Chips on Route 11
Small Town, Big Business


“It’s this kind of insane story,” says Sarah Cohen. Her parents were in the restaurant and hotel business in Washington, D.C., and a little more than a decade ago decided to try organic potato chip making. They first
worked with a family factory in Pennsylvania and then decided to buy their own in Middletown, Va.

Route 11 Potato Chips is still based out of a small building in Middletown, producing about a tractor load of chips a week (that’s approximately 40,000 pounds of potatoes) and shipping them as far as Japan, New
Zealand, Sweden, Vancouver – and even to soldiers in Iraq. “Their mothers come in, or they order through the Internet,” says Cohen. “It’s weird to be communicating with people in a war zone who want potato chips.”

On this particular morning, a couple comes in. “Barbecue, large bag.” They walk fast, order fast, talk fast. They’re from New York.

They’re friendly, though they answer questions fast, too. “Once a year. We stock up on our way back to New York.” That’s from visiting her family in Strasburg.

Music plays from an oldies station. A window opens into the potato chip production room, officially open on Fridays and Saturdays to the
public.

“I always thought the potato chip idea was ridiculous,” says Cohen, who originally planned to be a filmmaker (her first short, a love story about Salvadoran dishwashers, has won awards). “But my dad, who died a few years ago, was a visionary.”

Route 11 Potato Chips is located on Route 11 in Middletown.
540/869-0104, Click here to Visit Route 11 Online.


—CEM