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2023 saw a boom in new businesses throughout the Augusta area, from national chains to small independent businesses. Here, in no particular order, we will introduce his 10 openings in 2023 that have helped change the way local residents eat, work, and play.
Jones Creek Practice Club
4087 Hammonds Ferry, Evans
While the rest of Augusta prepares for the 2023 Masters Tournament, a golf event management and consulting firm called Bond Golf Global is renovating the driving range of a decommissioned golf course in the Jones Creek area of Columbia County. supported.
The course was closed in 2018, leaving its future as a golf course in doubt and becoming seeded. It is hoped that today’s practice club will be a successful step towards the reopening of the entire course.
olive garden
804 Dr. Cabela, Augusta
The Italian-inspired restaurant chain opened its first Augusta location on Washington Road in 1988. Due to its proximity to Augusta National Golf Club, this store was one of Olive Gardens’ best performing locations.
When a shell company purchased Olive Garden’s Washington Road property in August 2022, work and speculation began as to whether Olive Garden would be taken off the market or rebuilt elsewhere. The reopening was so long awaited that Augusta District 7 Commissioner Sean Frantom asked the restaurant’s general manager about an opening date during a public meeting in October.
Trulieve medical cannabis dispensary
4218 Washington Rd., Evans
In 2019, Georgia eased restrictions on the sale of products containing low doses of THC, the psychoactive substance found in cannabis. Entrepreneurs were soon vying to be part of the state’s first official licensee authorized to sell THC products.
Trulieve was one of the first two companies to be licensed as a Georgia seller and opened multiple stores in Georgia in quick succession. Tim Morley, Trulieve’s chief sales officer, told the Augusta Chronicle that the “55+ community, veterans, and many other cannabis users” were a factor in the company’s decision to open in Columbia County. He said it was the cause.
Initio
4414 Evans to Locks Rd., Evans
Chef Justin Hayes and Dr. Sharad Gamande, a local oncologist and wine expert, founded the restaurant and adjacent wine shop, Cork & Frame, in 2018 to create an adventurous experience with sophisticated palates. It is targeted at diners.
In 2023, Hayes announces a new dining experience within Cork & Flame with Inicio, a restaurant-within-a-restaurant offering a carefully curated tasting menu. Before each course, Hayes notes details about each dish’s ingredients and often a personal connection to the meal, helping diners make their own connections.
grandpa’s kitchen
6008 Clarks Hill Rd., Appling
Pollard’s Corner, located in rural Columbia County, was for many years the site of a general store and home to an unusual restaurant. Those that closed in 2021 were TJ Outriggers and, most recently, Maryland Fried Chicken.
Property owner Bert Pollard contacted family friends Bill and Merris Hoard to ask the veteran business owners and self-proclaimed “home cooks” to work on the property to meet the persistent demand of local residents. I asked if they wanted to reopen the restaurant. “It’s a huge need. Everyone is excited,” Hoard said shortly after Grandaddy’s opened in August.
jim and knicks
275 Robert C. Daniel Parkway, Augusta
The Alabama-based barbecue chain opened on Dec. 13 in the former site of the Augusta Exchange Shopping Center, where Augusta’s Macaroni Grill was destroyed in a 2016 fire. Until construction began earlier this year, the corner lot had a vacant lot slated for a restaurant.
golden harvest food bank
3310 Commerce Dr., Augusta
Although the Augusta-based nonprofit is not a business, the opening of a new facility earlier this year highlights the impact Golden Harvest continues to have on the Augusta area. The food bank’s new volunteer and administration center includes a volunteer packing and sorting area. Increased office and meeting space. And a new entrance.
Golden Harvest feeds more than 287,000 families each year across 25 counties in Georgia and South Carolina.
century 21 magnolia
432 S. Belair Rd., Augusta
Larry Miller has spent 37 years building his Century 21 Real Estate business into one of the most well-known real estate businesses in the Augusta area. Less than two weeks before his death on September 13, he was instrumental in celebrating the transition of the business from Century 21 Larry Miller Realty to Century 21 Magnolia.
Noah McBride purchased the office earlier this year. Miller hired McBride, now 25, in 2020.
rally point grill
4446 Washington Rd., Evans
The former Sweet 10 Restaurant and Bar has been replaced with a restaurant focused on honoring veterans and first responders during the summer.
U.S. Marine Corps veterans Ralph and Carrie Loeger opened Semper Fi Bar and Grill in suburban Atlanta in 2015 and recently began shopping around veterans-supporting businesses as a franchise concept. Retired Army Major Kelly O’Neill met with the Loegers and liked the idea of a restaurant that would pay homage to the Augusta area’s formidable veterans.
O’Neill’s Restaurant’s name comes from a military term meaning a place where members of a unit gather and regroup if they become separated. The restaurant’s decor includes old photos of military personnel hanging from the walls and camouflage netting hanging from the ceiling.
goolsby’s
3122 Wrightsboro Rd., Augusta
When Richard Goolsby moved his family restaurant from Lincoln County to Columbia County in 2005, it quickly pioneered the delivery of quality Southern comfort food at a location across the street from the Evans Walmart.
In January 2023, his son, Wilkes Goolsby, announced that the restaurant would be serving seconds at a second location across from Augusta University’s Forest Hills campus. The building was completely renovated in 2020 and 2021 and became the new location for another local restaurant, Gary’s Hamburgers, but the plans never fully materialized. Goolsby’s leases the building from Gary’s owner, Gary Gibson.
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