A loaded-fries franchise moves in next to a gelato and cheesecake spot on Frankford Avenue

With an oversized pair of scissors and a chorus of cheers from friends and customers, Galen Thomas and Donte Fassett cut the ribbon Friday on Mr. Fries Man, their franchise location of a Southern California chain specializing in loaded french fries and wings.

The opening gives Thomas and Fassett a savory anchor beside Cloud Cups and Philly Cheesecake Lady, turning a double-wide storefront into a small comfort-food hub — gelato, cheesecake, loaded fries, and soon baked potatoes — in a space with its own local food history.

Mr. Fries Man’s address, 2313 Frankford Ave., was the original home of Pizza Brain, which helped define a Fishtown/Kensington food wave when it opened in 2012. Cloud Cups, Thomas’ gelato shop, operates next door at 2311 Frankford, where Philly Cheesecake Lady sells desserts from a case next to the gelato.

For Thomas, the move was not part of a long-held plan to get into fries. It began during a pandemic trip to Los Angeles, where Mr. Fries Man was drawing social-media attention.

“It was one of the spots on my foodie list,” Thomas said. After trying it, he noticed a sign advertising franchise opportunities. “I thought, ‘I’ve got to have this with the gelato on the East Coast. This has to happen.’”

Mr. Fries Man’s menu starts with fries and wings. Customers build their own combinations from fry toppings such as crab, chicken, shrimp, steak, and chili, plus sauces including honey garlic, lemon pepper, and Cajun garlic. The draw, Thomas said, is the customization.

“Everybody’s favorite thing is fries, and you can get it with whatever you want on it,” Thomas said. “What’s wrong with that?”

The fries are straight-cut and served in black clamshell containers, built less like a side order than a full meal. Sauces, cheese, and proteins are layered generously on top. Even the “junior” is more than enough for one hungry person, while the regular reads more like a shareable tray. (Prices for juniors range from $8.86 for one with chili cheese to $21.95 for one topped with lemon garlic crab and shrimp; prices for a regular are a few dollars more.) Most business is takeout, though customers can use Cloud Cups’ tables next door. A courtyard in the back will be set up soon with seating.

Loaded baked potatoes, also part of the franchise’s larger menu, will be added soon, Thomas said.

Getting the shop open took longer than expected. Thomas said he initially did not realize that the former pizza space’s hood system would not work for frying, requiring a more involved build-out.

Thomas, his wife, Tori, and Fassett acquired Philly Cheesecake Lady last fall from founder Vanessa Jackson, who retired. They moved the operation from Elkins Park, where Jackson customarily drew lines along Township Line Road, to Jenkintown.

Thomas said the relationship began through gelato collaborations with Jackson and her daughter, Brittany, including cheesecake-flavored gelatos. When Jackson offered him the business, he saw a chance to broaden Cloud Cups’ reach.

Tori Thomas said Vanessa Jackson trained the new team on the cheesecake recipes.

“We definitely didn’t want to mess that up, because people love it so much,” she said.

Fassett, Thomas’ partner in Mr. Fries Man and Philly Cheesecake Lady, has been part of Thomas’ orbit for years. Fassett trained at Le Cordon Bleu Institute of Culinary Arts in Pittsburgh and also operates Mason Meals, a food program that serves about 2,800 children a day across Philadelphia.

He met Thomas through a mutual friend when Thomas was starting Cloud Cups and needed commercial kitchen space.

“I helped him get his business set up and situated — licenses, insurance, all of that,” Fassett said. “We’ve been connected since then.”

Thomas, a West Oak Lane native, founded Cloud Cups in 2018 as a CBD-infused gelato company before turning it into a non-infused gelato and sorbet brand. He built it through pop-ups, markets, collaborations, and special orders before opening the Frankford Avenue shop in 2023. Its production facility is at MaKen Studios North in Kensington, though that location is not open now to retail customers.

Cloud Cups’ flavors lean more Philly-personal than old-world Italian: red velvet cheesecake, French toast, stracciatella, banana pudding, and “mom’s caramel,” among them.

In fact, Thomas wooed his now-wife with gelato, she said.

“He brought it on our first or second date, and I’m like, ‘Oh, I never had gelato before. I always ate ice cream and it was really good,’” Tori Thomas said.

She calls the new setup “Flavors on Frankford.”

“We’ve got all the cheesecake and gelato flavors,” she said, “and now we’ve got the fry flavors.”

Mr. Fries Man, 2313 Frankford Ave. Opening hours: 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily.