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Whataburger plans to open its first SC restaurant. Here’s where

Elizabeth James

More than a year ago, word got out that Whataburger wanted to build a restaurant in South Carolina.

Before Midlands folks start yelling, “We have one,” this is the national chain Whataburger, not the tried and true and beloved West Columbia restaurant What-A-Burger.

Public records show the chain has settled on a location — Anderson.

The plan, which needs to be reviewed by the city, is to locate several miles off Interstate 85, closer to downtown on North Main Street.

Whataburger cleared one hurdle so far. The city’s Zoning Board of Appeals approved a variance to allow for cars to park closer to Main Street than the code normally allows.

The second is to get approval to combine two parcels, according to the zoning board’s staff report recommending approval.

The combined parcel would be about an acre.

Whataburger, based in San Antonio, Texas, has 930 restaurants in 14 southern states and sales of more than $3 billion annually, according to its website.

A company official could not be reached for comment.

The chain is still owned by the Dobson family, which founded it in 1950 (same year as the Columbia restaurant).

According to company lore, Harmon Dobson chose the name because he wanted the hamburgers to be so good people would exclaim, “What a burger.” Back then, hamburgers cost $0.25.

The first store was a walk-up stand in Corpus Christi, Texas.

Dobson died in a crash of a private plane in 1967, and his wife Grace took over the company. By the time she died in 2005 at 80, the company had grown to 600 stores.

Children Tom, Hugh and Lynne inherited the company. Tom Dobson remains chairman. They moved the headquarters to San Antonio in 2009 and have more than 50,000 employees, who are called family members.

Fun fact: most of their restaurants are open 24 hours a day, except Christmas Day, when they are closed all day.