Potato Concept opens a restaurant in Manchester
By John Fladd
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Branden Rainer and Lauren Lefebvre run a restaurant entirely dedicated to baked potatoes.
“We are the Potato Concept,” Lefebvre said. Aside from drinks, everything the newly opened Potato Concept (119A Hanover St. in Manchester, thepotatoconcept.com, 667-0714) serves, even salads, comes on a baked potato.
“These are classic gourmet, twice-baked potatoes,” she sid, “filled with proteins, meats and fresh salads.”
Although the Hanover Street restaurant is new, The Potato Concept has been around for three years, catering events and putting up pop-up restaurants in breweries.
“That’s how we got started,” Lefebvre said. “We’d pair up with local breweries and take our recipes with us and do pop-ups there. Breweries have very limited kitchen space and they really welcomed our food.”
The couple welcomes the chance to cook in their own kitchen.
“Our kitchen here is a luxury,” Rainer said. “We’re so proud of it; it’s ours.”
He is very proud of how their business has evolved: “We’ve got a pedigree that we’re proud of.”
While focusing so intently on one food — baked potatoes — seems as if it might be limiting, Lefebvre said their repertoire is constantly growing.
“We have curated probably 50 different recipes or so that we’ve taken to markets and fairs,” she said. “We just had a St. Patrick’s Day special with corned beef and spicy mustard.” The most popular potatoes the two sell are their Zesty Cheeseburger, “which is pretty much what it sounds like,” Lefebvre said; a PoTaco, “which is like a regular taco, but with a potato instead of a shell,” and a Buffalo Chicken Potato, which Rainer insists isn’t too spicy for New Hampshire tastes.
“We try to think of people’s palates and their level of spice,” Rainer said, but points out that Manchester diners have expanded the sorts of foods they eat over the past few years.
“Just look at this neighborhood,” Rainer said. “We have a tavern and an upscale seafood restaurant on one side of us, and a Nepalese restaurant and the Hanover Street Chop House on the other. Manchester is very diverse, and looking for new things.”
Lefebvre and Rainer go through a lot of potatoes.
“During Fair Season, we’ll literally buy a ton at a time from a farm in Massachusetts,” Lefebvre said. “We do a lot of catering; we’re always looking to take on new clients.”
After several years and countless potatoes, Rainer and Lefebvre have a well-polished system. “Lauren handles most of the food,” Rainer said. “I’m more of a sous chef and a greeter. We’ve been working with other small food businesses and we’ve had a lot of help each step along the way.”
He cites their work with Smokin’ Tin Roof (smokintinroof.com), a Manchester-area hot sauce producer. “People like a spicy potato,” he said. “It’s been an evolution.”
Lefebvre has developed their recipes on her own.
“There has been a lot of trial and error,” she said, “though thankfully not many errors.”
“We like to think of ourselves as delivering value,” Rainer said, “and potatoes are a great lunch value.”
Featured Photo: Courtesy photo.
