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I often call myself the “Bubba Gump” of potatoes. 

Gump is a fictional character in the 1994 movie “Forest Gump” starring Tom Hanks. In it the character professes his love for shrimp and names every preparation he can think of, from boiled to scampi, in a memorable montage.

My love for potatoes runs just as deep.

Though the humble, and often-overlooked, tater tot is my absolute favorite, I love every preparation of spud from au gratin to waffle fries, and I don’t care if they’re made with red skin, Yukon gold or anything in between.

Years ago, when I was living in Memphis, I was introduced to the baked potatoes at East Memphis Pizza & Subs. A co-worker came in from her lunch break one day with the biggest most decorated baked potato I’d ever seen. I was shocked to learn a local pizza joint made it.

An obsession was born.

The potatoes seemed to be double in size to any I’d ever seen before. I quickly identified my favorite on the menu: a steak potato topped with butter, melted cheese and sour cream — extra sour cream, please.

After I moved away, my surprise lunch break discovery turned into a tradition I honored every trip back to the Bluff City. 

So when I actually moved back in 2024, I was dismayed to learn the restaurant had burned down in November 2023.

“My first thought was that I would rebuild ... and try to stay in the same location,” said Aaron Kearney, who owned the restaurant for more than 20 years. “But there was something better that God had for me.”

But let’s back up a minute first. When the craving for a loaded baked potato from East Memphis Pizza & Subs hit me a few months ago, I began putting my journalism degree, for which I’m still paying, to good use and started researching. There had to be someone in Memphis doing something similar.

And then I learned Kearney opened a new restaurant in Southaven in June. It had a new name and a refreshed menu, but my beloved spuds migrated from Memphis across the state line and were even given a few upgrades.

“It’s been a real blessing,” Kearney said. “I give all glory to God.”

Kearney’s new restaurant’s name, LA-91, is a play on his first name and that of his wife Lilora and the year they were married, 1991. 

The restaurant is located at 7090 Malco Blvd. and accommodates both dine-in and carry-out customers.

The new menu allows customers to customize their baked potatoes. Diners can start with a protein such as steak, shrimp, Polish sausage or grilled or fried chicken. Next add veggies, and finish with butter and sour cream. There are also set baked potatoes on the menu for those people who’d rather leave the recipes to the professionals. 

My new-and-improved LA Spud order is customized with steak, onions, spinach, extra sour cream, light butter and cheese — for taste, not caloric considerations, of course. But the custom combinations are nearly endless.

According to my rudimentary math skills, diners can create more than 43,000 topping combinations from the 10 proteins, nine veggies, butter and sour cream options available. But eating that many potatoes seems both impossible in a lifetime and unnecessary when you’ve already identified your favorite.

“One of my favorites is the Rotel potato, and I add chicken to it,” Kearney said, adding the restaurant’s bacon chicken ranch spud also tops his list. “We wanted to put something different on the (Southaven) menu and something we brought down from Memphis, our world-famous baked potatoes.”

This week, on Memphis’ food scene

Holly Whitfield sat down for a chat with the owners of one of the warmest, most welcoming bars in town in the latest edition of “Sound Bites.”

Vegan food is no longer relegated to vegan restaurants. Check out the evolution of Memphis plant-based dining scene and some tasty places to eat.

In the latest Food Files, Sophia Surrett has the details on a Filipino pop-up restaurant coming Downtown, the return of a popular Mexican restaurant after a fire and more.

Michael Waddell explores the local sentiment and national feedback that led a restaurant to change its logo — again.

Budget-conscious diners can rejoice with this great taco guide from $15 deal maven Joshua Carlucci.

If breakfast is the most important (or tasty) meal of the day in your book, check out what to order at The Garden Brunch Cafe Memphis.

And Erling Jensen’s Small Bites debuted a new menu, and it’s living up to the Danish chef’s name.