Tanner's Big Orange - Greenville, South Carolina, Closed

I’m a touch late with this one, but I wanted to go ahead and note that last Christmas Tanner’s Big Orange in Greenville closed its doors for good. It had opened in 1943. When I lived in Greenville, it was located across the street from my work, and it was really hard to abstain from getting lunch there. It’s proof that I do in fact possess a quality called will power. It was a dogs, burgers, fries and onion rings place, but in the Southern style, which just means you could get slaw and/or chili on anything, pretty much. They also served a great Orange drink. Another place in this mold is The Varsity in Atlanta, where I have enjoyed chili dogs and orange drink in those big cups full of that fantastic ice. If you understand the kind of food I’m talking about, imagine that plastic hot dog eyeballing you from across the street at work. Just about every single day was a struggle. The last time I was in Greenville, in I think 2010 when I attended a conference there, the last thing I did, and I mean the very last thing I did, driving out of Greenville was a stop at Tanner’s for a hot dog and some orangeade. Tanner’s was great.

Well, this one is kind of interesting. I was mapping some of my old haunts using Google maps and I was going to pin Tanner’s, and it didn’t show up. Odd. Further investigation revealed it had closed just last December. I found that suprrising because it is hard to imagine a place like Tanner’s going out of business. It was a local institution type of place. Well, the next few google hits revealed the story: Headlines about Tanner’s start in June of 2020 during the very apex of the George Floyd civil unrest. Tanner’s became a hot spot for protesting in Greenville because the owner posted some of his opinions about the nation-wide civil unrest on social media and his thoughts were deemed impolitic. It was such an insane time. People started boycotting Tanner’s and protesting in its parking lot. There’s a funny picture on one of news sites showing a man grilling hot dogs.

Citing the brand damage resulting from that, combined with rising costs and personal health problems, the owner closed it down. I wonder why didn’t he just sell it. I mean, couldn’t a buyer just slap Stanley’s Big Orange on the signage and that be enough to communicate the new deal? Maybe it doesn’t work like that. I don’t know. I just wanted to comment on it. I used to enjoy eating there.