During the holiday season, more than thirty thousand quarts of food travel from Wade’s Restaurant in Spartanburg to families’ tables, and that’s in addition to the eatery’s regular dine-in and to-go service. Since the meat-and-three mainstay opened seventy-seven years ago, its gravy-laden turkey, cornbread dressing, marshmallow-topped sweet potato soufflé, and the fan-favorite yeast rolls have been fixtures at customers’ Thanksgivings and Christmases, especially for those who have sneakily claimed the famous casseroles as their own. Despite the consistent love from loyalists across the region, Wade Lindsey III and Anna Lindsey Liles, the brother-and-sister duo at the helm, were shocked when they received an email from the James Beard Foundation naming their family restaurant a 2024 America’s Classics honoree. “We didn’t even believe it and deleted the initial email,” Wade says. “It wasn’t until they kept trying to contact us that we finally realized it was real.” They accepted the award in Chicago alongside their lead cooks, Sonya Hunter and Ray Pearson, who have worked in the Wade’s kitchen for nearly three decades. “We hear that we are the first stop home after a student is away at college, or the comforting meal requested during a stay at the hospital, or a Sunday lunch tradition for the entire family,” Anna says. “We know we are still doing something right.”
Southern Agenda