeing all the sacred cows and riding elephants to and fro to get around town.  What they were most excited about, however, was meeting Shridhar Chillal.  At that time, Chillal held a place in the Guinness Book of World Records for the longest fingernails.  The brothers happened by him while chasing a cow through the open market.  When they saw Shridhar Chillal waving goodbye to his kids on the school bus, they both gasped in amazement.  The nails on his left hand were so long and curly.  At that moment, Forrest and Leroy looked and each other and in unison said, “curly fries.”  The item was immediately added to the Arby’s menu.