Joe Nedza was drowning in waffles.
His roving Hong Kong-style egg waffle stand, which he started as a fourth-year student at UGA, proved so successful he opened a brick-and-mortar restaurant, Nedza’s, on Lumpkin Street.
As the store’s customer base expanded, so did its menu, which featured the Instagram-worthy, ice cream-stuffed waffle cones, bespoke doughnuts, elaborate biscuit sandwiches, loaded grit bowls, candy-filled cookies, and various other Wonka-esque concoctions.
It all sprang from Nedza’s boundless imagination — and it was all starting to feel like too much.
“We just had a lot,” says Nedza (BBA ’16). “It was confusing. It took a lot of work. And it was a lot of hours for not a lot of money.
“My life was so chaotic,” he adds. “I had to simplify.”
In late 2022, Nedza’s closed its doors. But the space didn’t stay empty for long.
After soft-launching at pop-ups around Athens, Nedza opened the first Baddie’s Burger House, serving up lacy smash burgers, crispy fries and homemade banana pudding — and nothing else.
The streamlined concept came wholly formed in a vision, says Nedza.
“I woke up one morning and it was like, ‘This is what I’m going to do. This is how I’m going to do it. We’re going to do one burger one way, fresh-cut fries and my pudding.’ It was immediately clear as day.”
Nedza may not have always known he’d be in the burger business. But he knew he wanted to be his own boss.
“My dad was an entrepreneur. His dad was an entrepreneur,” he says. “I never wanted to be held hostage. I’ve watched people start a business, but then they need to raise a bunch of money or hire someone who can do the thing that allows them to make money. Restaurants were a thing where I was like, ‘No one can hold me hostage.’”
Over the last two years, Baddie’s boomed. A Watkinsville outpost opened in 2024. This summer, a third location appeared in Athens’ Normaltown neighborhood.
Nedza doesn’t plan to stop there, though for now he’s committed to the “slow, painful growth” of sole ownership, rather than explore franchising opportunities.
“I’m obsessive about learning and becoming a better leader,” he explains. “And now I have people I’m responsible to and for. I’ve got a family, I’ve got a mortgage. … My philosophy is people who (grow) too fast miss the in-between problems. And the way we’re growing, they’re impossible to miss.”
Still, don’t mistake Nedza’s intentionality for a lack of ambition.
“I want to grow slowly,” he says with a smile. “But I want the biggest business, the most successful business ever. My plan is to have Baddie’s all over the world.”
Favorite taste
“I think the thing I’m most proud of is our pudding, because it’s very unique. We did this blueberry muffin flavor the other month. It was insane.”