A star, not a side: The baked potato is back in a big way

Slicing into the indulgence of creamy, tender, white flesh, and browned, crispy skin, you might not immediately think that I’m referring to a baked potato. But this is the end of 2025 and this is where we are. Easily thought of as pedestrian, baked potatoes have also proven themselves to be the perfect canvas for, well, anything. Baked potatoes, or jacket potatoes, if you want to be a bit British about it, are trending, but relegated to a “side” no longer. The new baked potato is the star of the show.

The baked potato has only gained traction again fairly recently. We started off 2025 in what I personally dubbed the era of the latke. Every seafood bar had a latke piled with tuna tartare, bearing dollops of cream and caviar. You can’t throw a rock (or a potato) in Philly without hitting some sort of fancy shellfish or tartare perched delicately upon a potato latke. The trend was relentlessly nationwide and inescapable here, from My Loup’s pastrami beef tartare served on latkes to Middle Child Clubhouse’s okonomiyaki latkes and Randy Rucker’s peekytoe crab balanced on “hash browns”...also known as latkes.

But we have perhaps passed peak latke, and moved onto another potato preparation. Loaded baked potato news has been populating my social media feeds proffering both locally available spuds and unattainable ones. There’s chef Ange Branca’s Mod Spuds, which puts a Malaysian-Philadelphian spin on English jacket potatoes. She offers an array of toppings beyong the usual spoonful of sour cream and scattering of shredded cheese, from a Philly cheesesteak loaded potato to one topped with Branca’s legendary beef rendang.

On TikTok, baked potatoes were buoyed by Nara Smith, who made a “jacket potato turorial” for her 12.3 million followers. Her preparation of a baked potato with her narration in husky, low voice while wearing couture, has spawned countless imitation videos.

The viral UK-based SpudBros has become a global brand with multiple locations, millions of followers, and food trucks is also heading to Philly:

Baked potatoes are also popping up on menus at restaurants and bars in ways one has never seen before, whether it’s Pietramala’s Japanese sweet potato with buffalo sauce and cashew sour cream, or at the newly reopened (and moved to Sansom St) Wine Dive.

Wine Dive’s baked potato is an Idaho spud roughly the size of my chihuahua, with crispy deep brown skin, white flesh that emits plumes of steam when you slice into it, through the mountain of sour cream, curls of cheddar, torn bits of bacon, and scallions.

This is not a vehicle for masterful tikka masalas or rendang. This is a thoroughly American baked potato. On Wednesdays, Wine Dive has bottomless, all you can eat baked potatoes for $15.

It is as ridiculous as it sounds. Eat ten baked potatoes and you get your photo on the wall and the promise of some very cool merch. No one has made it to ten. So far, the record has been seven potatoes.

It’s possible that the proliferation of baked potatoes is, like cabbage, a recession indicator. But like the latke, it may very well have fine dining legs. Just let me know if you manage to eat ten in one go.