the Potato Bros NYC<\/a> specializes in kumpir, Turkey\u2019s take on a loaded baked potato. A base model with salt, pepper, butter, and cheese starts at a very reasonable $7.90. From there, customization is the point: Toppings are tsatsiki, jalape\u00f1os, eggs or sausage cooked to order, mushrooms, chicken, and pretty much anything else you could think to put on top of a potato.<\/p>\nWhile sitting on a bench by the Astor Place cube the other day, I flipped open a weighty box to reveal tsatsiki and a side salad\u2019s worth of vegetables completely obscuring my sliced sausage and the potato underneath. When I finally got to the potato layer, where the cheese had already been melted into the fluffy starch, I was surprised by an amply applied homemade hot sauce. Each mouthful was a different bite, along with the crisp skin that I tore from the side and dunked into the toppings like it was nature\u2019s bread bowl.<\/p>\n
Owners Yigit Inan and Ata Kilickaya \u2014 who are bros, not brothers \u2014 say that on a good day, they can run through 100 Idaho russets. \u201cThis is exactly what we want, but it took a couple of months to find these potatoes, because we tried at least ten,\u201d says Inan of their tater-testing process. But the recent cold weather has slowed business some. \u201cRight now, 50 potatoes, 45 potatoes in a day is okay for us,\u201d says Inan. The customers who keep lining up? Students, especially from NYU and Cooper Union, all of whom the owners give a discount, since they were students fairly recently themselves \u2014 Inan and Kilickaya first got the idea for the cart a few years ago while they were at university in Turkey.<\/p>\n
On a recent chilly afternoon, one gangly guy wearing a backpack waited to try out the cart for the first time. At last, it was his turn and he took full advantage of the Bros\u2019 build-whatever-you-want business model: \u201cCan I get a baked potato with cheese, Bolognese, and guacamole?\u201d he asked. Moments later, his order was ready to go.<\/p>\n
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