{"id":561348,"date":"2025-11-10T12:18:55","date_gmt":"2025-11-10T12:18:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/561348\/"},"modified":"2025-11-10T12:18:55","modified_gmt":"2025-11-10T12:18:55","slug":"food-van-with-100-people-deep-queue-confirms-return-to-liverpool","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/561348\/","title":{"rendered":"Food van with ‘100 people deep’ queue confirms return to Liverpool"},"content":{"rendered":"

The popular food van will be back in one spot for a number of weeks\"TheThe queue for Jacket Spuds from Spudman on Crosby Beach this afternoon(Image: Andrew Teebay Liverpool Echo)<\/p>\n

A jacket potato van with an army of four million followers is returning to Merseyside. Spudman is a viral social media sensation who takes his mobile catering unit around the country, selling classic jacket potatoes that attract huge queues of customers.<\/a><\/p>\n

Customers travel from across the UK, and in some cases from across Europe, to buy a takeaway meal from the van, which counts Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman among its celebrity fans. As well as using traditional toppings on his potatoes, Spudman<\/a> owner Ben Newman also invites customers to bring their own additions, which he adds to their meals and films for his TikTok videos.<\/p>\n

The last time the businessman came to Merseyside was just a few months ago, when he parked up on Crosby<\/a> Beach for a number of days. When the ECHO visited<\/a>, families told how they were happy to join \u201c100 people deep\u201d to get their hands on a jacket potato<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This time around Spudman will be joining forces with Liverpool\u2019s own John The Spud.<\/a> Announcing the news online, Spudman said: \u201cWe are doing a Christmas market. We were booked on for Winter Wonderland at Hyde Park but something came up.<\/p>\n

\"Spudman,Spudman, also known as Ben Newman, outside his van on Crosby Beach(Image: Andrew Teebay Liverpool Echo)<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is something I couldn\u2019t turn down for one reason, I will get to work with someone I admire very much, another potato man who has been in the game longer than me. We\u2019re coming to Liverpool. We\u2019re teaming up with John the Spud.\u201d<\/p>\n

The jacket potato van will open on Saturday, November 15 in line with Liverpool Christmas markets<\/a> at St George\u2019s Hall. John the Spud has been a long-standing fixture on London Road.<\/p>\n

Over the past 25 years, the road has undergone significant change but despite this, popular street trader John Dickson has remained in place.<\/p>\n

The businessman, from West Derby<\/a>, has been found on the street since 1999. The 62-year-old is based on Audley Street next to where TJ Hughes once stood – and while he serves breakfast items, hotdogs and burgers, it is his spuds which, has gained him a huge reputation in the city – hence his nickname.<\/p>\n

\"JohnJohn the Spud with his van on London Road, where it has been for over two decades<\/p>\n

Previously speaking with the ECHO<\/a> about his secrets to success, he said: \u201cYou need to have good service, good fun and good prices. The people of Liverpool aren\u2019t stupid; you need to be affordable.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you come to me, you can expect a good experience overall. That\u2019s what life is about, experiences and enjoying them. That is what makes customers come back again.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been here 26 years and don\u2019t plan on going anywhere. It\u2019s always been a good business and lately its just gotten even busier with the craze. I\u2019ve come to realise recently that social media is so powerful, it\u2019s made me so busy.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you look at the comments on my Instagram and TikTok, you see a lot of people appreciate what I do. A lot of people say to me that it just isn\u2019t the food they come here for, they come to see me and have a little chat.<\/p>\n

“I\u2019m an affable person, easy to get along with and when others see that, it makes me feel good, very good.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The popular food van will be back in one spot for a number of weeksThe queue for Jacket…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":561349,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8815],"tags":[748,393,786,4884,179,16,15,14589],"class_list":{"0":"post-561348","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-liverpool","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-england","10":"tag-food-and-drink","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-liverpool","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom","15":"tag-west-derby"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115525372147491461","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/561348","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=561348"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/561348\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/561349"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=561348"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=561348"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=561348"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}