No dud spud: Mr. Potato Spread wows customers at OP Mall
New hit at OP Mall
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No dud spud: Mr. Potato Spread wows customers at OP Mall
ORANGE PARK – You can certainly get butter, sour cream and chives at Mr. Potato Spread, but that’s not why customers were eager to stand in line for a half-hour last Saturday to celebrate a grand opening at the Orange Park Mall.
Hundreds came to the Food Court for a variety of unique baked potato toppings like shrimp or chicken fajitas, vegetable medleys, child bacon ranch, cheesesteak and slow-roasted pulled pork.
But the overwhelming favorite topping that took Aaron and Lakita Spann from their catering business, to a food truck and now their second restaurant is the Crab Pot Potato that comes with shrimp, blue crab meat, smoked sausage, corn, Old Bay seasoning and homemade garlic butter.
“We love low country boils,” Aaron said.
“We played around with a lot of ideas and we decided to put a low country boil on top of a potato,” Lakita said.
The potato is so popular, it’s generated a loyal following who came from the Northside of Jacksonville who are willing to drive for 30 minutes and stand in line for another 30 minutes.
“We used to have them delivered to our office,” said Orange Park’s Sydney Wittschen. “When I saw they were opening a store at the mall, we had to come up. We loved them when they had their food truck. This is better because it’s close.”
The Spann’s still run their food truck and still offer corporate catering. Their schedules are posted weekly on the company’s Facebook and Twitter pages.
Make no mistake: this is no ordinary baked potato.
Each potato weighs about one-and-a-half pounds, Aaron said. With all the additional toppings “we bump it up to about two-and-a-half pounds.”
The Spanns spent months deciding on a theme for their food truck in 2014. They decided on potatoes since they were “extremely underrated and underutilized.”
“Actually, there’s nothing you can’t put on a potato,” Aaron said.
Alpha Melo made her first visit to Mr. Potato Spread on Saturday. She ordered two Crab Pot Potatoes and a Cheesesteak and Chick Bacon Ranch potato. She opened the container to see one of the Crab Pot Potatoes and muttered, “Wow” as she shook her head.
Impressed, Melo will likely be a repeat customer. And when she does, there probably will be a line.
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