Restaurants/Food

Consumer Stories

A buffet of updates on a beloved BBQ restaurant

A year ago today, Duke’s Bar-B-Que caught fire. It’s been closed ever since. Daily progress is being made towards the reopening of a local favorite franchise that started more than 45 years ago and now has 14 South Carolina locations. On Friday afternoon, owner Christian Judy, conducted a Facebook Live tour of the new place. Generations of customers weighed in during the FB session and many others have been on social media platforms in the past few months, about what they would like to see and taste in the upcoming

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Consumer Stories

Iconic BBQ restaurant to reopen soon

A fire in a barbecue pit is good. A kitchen fire at the restaurant which serves BBQ is not. When Duke’s BBQ in Aiken caught fire in June last year and destroyed the family-owned restaurant, it was devastating to the owners and to all their customers. After all, it was founded 45 years ago. That means generations have grown up with Duke’s. Aikenites have craved Duke’s enough in the past year, that they’ve driven more than an hour away to Orangeburg to again sample the chicken, pork, sauce, and sides.

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B2B Stories

Local baker to celebrate opening of second CSRA location

Last summer, Alice Garner’s dreams came true when she opened a bakery kiosk in the Augusta Mall, but about one year later, she’s preparing to open a second location in Columbia County. Garner owns Garner’s Sweet Dreams, LLC, which sells a variety of desserts, including cakes, cupcakes, brownies, and banana pudding. Garner, a U.S. Army veteran, established Garner’s Sweet Dreams as a home-based business in Aug. 2019. Her kiosk opened on July 24, 2022. “We’ve been doing great in the mall,” she said. Her new location will be at 280

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Consumer Stories

BEST OF RESTAURANT REVIEW: Business Lunch Review: Frog and the Hen

Editor’s Note: Wes Hennings never met a meal he walked away from and is an opinionated eater! Each Thursday he shares the results of a business lunch he’s had with a colleague as a way to advise our business community on the good, bad, and tasty across the CSRA. He doesn’t let ABD or the restaurant know where he is going and his opinions are his own. He grades the restaurants he visits on a 1-5 scale with “5” being outstanding. We call this our “Real Business Lunch Review”. Food

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Consumer Stories

CSRA fast food restaurants celebrate special birthday

Busy professionals in the CSRA will soon be able to get a birthday meal from McDonald’s without attending a party for the little ones. Starting June 12, McDonald’s is celebrating “Grimace’s” birthday by featuring a limited-edition purple shake inspired by Grimace’s iconic color and sweetness. The meal also comes with the choice of a Big Mac® or 10-piece Chicken McNuggets® and World Famous Fries®. In lieu of birthday gifts, area McDonald’s are suggesting you make donations to the local Ronald McDonald House Charities as a way to help sick children

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Consumer Stories

Local dessert shop invites customers back into the funnel

After a four-month hiatus, Andre Walker is excited about inviting customers back to his storefront. Walker owns the Funnel Cake Lounge located at 212 South Belair Road, Suites 194-196, near Kyoto Japanese Cuisine and the Walmart Neighborhood Market in Martinez, which will officially reopen on Saturday, June 17 at 12 noon. The business bakes and sells funnel cakes in a variety of unique flavors, such as Miss Peaches, which is topped with homemade peach cobbler. The funnel cake lounge closed in February, which gave him time to complete some repairs

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Awards/Celebrations

Historic CSRA drive-in receives national grant for preservation

If you’ve ever pulled into the SnoCap Drive-in in North Augusta to enjoy a burger, hotdog, or shake, you may have felt like you were driving through history. The place has been around since 1964 and remains a local icon. Through various owners through those 59 years, most recently the Usry family in 2019, the joint still hops with dine-in, curb service, and drive-thru. SnoCap’s piece of history will now be preserved through a $40,000 grant from the Backing Historic Small Restaurants Grant Program awarded through Saving Places and American

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Consumer Stories

New restaurant and bar to replace former CSRA eatery

A new tenant is replacing a former downtown eatery that closed late last year, according to the Finem Group at Meybohm Commercial. The Group recently announced that Lenox on 10th, a new restaurant and bar, will move into the space previously occupied by The Bee’s Knees located at 211 10th St., which closed its doors permanently on Nov. 20, 2022. “I was personally a part of the opening training teams for Cheddar’s and Wild Wing,” said Aris Reed, one of the business’s owners. “With 20+ years of bar and hospitality

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Consumer Stories

Business Lunch Review: Freddy’s

Editor’s Note: Wes Hennings never met a meal he walked away from and is an opinionated eater! Each Thursday he shares the results of a business lunch he’s had with a colleague as a way to advise our business community on the good, bad, and tasty across the CSRA. He doesn’t let ABD or the restaurant know where he is going and his opinions are his own. He grades the restaurants he visits on a 1-5 scale with “5” being outstanding. We call this our “Real Business Lunch Review”. Food

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Consumer Stories

Local restaurateur strikes while the waffle iron is hot

You’re probably familiar with chicken and waffles, but Dallas Hooks offers a unique twist on the Southern favorite. On Friday, April 26, Hooks launched Café on 8th, a waffle bar located at 226 Eighth St. in downtown Augusta. The eatery serves not only a variety of traditional waffles, but also savory options, such as The Down Home, which is chicken and collards baked into a waffle. Other flavors include shrimp and grits and biscuits and gravy. “There are a lot of things we can do with a waffle,” he said.

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