Twice Baked
Home of the all-signature baked potato menu Twice Baked offers people an “entire food experience” through the delicious, eclectic dishes they prepare.
Beginning in November 2016 as mobile food service, Twice Baked is a local women-owned business focused on gourmet twice-baked potatoes. Rochelle Hodge, Founder of Twice Baked, and her daughter and CEO Jaleah McCants spoke of how each recipe is unique and different.
Unlike most restaurants with a signature dish, at Twice Baked, they make every dish “the best thing on the menu,” Hodge said. “Everything is something you need to experience.”
Making recipes inspired by her mom and grandma with her own twist, Hodge prepares a hearty range of options for meat lovers and vegan lovers alike. While the menu is focused on baked potatoes, Twice Baked also makes crispy rolls and even award-winning tacos.
At the 2019 Motley Brews’ third-annual Hopped Taco Throwdown, Hodge and 12 other local chefs who don’t normally cook tacos were invited as premier chefs to create “eccentric” taco dishes for the chance to be crowned the Hopped Taco Champion. Hodge won first place for her Classic T.B. Chicken Taco, which she named “Motley Tacos” in honor of the event.
Gourmet Grub
Twice Baked prepares its menu with the freshest ingredients available, sourcing them from local stores, farms, and farmers’ markets all over Las Vegas.
“We’re all about quality,” Hodge said. “All of my potatoes start at $13 because I make them with a lot of love, tediousness, and quality.”
When asked about her favorite dish, she said the crispy rolls and the “Shrimp-Asada.”
“It’s a spin-off of surf and turf, with carne asada and shrimp,” she said. Twice Baked offers this dish on the potatoes as well as the tacos and the crispy rolls.
Something for Everyone
Twice Baked caters to a variety of people and promotes healthy eating through its menu in the process.
“I let everyone know that we take care of our meat lovers, vegans, and vegetarians,” Hodge said. “We use ingredients like Morning Star beef crumbles and Earth Balance butter. In fact, all of our butter is vegan, even for the meat dishes. There’s no difference in the taste.”
She went on to say that if you take away the potato itself, sometimes just the toppings themselves are a keto meal. Twice Baked even creates a twist on salads with a signature dish made with fresh farmers’ market vegetables and fresh homemade dressing.
Drink and Desserts
In addition to the delicious variety of the Twice Baked menu, they also satisfy sweet tooths with their secret-family-recipe drinks – the Citrus Watermelon and Perfectly Peach – and their strawberry poppers.
A dessert dish made with a sweet potato loaded with marshmallows, pecans, drizzled with caramel, and then toasted to perfection is also available.
Weekly and Seasonal Eats
Hodge shared that the Twice Baked menu varies throughout the week and the year.
Weekly
Starting the week off strong, Twice Baked often attends the Vegas Test Kitchen’s ‘Meatless Mondays’ as an occasional guest restaurant of the event. On those days, they only offer their vegan dishes like their Loaded Vegan baked potato, made with broccoli, sauteed onions, bell peppers, and more.
The next few days of the week offer their regular menu, with availability depending on the day and location. Once Friday rolls around, Twice Baked shakes things up again.
“Every Friday, we do ‘Fryday Fridays’ and only serve up fried things,” Hodge said. This day’s menu includes fried chicken, chicken and waffles, and preparing dishes with fresh-cut french fries in place of the baked potatoes. This excludes the First Friday festivals they attend.
On Saturdays, Hodge said she prepares seafood-inspired menu options for ‘Seafood Saturdays.’ One such dish includes their Seafood Boiled Potato, which includes shrimp, crab, lobster, sauteed bell peppers, and heavy whipping cream mixed all together and drizzled onto a baked potato.
Seasonal
In celebration of the holidays, Twice Baked offers stuffed baked potatoes that are “stuffed like a turkey,” complete with all the fixings of a traditional holiday meal.
“We also make the dishes fun for St. Patrick’s Day, where we mix the sour cream with green food coloring,” Hodge said. “Wear green, get a free topping or a discount on your order!”
Preheating the Idea
Hodge shared what inspired her to create the business, calling it an “accidental success.”
“I was a hairstylist for 25 years, and all we did was eat unhealthy food and stand on our feet all day. We’d work a 16-hour shift, eat, go to sleep, and repeat,” she said. At one point, she went to the barbershops and salons around the valley and brought her homemade baked potatoes around to them.
People loved her food so much that they came back to her and told her they had a full-on food experience. So, she kept baking the potatoes and bringing them around more.
“I took a week off, and they blew my phone up,” she said. She explained how people asked her, “where the hell are you with those baked potatoes?”
So, every other week while still working as a hairstylist, she kept making her potatoes and bringing them around to the shops. Over time it grew bigger and more extensive, turning into a full-on business. Starting as a mobile service, Twice Baked then became a full-service pop-up tent, serving at various events around the valley.
Stating that she wanted to “go to the next level,” Hodge started experimenting with her recipes more, evolving the flavors and dishes over the years.
“When I started in 2016, it didn’t taste how it does now. I had to perfect it along the way,” she said. “We might have some 2016 Twice Baked fans who hate us now because the recipes have changed since then.”
Hodge now owns her own building that she’s prepping for the grand opening.
Get it Hot and Fresh
Until the restaurant location officially opens, satisfy your baked potato cravings by visiting Twice Baked at the various pop-up events they attend throughout the month.
Their next event is the upcoming First Friday Festival on August 6th. Mention ‘Millennials in Motion Magazine’ to receive 15% off of your order!
The next events to catch Twice Baked at will be ‘Twisted Sugar’ on Friday, August 27, and the ‘Rock and Slide’ event at Craig Ranch Park on August 28th.
The business also frequently attends special events, like the Bottega Exchange’s Night Market and the Juneteenth event held downtown in the Arts District back in June.
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Impacts of the Pandemic on Twice Baked
Regarding how the pandemic affected Twice Baked, Hodge said that it was in both good and bad ways. With the shutdown, Twice Baked couldn’t sell at the various monthly events they attended, and business slowed down a lot in the process. Yet, despite this setback, they persevered.
“There were so many programs for small businesses that helped us along the way to keep us afloat,” she said. This included PPP, city programs, and more. “They helped keep my head above the water.”
In the meantime, while Twice Baked was limited in terms of pop-up events, Hodge found other ways to keep the business running.
“While the schools were doing their online classes, a couple of them called us for catering,” she said. The catering, plus pick-up and delivery orders on the side, helped the business make ends meet until things started opening up again.
“Even though we haven’t worked much since March 2020, we’re still making it and still working on getting the building together!” Hodge said.
No matter what life throws at them, Hodges and her business keep moving forward and growing stronger.
Twice Baked Perseveres in the Face of Adversity
Opening a brick-and-mortar restaurant has not been easy for Twice Baked, with Hodge saying she’s met roadblocks every step of the way. While the rest of her experience growing the business had been fairly easy, the biggest challenge she’s faced for Twice Baked involves trying to open the physical restaurant location.
“We got the building right before COVID, so that prolonged our opening,” she explained. “Then we were delayed in terms of trucks of equipment and supplies getting to Vegas.”
After all of the setbacks, Twice Baked was finally getting ready to officially open its doors on June 15th of this year. But, unfortunately, yet another setback delayed them once more.
“A car ran through the front door May 31st, 2021,” Hodge said. Thankfully no one was injured in the accident, which resulted from the driver experiencing a medical issue.
While the insurance covered all of the damages, the continued delay of the restaurant added more strain on Twice Baked. Hodge said that they set up a GoFundMe for people to support them in the meantime and that the community showed up strong for them.
“People donated to us because they love us,” she said gratefully.
Once the city said they could finally get the restaurant fixed, Hodge found out that the front windows would take four to five weeks to replace due to the monsoon season. Meaning once again, Twice Baked’s grand opening has been delayed.
“We’re strong, persistent, consistent, and persevering,” she said. “We’re not giving up because this is a fight.”
Twice Baked now tentatively plans to open in September if everything goes well.
Moving Forward
Presently, Twice Baked’s biggest goal involves opening its first location. However, Hodge explained that that goal isn’t just for herself or Jaleah; it’s for everyone who believes in the company.
“Our employees and customers, they’re waiting on us,” she said. “People call us daily asking when we’re opening.”
Once the Craig and Jones location opens, Hodge said she plans to expand Twice Baked around the valley and beyond.
“In the next five years, I want to open up to four more locations; three here and one out of state,” she said. Ideally, she wants to open one in Downtown Las Vegas, somewhere around Blue Diamond, and somewhere in Henderson.
“Then, we’ll go out of state,” she said. “It doesn’t stop here; it’s bigger than me or us, and it doesn’t stop with us. We’re providing job creation in addition to the experience our food provides.”
Twice Baked in the Community
Hodge shared that she partners with an organization called the Dream Up Foundation, which works to provide resources and services to women, children, and men who are victims of domestic violence and sexual abuse.
“They help individuals to escape their abusers by retrieving them from abusive situations and bring them to our tiny home community where they get the resources they need,” she said. When people are rescued from these situations, the organization also takes things a step further to mend the situation by offering resources to the abuser too, like counseling and therapy. Twice Baked is an official sponsor of the foundation.
If your or someone you know is in an abusive relationship, please call the Dream Up Foundation at (702) 378-2564. You can also donate to the organization here.
In addition to the Dream Up Foundation, Hodges expressed her gratitude for community partners who invite her to their various events like the First Friday Foundation, Ferguson’s, and Market in the Alley.
No Work, All Play
Hodge shared the favorite part about her work is that she doesn’t feel like she’s working.
“This is a lifestyle, and I love it,” she said. “It’s me having fun every day and being efficient. I’m doing what I love.”
She went on to say that in addition to the enjoyment she receives from her business, she’s also gained growth through it as well.
“Every day is a better us. We’re all about customer service and refining Twice Baked,” she said. “Us personally, in terms of owners, we’re not perfect people; we’re still in training and taking everything in so we can improve daily.”
#GetinMotion with Twice Baked
Hodge and McCants concluded by saying, “we are the founder and CEO and Twice Baked, and we can’t wait to see your beautiful faces in our location on 6020 West Craig Road! So stop by and ask for Jaleah or Rochelle and mention Millennials in Motion Magazine to save 15% on your order!”
The Twice Baked website is still under construction and won’t launch until the physical restaurant is open. That way, people aren’t placing orders that Twice Baked can’t fulfill just yet. Until then, visit the site to sign up for their newsletters and updates.
In the meantime, follow them at @Eattwicebaked on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter for the latest news and hottest recipes. Remember to mention this article to save 15% on your order at the upcoming events and the eventual opening!
For any questions, call Twice Baked at (702) 626-2833.
