Episode 109: Hamp Lindsey with Wade’s Restaurant

Hamp Lindsey's parents founded a small neighborhood grocery store 77 years ago. Today, it is a landmark restaurant in Spartanburg, SC. 

“My father was always an entrepreneur,” says Lindsey. “He added a dining room to the store in 1949 and Wade’s Restaurant grew from there.” 

Lindsey held various positions at Wade’s before he left to study engineering at Clemson University. In 1977, he returned to Wade’s desiring to run the restaurant more like a business. 

“Creating a business has always been a passion of mine," he says, explaining that his plans were inspired by business consultant and author Jim Collins and Collins’s book “Good to Great”.

Lindsey shares his strategy that helped Wade’s become a high-volume restaurant, starting with cleanliness and basic organization and progressing to standards and systems to maintain consistency and clearer branding and marketing. “I believe more in quality than variety and found success with a limited menu that features fresh vegetables as our point of difference,” says Lindsey. “‘Have You Had Your Veggies today?!?’ has been our battle cry ever since.”

Wade’s operates in an 8,000 sq. ft. former cafeteria that accommodates a large kitchen that serves the dining room, self-service pick-up, and a grab-and-go market. Sales are evenly divided between dine-in and pick-up and take-out business.

Lindsey says he is proud of his 135-member staff. “We work hard to capture their interest at orientation and keep them engaged through cross-training and ongoing development programs.” He believes his success is based on three principles: 1) follow the best examples, 2) keep things simple, and 3) maintain consistency.