Snack Attack: Fried Dough at Nosh & Grog Provisions

Fried dough at Nosh & Grog Provisions. / Photo provided

Maybe you’re looking forward to the changing seasons simply because September means a much-deserved visit to the Topsfield Fair or the Big E, but savor summer while you can. Plus, you can still stop and smell the funnel cake at Nosh & Grog Provisions in Medfield.

At the new spot, fried dough is the only dessert option on chef Joshua Bottini’s sharable menu, and he intends to keep it that way. Each portion is coated in raw sugar and cinnamon, then finished with a blanket of powdered sugar. The whole thing is served in a cardboard container meant to mimic the snacks available at drive-in movies.

To propel his fried dough past state fair status, Bottini rotates toppings, with a savory, chocolatey, and wild card always available. Right now, customers have a choice of wild berry marmalade, Nutella with banana butter, or chocolate ganache with house-made peanut butter and Reese’s Pieces.

“It’s actually stuffed with Reese’s Pieces, so when you tear it apart it’s melting,” Bottini says.

Previous spreads included milk chocolate with candied bacon, strawberry jam, and salted caramel apple. But for the next round of flavors, Bottini wants his guests to decide. Comment cards at every table will include a multiple choice of six selections.

“When we get to 100 [votes], that’s when it changes up,” Bottini says.

The chef already has a few ideas for guests to choose from this winter, like a sweet potato fried dough with Marshmallow Fluff, and he wants to offer more stuffed dough varieties.

The fried dough is derived from the same recipe that started the flatbread at Zebra’s Bistro & Wine Bar, the restaurant owner Craig Neubecker replaced with Nosh & Grog earlier this summer. But the idea for the treat actually came from a 19-year-old kitchen employee, who is already back at school after his first stint in restaurants.

“That speaks to the passion of food: anybody can create an idea here, and we morph it into something that will work,” Bottini says.

It seems to have worked. Nosh & Grog’s fried dough is quite literally selling like hotcakes, Bottini says, and the voting program was just instated. If you have an idea for the next great fried dough topping, drop the boring funnel cake and speak up.

“It’s all about that nostalgia,” Bottini says. “Shutting your eyes, eating it, and all of the sudden you’re back at your town fair chasing girls when you’re 12.”

$6, Nosh & Grog, 21 North St., Medfield, 508-359-4100, noshandgrog.com.