Tater tots are celebrating their 70th anniversary this year, having been invented on the Oregon side of the Oregon-Idaho border (hence the founding company’s name, Ore-Ida). So while it’s easy — sensical, even — to ignore National Grilled Cheese Day or National Condiments Day, celebrating National Tater Tot Day makes sense, even if it only stretches back to 2009. That happens to be the year that Gina Niesl, who’s been with McMenamins now for 30 years, invented their legendary Cajun tots!
“We probably started serving tots at some of the pubs circa 2000,” says Niesl of the company that operates nearly 60 such pubs across Oregon and Washington. She was tasked with developing a happy hour menu “to keep people coming in during the recession.”
Understandably, Niesl keeps her Cajun tots recipe a secret, but disclosed that she created a blend of 10 spices for the tots that are always fried (the baked versions she test-batched may be healthier but weren’t tastier) that are now blended externally, and exclusively, for McMenamins. She even developed their dunking sidekick, the peppercorn ranch dressing.
As for the base tots, they’ve always used the OGs, Ore-Ida. Niesl believes McMenamins is the largest customer, as she reported that the PNW empire goes through a whopping 1,200,000 pounds of poppable tots per year.
Back when she created the Cajun tots, she remembers thinking, “Let’s make it a thing.” That said, she confesses she’s “sort of surprised” at just how much of a cult delicacy they’ve become.
One person who fell under their spell is Keeley Parsons. While scarfing down an order of McMenamins Cajun tots to soak up her belly full of booze about six years ago, she had an epiphany, the rare kind that sounds even better when sober. She’s the brains behind the TOTS food truck planted at the Midtown Yacht Club. What if, she imagined, she made her own tots from scratch? It’s something virtually nobody does. For such a simple concept—bunched up potato matter that’s fried—they’re immensely time-consuming. Getting homemade ones to conform to the established cylinders would be difficult, so Parsons innovatively used an ice cream scooper she had and set about making golf-ball sized tots from scratch.
Parsons’ spherical, magical tots—perfect naked but amazing when loaded with all manner of salts, seasoning, sauces, cheeses and meats—are arguably the fourth and final spot on Oregon’s Mt. Rushmore of Tots. The others are Ore-Ida’s alchemized, extruded tater tots; the late, great Jim Parker’s 2006 inspiration “totchos” first introduced at Lompoc Brewing’s Oaks Bottom pub in Portland; and Niesl’s Cajun tots.
Whereas Oaks Bottom’s totchos consist of cheddar and jack cheeses, diced tomatoes and red onions, pickled jalapeños, olives, scallions, sour cream and salsa (avocado and some meat toppings are now optional), the TOTS truck’s menu offers at least seven permutations with myriad combos when the homemade sauces and seasonings are added in, not to mention secret menu items such as lime salt and raw honey served with kiwi-jalapeno crema.
Not only is the TOTS truck coming up on its second anniversary, but there’s the mobile truck, TOTS TWO POINT OH!, that, blessedly, is a fixture at Hayden Homes Amphitheater for concerts.
As for National Tater Tot Day, Niesl says, “We heard about it in 2019 and started to celebrate (tots day) in 2021.” Hence, McMenamins created a page on its website to show how the company and its chain of pubs celebrate. Whether you like yours seasoned, loaded, or au naturel, even though tots are practically a staple of the Oregonian diet, tip your hat to Niesl and Parsons as you toss back the potatoey bits at Old St. Francis or the Midtown Yacht Club.
This article appears in Source Weekly February 2, 2023.
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