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Spud Hut

Spud Hut (also Spud Hut America, SHA) is a Dahlonega-based stuffed-potato restaurant chain whose distribution center fronted an illegal gold mine worked by ape-men.
Type Corporation, fast-food chain
Aliases The Spud Hut; Spud Hut America; SHA; Spud Hut Corporate; SHGRDC; Shugrid
Headquarters Dahlonega, Georgia
Key people Jan Martense (manager)
Status Plant destroyed by an explosion after the finale (as of Walkers 01)
First appearance Radford Horrors 04 (mention); Appalachia 01 (in person)

Overview

Spud Hut is a regional Southern chain, which Andre compared to Buc-ee's, whose menu covers nearly every cuisine in a potato. It has a liquor license, a cryptogram secret menu, and about 100 numbered specials, which Andre said were AI-generated with some human tuning (Appalachia 02; Appalachia 07). See the Spud Hut menu. The company guarantees that its potatoes are "never touched by human hands" (Appalachia 08).

The original Spud Hut is a tiny walk-up window in Dahlonega with a neon potato sign wider than the building. The Regional Distribution Center is the town's main employer, and employees wear mandatory gray uniforms (Appalachia 02).

Members

History

Later references. In Radford Horrors 04, Dante's character jokes that Spud Hut was a deal "thanks to the ape-man," and the players recall the earlier case as a humanzee gold-mining operation run from a potato restaurant (Radford Horrors 04).

Suspicion. The team first heard of the chain when a McDonald's clerk recommended the original Spud Hut (Appalachia 01). Around forty company trucks passed the party on the road, a number the players found unreasonable (Appalachia 02). In Appalachia 03 the players suspected illegal mining, dirt hauling or bioweapons. In Appalachia 04 a Covenant member told the party that runoff from the Spud Hut plant drained into the river where the Covenant bathed (Appalachia 04).

The dirt trucks. A wrecked company truck carried bags marked "Potatoes" that held dirt, and a tracking device etched "Inventory Control, SHA Tracking" was found in bear vomit (Appalachia 07). The Spud Hut truck page covers the wreck. The party had avoided Spud Hut Corporate for months before planning a visit.

The plant visit. In Appalachia 08 the team toured the squat concrete plant while a Fox 5 Atlanta crew waited outside. They found cage-style elevators with no floor indicators and a locked Special Projects level, and were sent to wait in a "break room" (keycode 441) that held ape-creatures (Appalachia 08).

The finale. Beneath the plant, a tunnel network linked to the Dahlonega Gold Mines. Clive explained that a planned stuffed-pepper expansion had left an unused part of the facility, which Jan declared an "R&D" department, and that the company had begun an internal investigation into the disappearing dirt (Appalachia 09). The episodes never establish whether anyone above Jan knew; the only other insider Jan names is the accountant Clyde Harvard.

Aftermath. The finale was never recorded. In Walkers 01, Kurt tells Jan that the Spud Hut corporate facility exploded shortly after Jan fled, and offers the theory that someone piped explosive gas in from an adjacent cavern. Kurt also arranges a CIA job for the savant teen from the Spud Hut.

Trivia

  • The chain's Georgia plant is variously abbreviated SHGRDC and nicknamed "Shugrid."

Appearances