Hemlock Boise Wheels Out a Loaded Potato the Size of Your Ambitions

BOISE, ID—Somewhere between fine dining and a love letter to the Idaho potato, Hemlock Boise has landed on a tableside experience that is, by most accounts, exactly what it sounds like: a massive baked potato wheeled to your table and loaded up in front of you.

The setup is straightforward. A cart arrives. On it, one very large spud. Diners choose from a lineup of toppings that includes lobster butter, truffle butter, various cheese sauces, bacon, steak, chives, and crispy potato chips, among others. The potato is sized for two, which is either reassuring or a little intimidating depending on your appetite. The rest of the Hemlock menu holds its own as well—the filet mignon with bacon truffle hollandaise and crispy leeks has drawn its share of attention, and the kitchen also turns out a vegan lion’s mane mushroom steak that reportedly impresses even the non-vegan half of a table.

Hemlock sits in downtown Boise and has carved out a reputation as one of the city’s more ambitious dinner destinations, the kind of place that feels like it wandered in from a larger city and decided to stay. The tableside potato is, in a way, the perfect summary of that approach: technically unnecessary, deeply satisfying, and very hard to explain to someone who hasn’t been.

Idaho has been growing potatoes since the 1830s. It took until now for one to arrive at your table on a cart.