Potato Valley Cafe, a restaurant on State Circle in downtown Annapolis specializing in gourmet baked potatoes, is celebrating its 30th anniversary.
The menu includes combinations like garlic butter with cheddar and worldwide-inspired toppings, including chicken curry, Cuban chicken, and spinach, feta and roasted garlic.
“The fillings are all something that has American flavor to it, the whole American continent. So, we have a Cuban potato, a Caribbean potato, a Texas salsa, a pulled pork. And those are all things that we get on this continent somewhere,” said Barbara Ripani, Potato Valley’s co-owner. She estimated that the business goes through nearly 30,000 potatoes every year, or 80 a day.
Ripani and her husband, Andy Ekbladh, bought into the Swedish franchise back in 1995, and the Annapolis location remains the only one in the United States. Ekbladh is from Sweden and said he worked to Americanize the menu when the restaurant opened.
Ripani, who is also a therapist, said she has seen downtown Annapolis grow and change over the past three decades. State House and other government employees have been a constant since the beginning, but the restaurant eventually began to attract tourists and St. John’s College students.
“It used to be so quiet when we first opened … people used to always ask us, ‘Why is there nobody walking around this town?’ Now it’s a little bit too much of a party atmosphere,” Ripani said, though she later added she still loves running the business and doesn’t see herself retiring anytime soon.
She said that not expanding beyond the one location was a conscious decision, based on wanting to be able to put all of her focus on one place. A bonus bonus, she said, is that it keeps people coming back from all over.
Government employees, like Marquita Lewis, who works for Secretary of State Susan C. Lee, are some of the business’s biggest supporters.
“I’ve been working there since 2015, and I come here every day. Anytime I’m at work, I come here, and maybe two, three times I went somewhere else, and that’s only because [Potato Valley] was closed,” Lewis said.
Lewis, an admitted potato enthusiast, was excited that the restaurant had reached the 30-year milestone.
“Coming to Potato [Valley], that’s the main reason why I come to work,” she said. “Not too many people are doing things like [opening] a baked potato restaurant.”
On Wednesday, Potato Valley will be holding a 30th anniversary event from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., complete with free raw Idaho potatoes for the community to take home, cake, and champagne.
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