The Face Behind White Lake’s Most Successful Businesses

People might be shocked to learn that the owners of some of their favorite spots is just one husband and wife duo, Timothy and Tammy Blount, a pair dedicated to White Lake and its community.

The Blounts are the owners of several locations in White Lake. This includes Ski Burger, Rondaveu Pizzeria, a local campground known as, The Tradition and more. Hailing from White Lake since their childhood, they have made it his personal mission to help bring people, both near and far, into the town.

“Me and My wife, Tammy, grew up here, we met here, we worked here at the different beaches, then we got married and made this our home,” Timothy said. “At age 65, we reinvested in White Lake because of our love for the lake and to give back to our community.”

Both of the Blounts come from a business background. They both own several locations in Elizabethtown, Clinton and Fayetteville. This includes First Source Staffing Services, and a number of laundry services in White Lake and Elizabethtown.

The Blounts make sure that the ingredients that go into the food at their restaurants are sourced responsibly and locally. Both the ground beef for the burgers at Ski Burger and the sausage for the pizzas at Rondaveu are picked up from the local IGA the morning that they are used. The sauce used for the pizzas is a specially ordered sauce that won’t give you heartburn.

“You can get cheaper, but you can’t get better,” said Blount’s business partner and right-hand man, Robby Mills. “Anyone can walk into a gas station and get a Hunt Brothers Pizza that comes from the freezer and is probably overpriced. Ours is proofed and hand stretched every day. It’s a little bit more expensive but it’s worth it. The guy throwing the dough up in the air? That’s pizza! Ding! is microwave, not pizza!”

One of the signature items at Ski Burger is the Be Back Burger. It’s a burger so good, it promises the customer that they will be back. Other well-known items at Ski Burger include the fries, made from fresh cut potatoes and their award-winning breakfast menu.

Over at Rondaveu, one of their most famous items is, the Southern Pie. This item features the Southern staples of collard greens and country ham. This item was originally pitched as a joke by Timothy Blount, but eventually took off.

“ It started as a joke,” Blount said. “I said ‘Let’s make a pie with ham and collard greens and we’ll call it the Southern pie.’ Well, It took off and we had people come from Eastover and all over to try the pie with collard greens. We changed the collards once and people got all upset and complained. They said it wasn’t the same, so we changed it back.”

Other specials at Rondaveu include the Rondaveu special, a pizza with cheese, pepperoni, ham, sausage, beef, onions, pineapple, green peppers and mushrooms.

In addition to Rondaveu and Ski Burger, The Blounts also own the taco joint Sandy Bottom Tacos, an authentic Mexican taco experience. They also own a local campground known as The Tradition.

The Tradition is seated on White Lake, so nearly every cabin gets a waterfront view. The Blounts have spent the past few months or so fixing up some of the oldest cabins in White Lake so they look brand-new. The Blounts came up with the name in hopes that the campground will bring recurring visitors to White Lake each year, thus starting a new tradition amongst families.

“We wanted to update some things but we wanted to make it where people kept coming back,” Mills said. “Their son-in-law just brought some friends down and now they want to come back. They’ll carry on the tradition.”

With the Blounts in charge, the restaurants are now open year-round. This is a contrast to the many other places around White Lake that close once summer ends.

“This fall, when you come home from school, ride through the lake and see how many places are shut down,” said Mills. “That tells you what they really care about. We don’t do that.”

The Blounts have remained determined to give back to the community in any way they can. This could range from providing kids with jobs, to simply making burgers for the community. The Blounts want to see each community member thrive.

“We’re trying to give back to the community,” Timothy said. “Whether that’s good food, good service, employment. We have pride in our young workforce. Those kids work extremely hard. If nobody’s ever been in the food business, they need to spend a little time there. They might be a little bit more considerate to those who work there, cause they can get hammered!”

Ski Burger is open from 8 a.m.-3 p.m. daily and Rondaveu Pizzeria is open Fri-Sat 4-9 p.m. and Sun- Thurs at 4-8.