Roadtrippin’ 2024: A taste of The Potato in Valdez
VALDEZ, Alaska (KTUU) - The Potato, a well-known staple in Valdez, is known for its tasty, handmade comfort food meant to bring people together and satisfy Alaskan’s hunger.
The original restaurant was founded in McCarthy, leading to the growth of its second location in Valdez, which overlooks the town harbor.
Both restaurants serve their famous potatohead burrito, along with rotating dinner entrees. Most of their menu items are filled with made-from-scratch ingredients.
Gaea Bard, the owner of The Potato, says mostly everything is made in-house — smoking their own pork, making their own BBQ, and their own fries. The Potato serves “Spudniks” — a biscuits and sausage gravy dish that replaces fries with the biscuits — which Bard says people will eat by the gallon.
Bard worked at The Potato before she took over the restaurant and now says she’s appreciative of her crew. She says The Potato is community-oriented, family-friendly, and welcoming of everyone.
“I think, we really put love into our food, like it’s a small kitchen, a family-style kitchen. It’s a small line, we’re working with a bunch of 20 year olds,” Bard said. “It’s just a really friendly environment and you can definitely taste that in the food, the love we put into it.”
The Potato in Valdez is open only four and a half months of the year — from May 1 to roughly Sept. 10 — but when they are open, they usually have lines off the porch.
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