‘We were wrong, baby.’ Rush’s going back to old french fries. Here’s when
You raised your voices, and Rush’s heard you. The longstanding local fast-food chain is changing back its fries, effective July 18.
Back in January, the chain that has served Midlands residents burgers, chicken, barbecue sandwiches, milkshakes and more for decades, announced with much social media fanfare that it was going away from the straight-cut fries it had long served, opting instead for new crinkle-cut fries.
“The Fry-nal Countdown,” read a flyer slipped into customers’ orders about the change, marketed as Rush’s 2025 Fry Glow Up. “That’s right. The fry you know and love is getting hotter, crispier, crunchier and yep, crinkly-er.”
Turns out the decision wasn’t Fry-nal. Reaction to the change on social media was swift and polarized, with several threads popping up from local Facebook users, with comments frequently decrying how the eatery steeped in nostalgia had gone away from the fries they knew and loved.
Not everyone was turned off. The restaurant still placed second in The State’s 2025 French Fry Poll, conducted in February.
Rush’s acknowledges the backlash in the video it posted Thursday announcing that the old straight-cut fries would be returning. Over the seductive groove of Player’s 1977 hit “Baby Come Back,” the screen splashes with online comments begging for the old fries — “We’re all a little salty about the fries,” “#fryGate,” “PLEASE BRING BACK THE OLD FRIES.”
“We were wrong, baby,” Rush’s wrote in the caption.
Rush’s operates eight drive-thru and sit-down restaurants around Columbia, Lexington and Camden.
This story was originally published June 26, 2025 at 4:28 PM.
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