After serving up food to the city of Tallapoosa and its surrounding areas for nearly 40 years, Marie Owens – better known as Marie W. – says she knows how to please the pallets of local residents: give them what they want.

And what do people want? Well, according to Marie, the answer is simple.

“I’ve always tried to put out good food,” she says. “We use quality food – top grade stuff. We use 100 percent ground chuck with no soy bean filler like some places. I’ve always said that if you give people good food, they are going to come back.”

Marie says she and her husband, Gene, opened the Burger Chick on the corner of Highway 78 and Spring Street in February of 1971, which means she is celebrating 39 years of business in Tallapoosa this month.

However, the Burger Chick wasn’t their first business venture.

“When we opened [the Burger Chick] we already had a dress shop next door and Big O barbecue and gas down by the Interstate,” Marie said.

According to Marie, her husband wanted the “Big O” theme to carry on at their new establishment, so he created the Big O Burger.

“The Big O was a burger with everything on it,” Marie laughed. “I guess you could have called it our signature dish.”

However, Marie and Gene prided themselves on preparing what their customers want, so patrons of the Burger Chick don’t simply have to take the menu items as they come.”

“We try to give people what they want,” Marie said. “So if you want mayo and no mustard, you can have it. Or if you want everything on it, you can have that, too.”

With this philosophy in place, there is no such thing as a special order to the employees of the Burger Chick, because every dish is made-to-order based on the customer’s specifications.

After only a few years, the Burger Chick expanded to add an eating area next door, and as the space expanded so did the menu.

“We started with just hamburgers, hotdogs, fried chicken and french fries,” Marie said. “Then we added chicken sandwiches, fish sandwiches and slaw dogs.”

And though her fare may be simple, Marie says people come from all around to taste a Burger Chick burger.

“We had a group of University of Georgia students come all the way from Athens once just to try one of our burgers,” Marie recalled. “I have no idea how they heard about us way out there.”

Of course, not all customers head to the Burger Chick with such determination. Some are just out for a Sunday drive or vacation and get a little curious.

“In the summer, people from up north used to pass through here while on vacation. They would stop to have a slaw dog just because they had never heard of it before and didn’t know what it was,” Marie laughed. “Then they’d come back the next year.”

Marie admits that she and her husband were lucky with the success of their business.

“It’s hard sitting around waiting on customers to come,” she said. “It doesn’t start over night. Nobody knows how hard it is until they do it.”

However, Marie says the work of her and her husband has been a work in progress over the years, and the work will continue.

“We plan to remodel this building with the seating area in it, hopefully, some time in the future.”

In the meantime, Marie says her establishment will continue to provide quality, made-to-order food at reasonable prices for anyone willing to make a quick stop on their way through Tallapoosa.