Few restaurants in the United States can claim to have a history quite like Wade’s of Spartanburg, SC. What started as a restaurant located in a former grocery store has now evolved into a thriving facility accommodating up to 3,000 customers a day.
Wade’s was started by Wade and Betty Lindsey in 1947. Mrs. Lindsey served her signature meat and vegetable dishes, which became a staple of the restaurant’s menu. Local factory workers became dependent on the home-cooked meals served at Wade’s for lunch. By 1960, Wade’s moved into a brand new cinder block building where Wade Lindsey cooked his homemade pit cooked pork Bar-B-Que. It was during this time in Wade’s history that one could find local teenagers hanging out, revving their engines and enjoying a BBQ sandwich and fries.
Fast forward to the “modern era” of Wade’s restaurant. By 1977, Wade Lindsey had retired and the restaurant was taken over by his son and daughter, Hamp Lindsey and Carole Lindsey Miller. It was Hamp and Carole’s vision to change the restaurant’s image from a drive-in restaurant to a family-oriented restaurant. Hamp and Carole also brought back many of the home-cooked meals once cooked by their mother. Wade’s is now known throughout Spartanburg for their homemade yeast rolls, meats and vegetables.
“We’re synonymous with meats and vegetables,” stated Hamp Lindsey. “When people see me out and around they often say: ‘Boy, I love your yeast rolls!’
“To date, we’re still using that same [yeast roll] recipe and we’re still doing it by hand. We sell over 3,000 a day. We don’t do it in a mixer, we do it in a bowl that you could just about get in and take a bath,” joked Lindsey.
In fact, Wade’s has become so popular that they now offer some of their specialties frozen for customers to take home and make for themselves. In addition to offering items that can be baked, Wade’s also uses a “boil-in-bag” technique where the product is simply placed in hot water and in about 20-30 minutes customers can have a home cooked meal. Wade’s frozen product line has been so successful that during the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays, Wade’s sells an astounding 10,000 quarts of frozen products.
“We have our homemade dressing… and we freeze it in a raw mix where people can come by, take our raw mix and put it in their pan and bake it. When it comes out of your oven, it’s just like you’ve made it,” Lindsey said.
The thing that seems to make Wade’s restaurant unique is its ability to maintain tremendous local patronage combined with out of town customers who have heard about Wade’s excellent southern cooking. In fact, Wade’s customers were so emphatic about their favorite restaurant that they voted Wade’s as the Favorite Family Restaurant in Southern Living’s Readers Choice Awards.
“I believe that it was our guests that just decided that they wanted us to be number 1,” stated Hamp about how Wade’s won the award last year. “What makes it special is that we won from local people who eat with us every day,” continued Lindsey.
Wade’s has also become known for its catchy play-on-words style billboards. The first billboard, released in 1995 read: “Bean me up Scotty,” with a bean pod dressed like an alien. Hamp revealed their next billboard will read “Mary Had a Little Ham,” featuring a small blond girl holding a pig.
“The [special] thing about Wade’s is the people who have become family. I have been there now running it for 31 years and I am seeing people who were children when I started out are now bringing their children into the restaurant. I’m watching generations eat with us,” responded Lindsey when asked about his fondest memory of Wade’s.
If you’re ever traveling in or around the Spartanburg, SC area be sure to stop in for southern cooking you won’t want to pass up. To learn more about Wade’s, check out their Web site at www.eatatwades.com. And be sure to cast your vote for Wade’s while on their site as Southern Living’s Best Restaurant for Southern Favorites for 2008!
Quick Facts about Wade’s:
Recently had a visit from Former President Bill Clinton.
All dishes served at Wade’s are made from scratch just like Wade and Betty Lindsey used to make them.
Slogan: Have You Had Your Veggies Today?
Mission Statement: To be THE BEST FAMILY RESTAURANT in the Southeast by serving food that is CONSISTENTLY GOOD and by giving service that is EXTRA FAST AND EXTRA FRIENDLY in an obviously CLEAN and well maintained facility.
