No one visiting Spartanburg should miss at least one visit to what can only be called the "famous" Wade's Restaurant, at least they shouldn't if they want to experience real down-home Southern cooking. Year after year, Southern Living Magazine always lists Wade's as one of the ten most popuular restaurants in the South and my wife and I agree hardily. Indeed, on our recent trip into the upstate of South Carolina we gladly drove the 35 miles from Greenville to Spartanburg to enjoy the food and we were glad, as usual, that we did.

There is nothing pretentious about Wade's. Founded in 1947 by a returning veteran from World War II and his young wife who cooked for the local workers at several nearby mills, now all shuttered, the family's wonderful food soon became a legend through the city. Now in a newer building, sitting separately in the parking lot of a small and somewhat down-at-the-heels shopping center (but directly across the street from the large Spartanburg Regional Hospital on Highway 176), Wade's looks like any of a thousand other similar establishments. It is only when one gets close to the main entrance and sees the lines of avid eaters which invariably seem to pour out the doors that one realizes that this is someplace special. Though there has never been a time when we have not had to wait for a table, the staff goes out of its way to arrange seating quickly and efficiently.

No-one would ever mistake Wade's cooking for haute cuisine but who would want to? The food here is simply too good for words. The portions are generous in the extreme, the prices are ultra-reasonable, and the wait staff who serves up the food with a rapidity that 99% of the restaurants around the country could emulate, are so friendly that it is contagious. The restaurant stresses its vegetable choices, all of which are uniformly good, but, so, too, are the many meat dishes. Wade's Southern fried chicken melts in one's mouth it is so good. If, however, one had to pick only one item above all others to praise, it would have to be Wade's yeast rolls which are, are, as young people used to say, "to die for." If there is a better bread anywhere in America, neither my wife nor I have ever found it in nearly seventy years of eating.

It is easy to see why Wade's has become a mainstay for any and all knowledgeable residents of the area. Anyone who likes good food, cooked simply but deliciously, should, as we did, make a beeline to the restaurant whenever they are anywhere within driving distance.