After Spudulike closed in 2024, the reign of the jacket potato seemed over in the UK. But now the favourite is back, piled with new toppings, sold by new companies and promoted all over social media by potato influencers.
They were once a lunch option that inspired little excitement – but the jacket potato’s time has finally come. After decades in epicurean exile, the humble spud has made a roaring comeback in the UK and piqued the interest of foodies across the world. A-listers, tourists and trend-hopping teenagers are queueing for hours to get their hands on them. For Jacob Nelson, who sells loaded spuds that have gone super-viral on social media, this was all part of the plan. “We thought: how can we make the jacket potato sexy again?” he says.
The 30-year-old, who runs SpudBros with his brother Harley and dad Tony, was among the first crop of social-media savvy spud vendors to give the jacket potato a much-needed makeover. After a slow start in lockdown, the brothers spoke to some youngsters in Preston Flag Market, where they had set up shop, to find out why they were shunning spuds. “It was an absolute ghost town,” says Harley. “We spoke to one student walking past us. He said to get on social media.” The pair listened, filming their interactions with customers while showing off their mouthwatering loaded spuds, and subsequently went stratospheric on TikTok in 2023.
Now, they have nearly 5 million followers on TikTok, nabbed a sponsorship deal with Preston North End FC, and have teamed up with celebrities including Will Smith, Liam Neeson and Mr Beast to show off their spuds. “It’s just crazy,” says Jacob. Their success is part of a spud renaissance. One of the world’s oldest street foods, yaki imo, for example, has been sold on the streets of Japan since the 1600s. So the rebirth of jacket potatoes is a reinvention for modern times.
Jacket potatoes have been a popular dish in the UK for nearly 200 years. One of the first recorded mentions was in the SpudBros’s Lancashire hometown Preston Guardian in 1846, but they really took off in the mid-19th century when, according to Victorian historian Henry Mayhew, about 10 tons of jacket potatoes were sold each day, mainly to labourers, in food markets across London. They remained popular in the 20th century, becoming a cafe staple on high streets across Britain before waning in popularity.
Now, it seems, they’re on the up again. According to a poll commissioned by Subway, which entered the spud game itself last year, 94% of UK adults say they eat a jacket potato once a week. The number of jacket potato businesses is also soaring: in 2023, just seven food-related businesses with the word “spud” were opened in the UK. In 2024, this shot up to more than 40 and, last year, it passed 70. The number of people seeking to cook a jacket potato at home is also rising: by the end of 2025, sales of large potatoes were up by a third at Waitrose compared with the year before, while searches for “jacket potato” on Waitrose.com were up 178%.
