Riverton fast food restaurant Spud Man has come all the way to Casper to open a new location at the Eastridge Mall. Their loaded baked potatoes are the first new seed planted in the empty food court.
Spud Man Casper, will soft open with a limited menu on Wednesday, September 2, at 11 a.m. in the Eastridge Mall Food Court, 601 SE Wyoming Blvd.
“They had some pretty good terms on getting, new business back in here in the food court,” said Spud Man owner James Brady. “And, we thought about it and thought, ‘well, we should open up another location.’”
Spud Man will fill the space once used by Flaming Wok for 25 years before their closure in October of 2025.
Flaming Wok was the final business operating in the Eastridge Mall food court. For almost a year the area remained empty aside from weekend and event pop-up kitchens.
Brady admitted he felt some pressure at the thought of serving as vanguard for the food court’s revival.
“Yeah, there’s definitely a weight on my shoulder,” Brady laughed. “[I’m] just kind of worried about whether, you know, the Casper people are going to show up here. Whether we’re going to help to bring people back in the mall.”
Brady has 3-decades of food and beverage experience that he has put to work for Spud Man. The restaurant began as a food truck partly inspired by street food trends from across the pond
“I started seeing these, TikTok videos with, people selling spuds in Great Britain. And I said, ‘Okay, that’s how they do it,’” Brady explained.
He later converted the truck to a brick-and-mortar store in Riverton, which lead to increased sales.
“A lot of people want to just sit down and eat and this gives them that opportunity. You can’t do that with the food truck,” said Brady.
Despite the pressure, Brady is confident in the appeal of loaded baked potatoes as a new fast-food option in Casper.
“I’m excited because I think we’re going to have a lot more volume, a lot more people than we do in the smaller town of Riverton,” said Brady.
Spud Man’s business hours are 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Saturday.
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