When Pierre Vandamme moved to Salt Lake City he brought more than just a family recipe for waffles with him. He brought a culinary concept Utahns would embrace. Ten years after Vandamme sold his first waffle, Provo will finally get a taste of the Belgium ambience he transplanted to the state.
“We picked Provo for two reasons,” said Vandamme, who owns and operates three other locations in Utah. The Provo location is expected to open up soon. “We have a lot of people who come up to eat our food from Utah County, so for us it was a pretty logical step to get involved in Provo. And we wanted to be part of a historic neighborhood. We like the buildings in downtown Provo. The space has character; it will fit with our concept and ambience we were looking for.”
The friterie or fry-house will feature an expanded menu. In addition to fries and a variety of waffles, the Provo location will feature the Machine Gun Sandwich (featured on the popular food show “Man v. Food”) and a selection of waffle sandwiches currently served in Bruges’ Sugar House location.
Opening
Vandamme started selling waffles from a cart in Salt Lake City in 2004; shortly thereafter he opened his first location. Bruges hopes to open its doors in Provo before the end of spring.
Hours
Hours vary by location, but if the Provo branch is to follow the trend established by the other locations, it will likely be open later on the weekend than on weeknights. Other locations are closed Sundays.
Waffles: Plain waffles start at $3.25, while the more elaborate waffles (the Waffle Monster and the Sugar House Waffle) cost $9.
Fries: Fries come in three sizes at three different prices; small, $3.24; medium, $5.33; and large, $8.34.
Machine Gun: This fresh baguette stuffed with two merguez (lamb) sausages, fries and a specialty sauce runs $9.25.
Waffle sandwiches: The range of waffle sandwiches are sold at $7.99.
The Chef says:
“The Dutch in Belgium and Holland are the masters of making fries,” Vandamme said. “We have imported a Dutch frier for the Provo location. The frier will let us better reproduce the processes they use back in Europe. It will give us a better flavor.”
For more information regarding Vandamme or his friterie, visit his website.
