The Boyfriend and I tried Fran's for the first time at lunch today, after passing it many a time on our way to Ru San's or Sunset Grille.\n\nWe were cheerfully greeted when we came in, and told a table would be cleaned for us shortly. It was pretty busy, which I took as a good sign. A quartet of women at the table near the door were finishing up their lunch by splitting two slices of cake, chocolate and (carrot?), which looked pretty delish.\n\nOur waitress was somewhat soft spoken, and didn't mention the specials to us until I asked.\n\nBoth of us ordered the #6, french dip-esque sammies. I ordered the pickled slaw for the side; he ordered fries ($1 extra ). Our food came out after not too long, but I was momentarily confused at the appearance of piles of fries on both platters. I brought this to the attention of the waitress, who apologized and said that the kitchen had been mixing things up a lot today. She started to take my plate away, but I said that it was okay. She asked if I was sure, and I was, because I didn't want my sandwich to get cold while they replated it with the correct slaw. It'd probably have been better service if she had just offered to get me some slaw on the side in addition to the wrong fries they sent out, but she didn't. *shrug* Fries weren't served with ketchup; we had to ask for it, which was brought out in two small plastic single-serve cups. If you're a ketchup fiend (we aren't) you'd probably need to ask for extra.\n\nThe good: the sandwiches. OMG, yum. The beef was tender, juicy and flavorful. The rolls were buttered and crisply toasted, and stood up under the weight of the fillings. The sweet peppers and jalapeno slaw (Boyfriend got it without, but I like the spicy) in the sammie added nice crunch and zing to almost every bite. The au jus was positively dreamy - the best beef dippin' juice I've ever had.\n\nThe meh: the fries. I'd mentioned to Boyfriend that they were voted best fries in Charlotte, but both of us couldn't figure out why, based on what we were served. They seemed a bit overcooked, very dark, and were barely lukewarm and thus not very fresh-tasting. Kind of flabby and floppy. Some people like that in a fry, but we weren't so impressed.\n\nNo room to try the cake ourselves. Maybe another time.\n\nWe will definitely go back, because the sandwiches were major noms and I saw several other options I'm keen to try, but next time I think we'll skip the fries. Hope I'll at least get to sample the pickled slaw.
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