See more Daily Mail on Google - save us as a Preferred SourceBy TOM PARKER BOWLES, FOOD CRITIC AND AUTHOR Updated: 03:00 BST, 20 June 2026
First things first. SpudBros bakes a damned fine potato. The social-media sensation, which started more than 70 years back in Preston Flag Market, now has eight branches across the country, alongside an astonishing five million followers on TikTok, and another million on Instagram. Will Smith is a fan, along with Ed Sheeran and clean-cut crooner Joe Jonas. Even Liam Neeson is, ahem, taken by their taters.Anyway, they’ve just opened a brand-new site – slick, clean and predominantly red – off London’s Regent Street. The grand launch took place at the end of May, but one look at the queue, which snaked down the road in the full glare of a searing heatwave, sent me scurrying back to the cool of home. No potato, however exalted, is worth a sweaty two-hour wait. Although thousands may beg to differ.Because the great British baked potato has gone from comfort classic to the sort of viral food phenomenon that inspires otherwise normal people to cross countries and continents (SpudBros punters have come from as far away as Australia and South Africa) for just one bite.Now, I’m as partial to a good baked spud as the next man. They’re cheap, nutritious and, most of the time, delicious. It must be soaked with butter, of course, the skin that perfect combination of crisp and chewy, the interior as fluffy as a Constable cloud. But the joy of this dish, unlike, say, a Neapolitan pizza or pig’s trotter stuffed with sweetbreads, is that anyone can make it at home. And do it well, too.So what turned this ever-reliable support actor into an international megastar?Social media, of course. Jacob and Harley Nelson are the immensely likeable siblings now behind SpudBros, aged 30 and 23 respectively. Content, as ever, is king, and views of their posts now stretch into the billions. Their TikTok account was set up by their father Tony, who took over the Preston pitch after the death of its owner, his friend Keith Roberts. A swift rebrand took place, with GoPro cameras worn on their heads, turning a fairly average lunch into a livestreaming event. Suddenly, baked potatoes were hotter than a Dave’s Reaper chicken tender. Within a couple of years, the Nelsons opened their first SpudBros Express pop-up in Soho. The hardcore started queuing at dawn.They’re not alone in their baked-potato success. Ben Newman, aka Spudman, is a Tamworth legend with 4.2 million TikTok followers, known as much for his pink Mohican as the never-ending queues. I went to interview him a couple of years back, and he is as lovely as his spuds are splendid. He followed a similar career trajectory. In 2003 he bought an old pitch in Tamworth market square, which has been there since 1970. After trade dried up during Covid, though, one of his sons introduced him to TikTok. ‘I started off using it just to keep an eye on my kids,’ he told me. ‘Then thought, “What the hell?” and posted a few videos.’ The third got half a million views and ‘totally opened my eyes. Suddenly I’m being followed by millions of people all across the world.’ He still sells more than 1,000 potatoes a day – and at £6, with extra cheese and chilli, offers cracking value too. The bros: Jacob and Harley nelsonBack at SpudBros, they’re a couple of quid more expensive. But this is London, after all. I return the day after opening and walk straight in. Service is slick and speedy, with bags of potatoes by the door (not unlike Five Guys), and various hyperbolic posters noisily proclaiming ‘The Greatest Spuds on Earth’.I order the ‘Spudfather’ (£10.50) made fresh and ready in moments. ‘Leave the lid on for five minutes,’ says the instructions on the box, ‘and let me melt.’ But I’m hungry and have a train to catch. The skin has that magical marriage of brittleness and bite, plus a good, earthy potato flavour, while the interior is soft, lustily buttered and smothered in a melting three-cheese melange. There’s a dollop of decent homemade chilli, a sprinkling of crisp fried onion and a good splodge of their ‘world famous’ Tram Sauce (a spicy mayonnaise). Just like the Spud Man’s, it’s a top-notch tuber. But you could dollop a potato with a kilo of caviar and sell it for a quid, and I still wouldn’t queue more than ten minutes for a taste. Some things are best left to the kids.
