Tasty's Fresh Burgers and Fries will serve its final meal at the Wildlight location this weekend, closing the doors on a seven-year run at 20 Homegrown Way in Yulee. Owner Katy Dougherty announced the closure in a social media post, saying Sunday, August 23, will be the last day of business for the store, and she thanked the Wildlight community for supporting the restaurant while offering no official reason for the shutdown.
Dougherty also thanked her staff for seven years of service, according to WhatNow, and encouraged customers to stop in for one more meal before the location shuts down. In her post, she said the final week should include “familiar faces, favorite meals, and good memories.” Tasty's is known for made-to-order smash-style burgers built on a fresh beef blend, hand-cut french fries made daily, and thick milkshakes, and the family-owned chain built its reputation on that formula across Nassau County and Southeast Georgia.
A Seven-Year Run Comes to an End
The Wildlight store opened in September 2019 at 20 Homegrown Way, becoming Tasty's third location after its original Fernandina Beach shop and its first Yulee outpost on State Road 200, according to the Tasty's Fresh Burgers and Fries official website. Fernandina Beach native Katy Dougherty and her husband, Chad Dougherty, founded Tasty's in December 2011 on Centre Street, drawing inspiration from Chad's grandmother's 1960s burger shop, The Freezette, per the Nassau County Economic Development Board. The Wildlight store opened just months before the COVID-19 pandemic and went on to operate for seven years before this weekend's closure.
Tasty's became an early anchor tenant in Wildlight's commercial rollout. Skinner Bros. Realty announced Tasty's as one of the first two commercial tenants signed for Wildlight's Town Center complex, alongside Cold Stone Creamery, the Nassau County Economic Development Board notes, marking the developer's initial retail push in the master-planned community. By March 2023, Tasty's employed more than 150 workers across its locations, with roughly 130 of them living and working in Nassau County, according to the same source.
Three Locations Remain Open
Dougherty said the other Tasty's locations will remain open even as Wildlight closes. Once the Wildlight store shuts its doors, Tasty's will continue operating its downtown Fernandina Beach store at 710 Centre Street, its original Yulee location at 463852 State Road 200, and its branch in Kingsland, Georgia, per the Tasty's Fresh Burgers and Fries official website.
The closure comes even as the building housing Tasty's changed hands last year. Alabama-based Fairway Investments purchased the two-building Wildlight Town Center commercial strip that includes 20 Homegrown Way from developer Skinner Bros. Realty for roughly $9.8 million, transferring ownership of the 11,670-square-foot multi-tenant complex, the site notes.
Growth Continues Around Wildlight
The closure lands in the middle of a suburban corridor that keeps expanding rather than slowing down. Wildlight is a master-planned community developed by Raydient Places + Properties and entitled for up to 24,000 residential units and 11 million square feet of commercial space across 25,000 total acres at full buildout. Yulee's population reached an estimated 16,451 residents this year, a 23.2 percent jump from the 13,346 counted in the 2020 U.S. Census, as the town has grown into a bedroom community for commuters to Jacksonville and Naval Submarine Base Kings Bay.
Retail turnover along the State Road 200 corridor has stayed brisk even as Tasty's exits. Hoodline previously reported on Dutch Bros' Wildlight plans, which called for the coffee chain's first Nassau County kiosk in the same commercial district. Drive-thru and fast-casual concepts have continued targeting the area, a pattern that places the Tasty's closure less as an isolated setback than as one more shift in a rapidly changing retail map.
For now, Tasty's fans in Yulee have until Sunday to grab one last smash burger, order of hand-cut fries, or thick milkshake from the Wildlight spot. With the Fernandina Beach flagship and the original Yulee location on State Road 200 still open, along with the Kingsland store, the closure looks less like the end of the brand and more like a narrower footprint focused on its longest-standing addresses.
