How many times have you been on vacation, headed to the beach or the mountains from the CSRA, and the kids ask for the millionth time, are we almost there?
On the edge of Aiken County, almost close enough to throw a rock to the Barnwell County line, a new restaurant has opened. If your tribe is hungry, you can stop in at Almost There Café.
The building at 245 White Pond Road in Williston has been a donut shop, a chicken joint, and a mercantile over the years. Now, since Sept. 1, you’ll find a restaurant serving up some good ole Southern fare like fried chicken, mashed taters, and gravy and cornbread.
It’s a little bit of meat and three, but the menu also includes some of the South’s other favorite dishes, a gut-busting burger, a fried green tomato BLT, and a fried bologna sandwich. If you grew up poor, you know that fried bologna is a delicacy. Even if you didn’t, you might want to give it a try.
“It’s one of our customer favorites,” owner, Dawn Redmon said.
The menu probably beats the stew out of Army rations. Redmon would know all about that.
“I was an Army brat,” she said. “Almost everyone in my family has served including my grandfather, my dad, my two sons, and me for 20 years.”
After retiring from the Army, Redmon worked in Cyber Security at Fort Gordon and left that position in 2018.
“Running a restaurant has been a learning curve that the Army didn’t prepare me for, but it did give me a great work ethic,” Redmon said. “When you are deployed, you have no time to yourself, just like in the restaurant business. But it’s the life I’ve chosen, and the community has been very supportive of Almost There Café.”
The restaurant has five inside tables, each decorated with the iconic cotton bolls wrapped in burlap, and a few seats at the bar. There are outside tables that seat another 25 guests. The setup is working well so far.
“We have a combination of dine-in customers, normally the horse folks in the area and retirees, and the balance is made up of people who call in orders for pick-up,” Redmon said.
Redmon has discovered that some of her staff are exceptional bakers. They now offer in-house prepared desserts including pineapple upside-down cake, carrot cake, and banana pudding.
“The restaurant has evolved in the past couple of months since we opened,” she said. “We get first-time visitors every day and we also have some regular customers.”
Like most restaurants, Redmon sometimes struggles with staffing issues. Currently, she is looking for a prep cook.
“In the Army, you look to the left or the right and you know you have help, but the civilian world is different,” she said.
On a personal note, Redmon loves the beach and the mountains. She figures her place is somewhere in between, in other words, “almost there” in any direction.
Besides the regular menu, daily specials are posted on their Facebook page. You can also call in orders at 803-266-3581.
Meat and threes and Southern cuisine are described as “glorious vittles served with utmost informality.” As Veterans Day approaches Friday, November 11, maybe it would be a good time to visit Almost There Café, thank Dawn Redmon for her service, and chow down on some good home-cookin’.
Editor’s Note:
Mitzi Oxford is a veteran broadcaster and features writer who also worked at the same television station in Columbus, Georgia as Augusta’s Brad Means!
If you have a South Carolina story idea for Mitzi, please email her at mitzioxfordcreative@gmail.com.
