Meet Annalee Schlossberg, the 25-year-old entrepreneur behind Bel-Fries, a New York-based Belgian fries establishment, bringing the famous taste and texture of Belgian fries paired with local artisanal sauces to the streets of New York City.
Throughout her college experience at Cornell University, Annalee always had a strong interest in entrepreneurship–specifically with a focus on hospitality. Pursuing multiple internships in the field, including both customer-facing and more back-end marketing operations, Annalee built up a solid foundation of knowledge, along with the confidence to open up her own business.
Annalee decided she wanted to take the popular European fry-shop concept, and bring the experience to New York. She took inspiration from the original creation place of fries, Belgium, and named the business ‘Bel-Fries’, to educate the world on the true origins of the french fry.
Bel-Fries utilizes the classic European Belgian fry techniques–thicker cut and twice-fried potatoes served in a cone–paired with their own freshly-made artisanal sauces. Annalee’s American entrepreneurial spirit brings a twist to the typical NYC street food scene and sets a new standard for fries.
GROWTH ON THE HORIZON
Their flagship location opened in 2020 and has since expanded at an exponential rate across New York City including into the Bryant Park Winter Village this past holiday season–with more plans for expansions in the new year.
New York Lifestyles met with Annalee at the Bel-Fries booth in Bryant Park’s iconic Winter Village for an inspiring conversation about the young entrepreneur’s journey, the inspiration behind the brand, and what makes her business stand out amongst the competitive culinary landscape in NY.
NYLM: Belgian fries are iconic. How does it feel to bring your version of that to here in New York City, let alone the iconic Winter Village?
Annalee: “It’s honestly been incredible bringing Bel-Fries to Bryant Park. It’s insanely busy here. We have locals, tourists, everyone’s walking by, it feels like almost the busiest spot in the whole city and we’re right in the center here on the ice-skating rink, so we couldn’t be happier.”
NYLM: How many locations does Bel Fries have?
Annalee: “We have about six locations right now. A lot of them are pop-up seasonal locations. We have either a food truck or flagship in the lower east side of Manhattan. We’re opening our mall location in a couple of weeks from now, we also had a presence at the Columbus Circle Holiday Market. There’s a lot going on and a lot of locations in the mix.”
NYLM: How did you find your unique twist on Belgian fries for your customers?
Annalee: “We found that serving the fries in the cone with the sauce on the side, gives people that Belgian feel because in Belgium, they always serve it in a cone, they don’t serve it on a plate, how it’s done usually in America. We also have 16 artisanal sauces at our flagship location and, of course, our fries are twice fried. We make all of those in-house every single day. The fries are extremely crispy on the outside, fluffy on the inside. So that pairing of the piping hot fries with our artisanal sauces on the side, makes it great.”
NYLM: How did you come up with the idea for the business model?
Annalee: “Fries are really popular all over Europe – in Belgium, Amsterdam, etc. They have shops devoted entirely to fries and we said it’s such a great concept, it’s so popular – why aren’t there more fry shops in America or in New York? And so that’s how we decided to open up here, just serving mainly fries and sauces. Our name Bel-Fries comes from Belgian fries, because fries actually originated in Belgium and not France. So we’re renaming French fries to Bel-Fries.”
NYLM: What were you doing before Bel-Fries? How did you get to this part of your life? Annalee: “I was in college before I started the company, and throughout college, I always had a really strong interest in hospitality and entrepreneurship. I did internships in front of house operations, doing events, parties, party planning, bartending, serving at a pool club, etc. And then I also did back of house stuff kind of more of the marketing side of things – social media, getting the hang of really those two things together gave me leverage to open up Bel-Fries and kind of know what I was doing.”
NYLM: It’s been four years since you first started. What is one of the biggest takeaways you’ve learned at this point?
Annalee: “I would say definitely my biggest takeaway is finding the right team, hiring the right people, trustworthy people, loyal people. People that just really believe in your company and believe in you, has by far been the most important thing in the last four years. Because I wouldn’t be able to grow the company without my whole team, and Bel-Fries wouldn’t be here without everyone who’s involved in the company.”
NYLM: What can we expect to see from Bel-Fries in 2025?
Annalee: “We have a lot coming in the upcoming year. More food trucks, we’re opening our mall location soon which will be huge year-round, and we’re looking to hopefully open more mall locations in the future.” To learn more about Bel-Fries, please visit bel-fries.com