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A Spud Man loaded potato concept will open in the former location for Flaming Wok at Casper\u2019s Eastridge Mall. (Klark Byrd, Oil City News)<\/p>\nCASPER, Wyo. \u2013\u2013 The Eastridge Mall\u2019s dormant food court is poised to make a comeback with the addition of a loaded baked potato establishment. <\/p>\n
Restauranteur James Brady and his wife Daisy are opening a Casper version of their popular Spud Man restaurant they operate in downtown Riverton. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve been looking to expand and looking for opportunities,\u201d said Brady, crediting the Eastridge Mall\u2019s management team for offering them incentives to help revive the food court. \u201cThey have some good ideas about trying to bring people back to the mall, and I thought I could be a part of that.\u201d <\/p>\n
Spud Man will be located in the old Flaming Wok spot, which was the last food service business in the once-thriving food court before closing last year after two decades of business. Brady said the existing kitchen had most of the needed equipment to prepare their food, except for the addition of a proper oven for cooking potatoes. <\/p>\n
Spud Man will serve up large potatoes loaded to-order with generous amounts of toppings, he said. The concept is hugely popular in England with fans also across the U.S., but has not been well represented lately in Casper. <\/p>\n
Brady said the standard loaded potato with cheese, bacon, scallions and sour cream tends to be the most popular menu item, followed by a brisket and cheese, and the \u201cCattleman,\u201d which features diced filet mignon. There are also vegetarian offerings. <\/p>\n
A Spud Man loaded potato concept will open in the former location for Flaming Wok at Casper\u2019s Eastridge Mall. (Klark Byrd, Oil City News)<\/p>\n
Brady, who grew up in Cody, had worked for decades in the restaurant business before launching his own establishment. He enjoyed the experience in high school, but got into the auto mechanics business before having a change of heart. <\/p>\n
\u201cI got tired of busting my knuckles and decided to start cooking again,\u201d he said. He moved to Las Vegas, where he landed a gig at celebrity chef Emeril Lagasse\u2019s Delmonico Steakhouse. After several years there he moved to another James Beard award-winning restaurants before moving back to Wyoming, working as executive chef and food and beverage director at the Sheridan Holiday Inn. He moved to Arizona for a spell to run a restaurant there before taking a job in Riverton, where in time he decided to launch his own business. <\/p>\n
\u201cI had been thinking about doing spuds for several years, thinking I might just do a food truck,\u201d he said. \u201cI thought it was a unique idea, especially after noticing potato food trucks round Great Britain that are very popular.\u201d <\/p>\n
Spud Man started out as a food trailer parked next to a building, where he had more space to prep food. The concept quickly took off, and he decided to abandon the trailer and move to a brick-and-mortar store downtown. \u201cWe increased our revenues quite a bit when we made that move,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
Brady has spent the last few weeks driving to and from Casper to get the new location launched. He\u2019s hired staff and hung signage, and plans to do a soft opening starting this Wednesday or Thursday, he said. A grand opening will be held at a later date. <\/p>\n
Spud Man business hours will be Monday through Saturday from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., he said. A website specific to Casper\u2019s location has been launched, and social media pages are in the works. <\/p>\n
\n\tRelated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
CASPER, Wyo. \u2013\u2013 The Eastridge Mall\u2019s dormant food court is poised to make a comeback with the addition of a loaded baked potato establishment. Restauranteur James Brady and his wife Daisy are opening a Casper version of their popular Spud Man restaurant they operate in downtown Riverton. \u201cWe\u2019ve been looking to expand and looking for<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":18367,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[7,8],"class_list":["post-18366","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-restaurants","tag-restaurant","tag-restaurants"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/vive.im\/@dnc\/117191077065195884","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18366","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18366"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18366\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18367"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18366"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18366"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18366"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}