CONWAY, S.C. (WPDE) — Like seemingly any burger place worth talking about, there are some secrets to Take a Bite’s success.
“We made a special seasoning where we season just about everything here,” owner Lindsey Thayne said. “We even put it in the macaroni salad.”
ABC 15 asked what exactly was in it.
“I’ll tell you. It’s salt, pepper and spices,” Thayne said.
Burgers aren’t even the only thing you’ll need special clearance to get the recipe for.
“Secret ingredients in the brownies,” staff member Susan Belsito, who makes the brownies herself, said. Belsito, better known to regulars as Aunt Sue, quickly declined the request for further intel.
While they keep their trade secrets close to the vest, it’s obvious whatever they’ve got going on is working.
“I have never heard so much good rapport of customers anywhere I’ve ever worked,” Belsito, who’s spent 52 years in the service industry, said. “You’d hear ‘yea it’s good,’ but these people are like ‘it’s the best burger we’ve ever had,’ and that kind of excitement just gets your adrenaline going on a daily basis.”
The pudding bearing this proof hangs on their walls and windows.
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The restaurant is adorned with three years’ worth of People’s Choice Awards for Best Burger on the Grand Strand plaques and posters. They’ve received the honor every year they’ve been open.
“We have a lot of customers who come in and tell us they voted for us every day,” Thayne said.
In talking to Thayne, we heard a lot about the customers. Whether we were asking about what makes Take a Bite’s burgers special or their success, she couldn’t stop talking about the people who eat there.
“The day we opened, we had customers and a couple of local ladies posted on the Nextdoor app, and they said ‘oh I just ate the best burger I’ve ever had,'” Thayne said. “Then next thing you know, everybody wanted to try the burger, and then they were posting, and that’s…we haven’t really advertised anywhere, it’s been customers posting that they had a great burger.”
Word of mouth quickly turned many on to becoming weekly regulars.
“They’re like ‘what do you want me to get today, Aunt Sue?'” Belsito said. “I’ll say ‘you’re not getting that, get this,’ ‘today we have this,’ and they love that. They’re regulars, and they keep coming and coming.”
Thayne will tell you it was never planned, and maybe that’s because this is simply how she’s always known Take a Bite to be, given that she met her husband while working alongside him and his mother as the only three employees at the first iteration of the restaurant 20 years ago in California…but there’s something about walking in to Take a Bite that’s familiar, even if it’s your first time.
“I don’t think it’s ever been a thought. I think it just is,” Thayne said. “I do know that every person who works for me becomes family. You know, even if they’re not, they are.”
They might think it’s brownie recipes or seasonings, but you can surely figure out the real secret to their success.
“My kids are here every day,” Thayne said. “They stroll in, they bring their friends in, it’s just…it just is our family. It’s like eating in our kitchen when you’re here.”