The story below is from our July/August 2024 issue. For more stories like it, Subscribe Today. Thank you!
Photos By John Park
Whether in baked, fried or tater tot form, The Tater Shack dishes out hearty helpings of spud-centric comfort food.
Anthony Reber says he never set out to open a restaurant. Maybe his experience working a variety of food service jobs, “everything from dishwashing to prep cook,” had conditioned him to the challenges and risks of operating a restaurant. But when inspiration strikes, especially when you least expect it, it’s hard to ignore.
During a spirited Reber family discussion about In-N-Out Animal Style Fries, the West Coast burger chain’s loaded French fries dish, various members started sharing ideas for different loaded potato topping combinations. The Rebers realized that they’d never seen a sit-down restaurant dedicated to loaded baked potatoes or fries. “Who doesn’t love a potato, especially with some good toppings on it?” Reber says. On December 20, 2023, Reber and his family opened The Tater Shack in the Lamplighter Mall on Roanoke’s Williamson Road. Since then, the spud-centric eatery has been dishing out hearty helpings of comfort food in baked, fried and tater tot form.
The Rebers originally planned to open The Tater Shack in 2020 in Virginia Beach but pulled back just before COVID hit. When Reber, who still maintains a full-time job with Take 5 Oil Change, received a promotion that came with a move to Roanoke, he continued to keep The Tater Shack idea on hold. One day, when Reber was scrolling on Facebook, he saw a post detailing an available restaurant space in the Lamplighter Mall. “It was the perfect opportunity at the perfect time. The economy was doing a lot better, so I went and looked at it and pulled the trigger,” Reber says.
The space, which formerly housed the burger joint Lazy Bulldog, also appealed to Reber because of its small size. “With a name like Tater Shack you think of a small shack, a pretty cozy, warm feeling when you go inside. That’s what we were aiming for,” he says. The space is imbued with a lightheartedness too, with a shelf of plush stuffed potatoes and French fries and walls lined with punny potato sayings and signs. “We get a lot of customers walking through the restaurant and taking pictures of funny memes of potatoes,” Reber says. That is, when they’re not digging into their platters of potatoes or hustling out the door with to-go orders.
On the potato-centric menu you’ll find a line-up of Spud Signatures, which reinterpret classic culinary combinations into comfort food toppings that expand the definition of a fully loaded baked potato. The best-selling Big Philly features sliced steak or chicken, a trio of sautéed peppers, mushrooms and onions, finished with both cheddar and white cheese sauce (Reber says it’s better on fries than a baked potato). The Whole Hog encompasses the spirit of a pulled pork BBQ sandwich, complete with house made pulled pork, plus coleslaw, barbecue sauce and lashings of Texas Pete hot sauce. Wavy Gravy draws inspiration from the Canadian comfort food dish of poutine, featuring crispy French fries with cheese curds and a brown gravy sauce (Reber’s preference is a baked potato for this one). Reber describes the Surf and Turf as their high ticket item, priced at $21.99, which features shrimp, steak and sauteed mushrooms doused with a creamy Cajun sauce studded with smoked sausage and a dusting of Old Bay spice.
No matter what you order, Reber advises bringing your appetite or a friend. “Our servings are enough for two people,” he says. “To justify prices, we upped our quantity and that’s been one of our staples, is the big portion.”
The value-driven approach has been largely well-received by diners. The toppings are ample, but sometimes I wished I could better access and taste the baked potato, for example, beneath the protein- and sauce-heavy Surf and Turf. I could appreciate the fluffiness of the baked potato best with the more modest toppings ratio of the Whole Hog, which nicely balanced the flavors of creamy coleslaw with the vinegar twang of the barbecue sauce and a punch of heat from Texas Pete with the pulled pork.
When you order at the counter, you’ll be advised that the cheese automatically comes double, so you can opt for a single layer if you’d prefer it less cheesy. Some of the Signature Spud combos do a lot of heavy lifting on the savory richness quotient, so you might want to request a bit less butter if you opt for a baked potato base for one of the heartier options.
With the Create-A-Tater section, diners can make their own ideal combinations, starting with a base of baked potato, French fries or tater tots, then customizing it with assorted proteins, cheese, sauces and veggies. This option also allows the Tater Shack to cater to their vegetarian and vegan consumers, who can choose from items such as black beans, green peppers, green onions, raw onions, sauteed onions and mushrooms, along with house made pico de gallo and guacamole. The build-your-own menu also allows diners to flex their creativity. “We’ve seen some crazy ones,” Reber says. “We’ve had some young people come in and put all types of stuff on there. One did a Big Philly and added caramel and tried to put marshmallows on it. But we talked them out of it.”
The large portions and comfort food combinations attract a mix of diners, Reber says. “During lunchtime, Williamson Road has a lot of industrial workers, city workers, hard laborers—they come in around the same time every day between 11 a.m. and 12 p.m. on their lunch breaks to grab something quick,” he says. “During dinner we get a mixture of people, whether small families in the shopping center who noticed us, or people who noticed us on Facebook.” Weekly regulars include a Magic the Gathering group from Star City Games with whom Reber struck a deal offering them 10% off orders; this discount is also extended to a variety of folks, including military, teachers and seniors.
If you manage to have room for dessert or are craving something sweet, there are two options, made with either a baked sweet potato or sweet potato fries. Both play into the nostalgia Americana factor: Stuck on You, features cinnamon and brown sugar, toasted marshmallows, caramel sauce and panko, while Peanut Butter Jelly Time, is sprinkled with brown and white sugar, squiggles of peanut butter and grape jelly and panko.
All of the dishes are served in Styrofoam containers, which makes it easy to bring home any leftovers. You’ll also receive reheating instructions that reveal a clever hack for maintaining the structural integrity of the potatoes and toppings: start by placing leftovers on a lined baking sheet in a cold oven, then preheat oven to 375 degrees F and heat until the internal temp reaches 165. This method promises to ensure that you can enjoy another round of fully loaded tater goodness.
The story above is from our July/August 2024 issue. For more stories like it, Subscribe Today. Thank you!
