A Garden Rake, a Tiny Cooker, and a Whole Lot of Grit
In 1992, in a dusty old feed store in Middletown, Virginia, a woman named Sarah Cohen dropped her first batch of potato chips into a tiny cooker. Her tools were humble: that little cooker, a garden rake for stirring, a great recipe, and what she later described as "some twenty-something delusion thrown in for good measure."
Thirty-four years later, Route 11 Potato Chips is still doing things the exact same way — slowly, carefully, and on purpose.
Named After the Road, Built by the Valley
U.S. Route 11 is one of those old American highways that actually goes somewhere interesting. It winds through the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, past caverns and farmland and small towns where people still wave at each other from their porches. Sarah named her chip company after the road because that's where she was — quite literally on Route 11, making chips by hand in a small town.
For the first sixteen years, Route 11 operated out of Middletown. Then in 2008, the company designed and built a purpose-built factory in Mount Jackson, right next to Interstate 81 and — of course — Route 11 itself, within sight of Shenandoah Caverns. The new building wasn't just functional. It was built with green principles baked in, because Cohen and her team had always cared about doing things right, not just doing things fast.
Twenty Pounds at a Time
Here's the number that tells you everything about Route 11: each batch yields about 20 pounds of chips.
That's it. Twenty pounds. In a world where industrial chip factories measure output in tons per hour, Route 11 produces about 600 pounds an hour total — one small, careful batch at a time.
"Our small batch technique will never make us a big company," the team says matter-of-factly on their website. "But it's the only way to make a truly excellent potato chip."
They're not being precious about it. They're being honest. Kettle cooking in small batches takes more time and more attention, but it produces chips with a crunch and curl that continuous-process factories simply can't replicate. Every chip gets cooked in 100% expeller-pressed high-oleic sunflower oil and seasoned with all-natural, unrefined Real Salt. No shortcuts. No substitutions.
They even trademarked the phrase "Unhurried Potatoes." That's not a marketing slogan — it's a manufacturing philosophy.
When the World Came for Their Sunflower Oil
One of the more interesting chapters in Route 11's story came in 2022, when Russia's invasion of Ukraine sent sunflower oil prices through the roof. Russia and Ukraine were the world's two largest producers. For a small chip company that cooks exclusively in sunflower oil, this was an existential crisis.
Route 11's response was characteristically practical: they built four sunflower oil reserve tanks at their Mount Jackson facility. Virginia's Agriculture and Forest Industry Development fund kicked in $25,000 toward the roughly $50,000 project. And the company started looking closer to home, exploring sunflower oil sources from farms near Richmond, Virginia and in North Carolina.
Instead of switching to a cheaper oil, they built infrastructure to protect their supply of the good stuff. That tells you a lot about how they think.
Eleven Flavors (Yes, Eleven)
The flavor lineup is eleven strong — matching their namesake road number, which feels deliberate and delightful:
- Lightly Salted — the flagship, pure potato
- Barbeque — smoky and classic
- Chesapeake Crab — seasoned like Mid-Atlantic crab boils
- Dill Pickle — for the tangy crowd
- Salt & Pepper — Appalachian salt and cracked pepper
- Salt & Vinegar — the pucker factor
- Sour Cream & Chive — creamy and herby
- Sweet Potato — seasonal, made from actual sweet potatoes
- Yukon Gold — seasonal, buttery and golden
- No Salt — for the purists
- Mama Zuma's Revenge — habanero heat with a great name
That Chesapeake Crab flavor is peak Virginia. If you've ever been to a crab feast in the Tidewater region, you know the seasoning. Route 11 captured it in chip form, and it's become a cult favorite.
In 2013, they even partnered with Ben & Jerry's on a promotional ice cream flavor called "Capitol Chill," garnished with Route 11 Sweet Potato chips. Ice cream and potato chips — sounds weird, works brilliantly.
Come Watch Them Work
One thing that sets Route 11 apart from nearly every other chip company: you can visit. The Mount Jackson factory has a public lobby where you can watch chips being made through viewing windows, grab free samples, and buy bags straight from the source. Their phone number is 1-800-294-SPUD, which is perfect.
The factory gets steam-cleaned and disinfected every single night. Industry inspectors have reportedly said they "could enjoy a meal off the floor." When your factory is open to the public, you can't hide anything — and Route 11 doesn't want to.
The company operates under the legal name Small Fry, Inc. — one more small detail that tells you these are people who don't take themselves too seriously, even as they take their chips very seriously.
The Bottom Line
Route 11 Potato Chips isn't trying to be Lay's. They're not trying to be Kettle Brand. They're trying to be Route 11 — a small company in a beautiful valley, making chips the slow way because the slow way tastes better.
You can find them at stores across the eastern United States, or order direct from rt11.com with free shipping. If you're ever driving through the Shenandoah Valley on I-81, pull off at Mount Jackson. The chips are better when you eat them where they're made.