Editor’s Note: This feature originally ran on February 22, 2025 in the 2025 Progress edition (Troup County Is…). The Progress edition is a publication produced annually by the LaGrange Daily News. If you would like to pick up a copy of the 2025 Progress edition, please visit our office at 115 Broad Ste 101.

Steven Keeth owns and runs Charlie Joseph’s in Downtown LaGrange. The restaurant is as synonymous with LaGrange as mom is with apple pie. 

Keeth’s great-grandfather, Charlie Joseph opened the restaurant in downtown LaGrange in the 1920s and began serving its world famous best hotdogs and hamburgers on Main Street. Joseph later moved the establishment to Bull Street in 1946, where the oldest location remains today.

When Charlie passed away suddenly shortly after moving the restaurant, his son Solomon Joseph took over, who later sold the business to Joey Keeth in 1985. Keeth opened the second location on West Point Road a few years later and later sold the original restaurant to his oldest son Steven.

Now one of the faces of LaGrange, Steven Keeth has been working at the downtown LaGrange location since he was 12 years old. Steven is Charlie’s great-grandson, so the business has been in the family for more than 100 years. 

Steven said Charlie Joseph’s is famous for its hotdogs and hamburgers but the way they treat people is just as important.

“The people we meet, they have been coming for generations, 10, 20, 30, 40 years, like all their life. Their great-grandparents, grandparents, parents, their kids, their grandkids, they all come through at some point. It’s just like a big family that all comes back,” Steven said. “It’s pretty awesome to meet all the different personalities and all the different types of people that come from so many different places.”

Having been in LaGrange for generations, Steven knows how important Charlie Joseph’s is to the community and how community support is to the restaurant.

“We couldn’t do what we do without our community support. It’s important. We couldn’t do any of this without everybody that comes back,” he said.

People keep coming back for many reasons. Maybe it’s the hotdogs. Maybe it’s the way they are treated. Maybe it’s the feeling of coming home. Though Charlie Joseph’s has made a few changes over the years, it’s still recognizable and one of the symbols of LaGrange even 100-plus years later.

“When we opened in 1920, hotdogs were a nickel. So prices have changed, but we do all we can to keep it affordable, so everybody can have a good hot dog and a hamburger. The menu is a little different. We’ve added some things over the years, especially for those that come multiple times a week, so they can have something different every time they come,” Steven said.

“As for our traditions and what we believe in, those have absolutely not changed, because it’s always been about taking care of the customer and treating them the right way,” Steven said.

Steven said over the years they have learned people’s names and their frequent orders. It’s the type of thing you don’t get at McDonald’s.

“We build relationships here, and that’s what it’s always been about,” he said.

Two of the additions made to the menu over the years are the Clifford Special and the Steven Special. The Clifford Special is a fried or scrambled egg sandwich with cheese and a hamburger patty, served typically with mayonnaise, salt and pepper. Similarly, the Steven Special is a ham, egg and cheese sandwich.

“They are named after family members,” Steven said. “Clifford got up there first.”

Clifford Russell worked at Charlie Joseph’s for 45 years, working with the second, third and fourth generations of the family business.

“He was a part of our family. He was special. He meant a whole lot to my family,” Steven said. “He was up there [on the menu] and I finally asked my dad, because he’s got his name up there, can I get mine up there? He said, ‘Yeah. If you can come up with something that’s good. We’ll put it up there.’”

Steven came up with the ham version and it’s been on the menu ever since. He said he thinks his sandwich is good, but Clifford’s will always be on the menu.

A photo of Clifford is still on the wall at Charlie Joseph’s and his nickname, “Cuz,” is on their shirts in his memory.

Over the years, Charlie Joseph’s has come to be one of the great representations of LaGrange. Its hot dogs — and its people— are LaGrange. Even the governor loves Charlie Joesph’s. Governor Brian Kemp makes an effort to stop by and have a hot dog every time he is in town.

“That just means our governor has got good taste,” Steven joked. “It’s humbling, It’s a lot of pressure, but we just try to be ourselves and do the best we can and treat people the right way. It’s an honor and a privilege to be able to continue to do what we were taught to do the way we were taught to do it.”