Two years ago, 31-year-old Ty Weinert dreamed of eating a potato in Las Vegas. And it wasn't just any old spud. It was a tweaked delight like the ones she enjoyed nearly every day at Potato Valley Café in Annapolis, back when she used to work as a lobbyist in the state capital of Maryland.
Although Ty is originally from Maryland and her husband Jerry is from Chicago, the Weinerts met in Las Vegas and consider it their home. After her vivid dream, Ty went online and discovered that Potato Valley Café was interested in expanding its franchise. Visiting Maryland on vacation, she took time out to meet with the company and learned more. She returned to Vegas and quickly started the process of establishing a small business. Securing funding was relatively easy. That's because, for a long time, the hardest part had to do with finding the ideal location, location, location.
The couple thought about it, and realized the company's business-lunch model makes perfect sense in L'Octaine, a downtown affordable-housing complex that opened in 2005. Indeed, it wasn't until last October that Potato Valley Café provided the building with a genuine food outlet. The Weinerts took advantage of private and state-funded grants that are routinely provided to small businesses, making every dollar count. And it seems to have worked. Liberty Watch popped in on an early Monday afternoon and witnessed Potato Valley Café doing brisk business.
"People seem to love us," says Ty, who, despite having no formal culinary training, loves the food business. She and her husband (and two kids) are living the American dream of owning their own business and watching it grow. "The holidays were a bit slower, but we're picking up the pace now."
The pace at Potato Valley Café is fast. At times, the restaurant almost feels like an urban cafeteria counter with people gathering near the soft-drink fountain, hungrily anticipating their piping-hot orders. And PVC is clearly a place where downtown attorneys, city employees, newspaper reporters and other power brokers choose to grab lunch.
"We get new people in here all the time," says Ty. "But we have a core group of regulars who come in and provide some steady laughs."
Not everything is uproarious. For instance, simply trying to order some high-end pork meat from a distributor in order to fashion their popular BBQ Pork Sandwich was more than a challenge. But an insistence on quality ingredients has paid off. The BBQ Pork Sandwich is now their bestselling special sandwich. Tasting it, we know why.
Ultimately, we ended up sampling a number of different spuds during our recent visit, including the Broccoli Blue Cheese with Cheddar ($6.65), in which the broccoli is crisp and the cheese is of gourmet quality. There's also the Cuban Chicken Potato (with Chile Lime Sour Cream and Cheddar and Blue Corn Chips, $6.95), which we highly recommend.
PVC's menu is vegetarian-friendly and vegan-friendly, with the Curry Potato ($6.65) and Spinach, Feta, & Roasted Garlic Mix ($6.65) among the menu's top items. Don't make the mistake of ordering too many potatoes like we did, however. These spuds are humongous!
"They're just Idaho spuds," Ty reveals. "People think we pump them full of steroids, because they're so big." As far as taste goes, the secret is the confection oven, which makes the skin extra-crispy.
As more foot traffic makes its way through downtown Las Vegas, PVC hopes to eventually open its doors on Saturdays. In the meantime, you can stop in for a First Friday-night poetry slam. Indeed, PVC wants to play a role in the burgeoning downtown redevelopment. "To be a real downtown," Ty says, "Vegas just needs a little tweaking."
Potato Valley Café is located at 801 S. Las Vegas Blvd, Suite 110. For more info, call 702-363-7821. LW
