If You Want to Drive and Eat Fries at the Same Time, You Need This $7 Gadget

It’s not an exaggeration to say that the greatest day of my life was the day that Wendy’s introduced its four for $4 meal, which includes my favorites — a junior bacon cheeseburger, chicken nuggets, a small order of fries, and a small drink. (The four for $4 is also my longest, most successful relationship). The only thing that complicates things between us is deciding whether I need to eat it immediately, finishing it at the last stoplight between Wendy’s and my house, or whether I should wait to savor it while sitting (let’s be honest, standing over the sink) in my own kitchen.

My impulse is always to empty all of it into my open mouth as quickly as possible, but trying to do that and drive means I have to pass up the ketchup and nugget sauce, because 1) only monsters squeeze ketchup directly onto their fries and 2) SAFETY FIRST. The center console in my car has zero acceptable places to balance condiments — and that’s why I have high hopes for the DipClip.

Preorder: Saucemoto DipCip, $7 at Milkmen Design

The DipClip seems to be designed for people like me who can name all of the Wendy’s employees at any given time of day. It’s a plastic dip-and-ketchup dish (its creators call it a ramekin, but settle down, Lord Grantham — it’s a ketchup dish) that attaches to the air vents in your car. You can squeeze your ketchup into the attached rame-dish or use it to hold other condiments of your choice; either way, it allows you to safely dip and drive. (Our lawyers would like us to tell you that we do not recommend you dip and drive! Pull over, please.)

“It all started about 10 years ago during a road trip to Michigan. When a nugget-and-french-fry craving hit us, we pulled into the nearest drive-thru and placed our orders. And then the struggle began,” the inventors wrote on Kickstarter. “Trying to balance sauce packets on our knees while we dunked our nuggets and fries, the inevitable happened: a freshly opened package of BBQ sauce tumbled uncontrollably onto the seat. Annoyed and aggravated, we said to ourselves, ‘There has to be a better way.'”

DipClip has blown past its modest $10,000 goal on Kickstarter (raising $63,308 in 50 days) and it is estimated to ship to its backers in the spring. The initial DipClip release seems to be sold out — because of course it is — but you can pre-order one and you can bet I’ll be trying to get my ketchup-covered fingers on one of these this year. Until then, DipClip. Until then.