Ferch’s Malt Shoppe and Grille

Looking around for a place to have lunch in Franklin, we found Ferch’s come up highly rated. It is located along Rt. 100 and Drexel, in the same mall area as the Target store that stands out prominently. We came in around noon and were surprised nobody was there, given that it’s Black Friday and we would expect it to be hopping. Anyway, we got ourselves a booth and picked up menus from the order counter.
Ferch’s has this 1950s soda shop look to it inside, right down to the jukebox. It looks very clean. There is a large section behind the counter for ice cream and toppings for the ice cream. While we didn’t have any on our visit, the choices looked intriguing in variety.
We ordered a basket of soft pretzels as an appetizer. It came with nacho cheese for dipping. The pretzels were gently dipped in butter and made for a great snack before the meal. As for the main course, I went for the guacamole & bacon burger. My wife has the mushroom & Swiss and my older son had a basic cheeseburger. While the burgers were good, the packaged guacamole on my burger detracted from its overall taste. If anything, it made it seem sour or off-​taste. Stripping off the guac made it immediately better. While the mushrooms on my wife’s burger appear to have been canned, they were good and with the Swiss cheese and grilled onions, she had an awesome burger.
I liked their fries and their raspberry iced tea. I wish they had more fresh ingredients for their burgers, but overall a solid meal and a decent place for lunch. Just avoid the guacamole.

I really like this place and would like to rate it higher, but frankly, after my first experience here they’re lucky to get three stars.
My first issue with this place is I came in for custard and I could not get any information on their products whatsoever. When I looked at the menu, «Marble Top Creation» was plastered all over the place. I had no idea what a «Marble Top Creation» was. Now I know some older people know what it is after I asked around, but I’m pretty well versed in custard and sweet shops and never heard of it in 34 years.
I went up to the counter and asked what a «Marble Top Creation» was. This is the conversation that followed–
Me– «Hey, what’s this Marble Top Creation thing?»
Worker– «It’s frozen custard with toppings»
Me– «Oh, it’s a sundae then.»
Worker– «No, it’s got the toppings mixed in»
Me– «So it’s like a Blizzard»
Worker– «I don’t know what a Blizzard is»
Me– You know, where they take ice cream and toppings and mix it in a blender?
Worker– «No, they don’t use a blender, they mix it right over there.»
Me– «Forget it.»
I stopped the «Who’s on First?» routine and dove in head first. I ordered yellow cake batter custard with brownies and walnuts, and my wife followed suit and ordered a strawberry custard with raspberries. I watch carefully as they slapped a chunk of custard on a frozen piece of marble, put some toppings on top of it and flipped and pressed it together with a putty knife. Oh… that’s what it is!
And I definitely wasn’t disappointed with the taste of the finished product. While the custard isn’t the best in Milwaukee, it’s damn good. The fact that you can mix anything in and essentially make your own flavors of custard. The possibilities are almost endless, it’s not like going to the other custard places, stopping in and figuring out you don’t like the flavor of the day. This would normally put this place towards the top of my custard list. That’s until I hit problem #2.
My wife takes a bite into her strawberry/​raspberry creation. Her eyes light up and she says «Yum! Try a bite of mine!» I dig in and grab a big spoonful. It’s fantastic until I bite into something hard. I pull it out of my mouth, and it looks like a cherry stem. I play around with it and figure out its a hard piece of rubber, and then I cry out «Why is this happening to me again!» (See Culver’s Oak Creek review). I think it might of came off the scoop they were using, but that’s not cool, I could have choked on that (see pic).
Otherwise, this place is pretty cool. Brad is right when he says that this place is like the diner in Back to the Future. I was expecting Biff Tannen to come storming in, call me a «Butthead» and tell me to «Make like a tree and get out of here!» I’ve loved the 50’s diner feel ever since I used to go to Mel’s Diner as a kid. Also big props for the free Jukebox that is loaded with the hits from the 50’s to the 80’s. I almost choked to Toto’s «Africa».
This is more like a 2.5, but I’m being nice since the custard was good and the ambiance is so cool.

OK — first things first — this is NOT Finch’s Corned Beef. This is the only reason I stopped here. My wife had had a discussion with me last week about how great the corned beef at FINCHS was. (Now closed)
Me being a husband, or possibly just being me, was only really half listening. I knew the name started with an «F» and had some type of a «ch» combo in the name. Yesterday, as I left the Pick N Save on Lovers Lane, I saw the «Ferch’s» sign and said THAT’S where I’m going for lunch!
Immediately I checked in on my handy dandy Unilocal!app, expecting at any time to receive a jealous comment on my check in. I waited, and waited, and waited. Nothing. Little did I know, not only was the earlier conversation about «Finch’s», apparently the conversation also mentioned the place is long closed.
A little concerned that a place that allegedly is known for it’s corned beef (Finch’s NOT Ferch’s), I ordered the Reuben. It came out shortly, and immediately I determined it to be a food distributor type product. Probably Sysco. The beef was very tough, almost impossible to chew through. So, taking a bite causes the whole piece of corned beef to be pulled from the sandwich, dressing, sauerkraut and all. Messy.messy.messy.
Sysco sandwich, frozen fries, and a soda fountain iced tea. $ 11 — Meh

There’s a juke box and the dining room looks like the diner in Back to the Future. I like the soda fountain and the lunch counter. This is a fun place, especially for the appetizers and ice cream.

I stopped in here for a snack the other day. I had a green river soda and sweet potato fries. The soda was great, and I even got a free refill. They really do make it the old fashion way. The sweet potato fries were very good, and they came with marshmallow fluff to dip into. Not really my thing, but pretty interesting flavor. I have always liked the Greendale restaurant, and this one is also very good. It looks great inside too! I will be back!

Malts and fries. Ferch has good food, from the burgers to the sandwiches to the ice cream. I managed to stop by this new Ferch location a couple of times after they opened and before I moved from the area. This location doesn’t have the ambience of the Greendale shop, but it still has the same good food. And the chocolate malts are the best around.