Spud Daddy restaurant based on the Idaho potato

By Sean Ellis

Idaho Farm Bureau Federation

BOISE – A fast-casual restaurant called Spud Daddy that is based on the famous Idaho baked potato has opened in downtown Boise.

During a soft opening June 19, a constant waiting line stretched out onto the sidewalk. Nearly a thousand meals were served before 2 p.m., said owner Thomas Watson.

The restaurant has remained open since then and a hard grand opening was held July 10 on National French Fry Day.

“We thought it was a cool idea to do a Chipotle-like concept centered around potatoes,” Watson said.

He said the restaurant quadrupled its expectations during the soft opening.

According to Watson, Spud Daddy serves “the biggest, baddest Idaho Russet potatoes around.”

In preparing the concept behind the restaurant, Thomas looked through old ad campaigns for Idaho potatoes from the early 1900s that showed great big baked potatoes.

“We looked through that and thought, Yeah, we need to get massive baked potatoes,” he said. “We need people to look at the potatoes and think, Holy cow!”

Based on opening day, that happened. “We had a line out the door for hours and hours,” Watson said.

He said the opening day turnout gave him a good feeling that the Spud Daddy concept is a winner.

Based on the Day One performance, “We need to quadruple our staff and buy more food,” he said. “The operation is going to have to get very fast. It’s clear that people want this and they want it in bulk.”

Spud Daddy has received support and encouragement from the Idaho Potato Commission, which is funded by Idaho potato farmers to help promote the state’s most famous product.

“This helps promotes our product,” said Jamey Higham, CEO of the potato commission. “I think it’s a great way to promote the Idaho potato brand. We’re excited about it.”

Oakley potato farmer Randy Hardy said he thinks it’s a great idea to promote the Idaho potato in the heart of Idaho’s largest city.

“Boise is not an agricultural center of Idaho and it’s great that they’re doing that there,” he said.

The restaurant is centered around the famous Idaho Russet potato, with plenty of possible toppings. It includes French fries, a potato ice cream that looks like a spud but is not, and a gift shop with scores of potato-themed items.

“We searched high and low for anything that was potato related to put in that gift shop; anything that we could find that featured potatoes,” Watson said. “We’re trying to do something that hasn’t been done and we want to do it in a fun way.”

Watson is the person who conceived of and helped create Potato Days, a multiple-day celebration of the Idaho potato in the Boise area. That September event, going on its fourth year, attracts more than 20,000 people to Kleiner Park across from The Village in Meridian.

Potato Days organizers created a large commercial kitchen that turns out about 10,000 baked potatoes in two days. Watson said he thought, “We’ve gotten really good at baking potatoes; we should probably start a baked potato restaurant.”

That thinking led to Spud Daddy.

Watson said he couldn’t believe no one had tried opening a restaurant based solely on the Idaho potato before. He had a similar thought when he was vetting the Potato Days concept. He simply could not believe there wasn’t already an annual festival celebrating the Idaho potato in the Boise area.

“I asked the same question with Potato Days,” he said. “It was shocking. And to find out there’s no restaurant that is centered around just Idaho potatoes is probably an even bigger shock. Somebody else should have already done this. We almost felt a responsibility to do this.”

“It’s definitely an idea that has been thought of in the past and maybe even tried, maybe just not the right way,” Hardy said.

After going live with the restaurant, Watson said he now understands maybe why the idea hasn’t been accomplished before.

“The meal you are serving is a 90-minute cook time,” he said. “How do you figure out how to serve something that takes 90 minutes to cook, yet serve it every minute, and not run out? I can understand why this is a concept many people would run away from, but for me, I’m running toward it because I see the value of the Idaho potato and somebody should do it.”

For now, all the potatoes served at Spud Daddy are Russets. That may change some day, but whatever variety the spuds are, “they will always be Idaho potatoes,” Watson said. “Forever.”

Watson said potato commission staff have been very supportive of the Spud Daddy idea.

“The potato commission is ridiculously supportive,” he said. “Their chef is helping us and giving us tips and resources for, How do we properly store the potatoes; how do we bake the potatoes; what’s the best way to blanch a French fry?”

“They’re very interested in making sure we do this right because we’re representing the Idaho baked potato, not just potatoes,” he adds. “They don’t want to see us misrepresent the Idaho potato and I also don’t want to do that. We’re all treating this commodity as precious and want to make sure we do it the best possible way.”