McAlister’s Deli has an extensive menu of sandwiches, salads, soups, spuds and desserts, but at each of the chain’s 560 locations, there is one employee dedicated entirely to cooking potatoes.
“It’s a very important position that we take pride in training,” said Brock Peek, executive chef of the Atlanta-based fast casual, a GoTo Foods brand. “That team member is trained to cook and send out fresh potatoes throughout the day.”
Last year, McAlister’s sold 5.8 million Giant Spuds, which are available to customize with a choice of up to 22 toppings. There are also about six curated selections, including the signature Spud Max topped with ham, turkey, bacon, cheddar-jack cheese, green onions, black olives and sour cream, as well as rotating limited-time offers. The Buffalo Chicken Spud was the most recent. And catering customers can order Baked Potato Bars with a wide variety of toppings.
Baked Potato Bars are popular for catering.
From field to fork
To make these loaded baked potatoes center-of-the-plate items, McAlister’s specs a very big potato, said Peek. “We’re very particular about the specific size of the potato, since it’s iconic to the brand from a food quality viewpoint and food standard,” he added. They all are Idaho Russet potatoes of a consistently large size and weight, but McAlister’s won’t reveal the exact specs.
The potatoes are baked in a convection oven for one hour, then split, fluffed and topped. “The spuds are vessels for transporting different ingredients from our sandwiches and salads, and many are inspired by those items,” said Peek. “We want to make sure that if your favorite sandwich has the ability to play well in the spud category, we will have it available. And a lot of them do work really well in that category.”
But there are Giant Spuds that stand on their own. The Veggie Spud, for example, is a vegetarian offering with a topping of spinach, broccoli, red onions, roasted peppers and Rotel cheese dip.
Prices for the Giant Spuds start at $8.99 for a basic cheese-topped potato, depending on restaurant location, and go up from there as toppings are added. The oversized potatoes make a full knife-and-fork meal, and the varieties topped with meat and cheese offer a sizeable portion of protein. But consumers can also choose a smaller spud portion to combine with soup or a half sandwich for a lighter lunch or dinner.
Branching out with LTOs
In response to consumer demand for flavor exploration, the McAlister’s team creates limited-time offers that are bolder and often indulgent.
The recent Buffalo Chicken Spud was inspired by the menu’s Buffalo chicken sandwich and salad, which both highlight the classic flavors of chicken marinated in Buffalo sauce combined with ranch, gorgonzola cheese, green onions, lettuce and tomato.
The Buffalo Chicken Giant Spud.
“When I was originally building the Buffalo Chicken Spud, I used the gorgonzola cheese that’s in the sandwich and salad to impart that traditional blue cheese flavor,” said Peek, “but when we tried that on a spud, it was just overpowering. We thought that this was where we had to change the sandwich and salad a bit.” When he subbed the cheddar-jack blend that goes into several of the other spud toppings, the combination was a winner.
The idea for the Smokehouse Spud, the potato that launches next Wednesday on the permanent menu, was born out of abundance, said Peek. “We wanted people to say ‘OMG’ when the plate came to the table, so we loaded it with pulled pork, bacon, mac and cheese and extra cheese. It’s super indulgent, was really fun to make and the flavors work really well together.”
Pulled pork was added to McAlister’s pantry recently for a Cuban sandwich and mac and cheese is offered as a side, so the team didn’t have to bring in any additional SKUs for this item. Coming to the permanent menu along with the Smokehouse Spud is the Honey BBQ Pork Spud, a previously popular LTO that also uses pulled pork. It’s one of Peek’s goals to bring a flavor profile across all the menu’s platforms.
Baked potatoes are 'in'
Giant Spuds have been on the menu at McAlister’s Deli for 30-plus years, and loaded baked potatoes and baked stuffed potatoes are steakhouse and supper club staples. But the all-American favorite is now having a moment on social media.
The TikTok feed featuring the Spud Bros has millions of followers, who watch as real-life brothers Jacob and Harley Nelson video craveable iterations of loaded potatoes or “jacket potatoes,” as they’re called in England.
Quick-service restaurants featuring build-your-own loaded baked potatoes have come in and out of favor, but there are several concepts that are currently gaining traction. Although consumers can’t seem to get enough protein these days, carb-centric potatoes seem to be on-trend.
McAlister’s Deli is ready—with a wide selection of Giant Spuds and Baked Potato Bars for catering customers.