Augusta's Food Scene: Soul Food Institutions and Farmers Markets Thrive

Augusta’s food scene has quietly become one of the South’s most compelling draws, with more than 40 new restaurants opening in the past 18 months and a downtown farmers’ market that now draws 12,000 visitors weekly. But for visitors, the key is knowing where to look beyond the clubhouse sandwiches and post-Masters steak dinners.

Where History Meets the Kitchen

The city’s culinary identity is anchored in its historic soul-food restaurants, most notably Sconyers Bar-B-Que on Dean Bridge Road, which has been smoking pork shoulders since 1956. On any Saturday, the line stretches past the old gas station out front, with customers ordering the chopped pork plate ($14.50) and banana pudding that regulars swear by. Three miles north, the Farmer’s Table on Broad Street has become the epicenter of the farm-to-table movement, sourcing from 22 local growers within a 60-mile radius. Their summer heirloom tomato salad-served with smoked pimento cheese and benne seed brittle-has been on the menu since 2019 and sells out most evenings by 7:30 p.m.

That local sourcing is not a gimmick. The Augusta Locally Grown nonprofit, headquartered at 115 Telfair Street, coordinates 17 weekly drop-off sites across the metro area, distributing produce from 85 small farms. Executive director Keisha Williams-who is not available for interviews this week-told the Augusta Chronicle in April that the program has grown 40 percent since 2023, driven by demand from both residential customers and restaurants.

Don’t Skip the Ethnic Corridors

First-time visitors often miss Augusta’s most exciting eating: the stretch of Gordon Highway between the Summerville line and Fort Gordon, where a cluster of Vietnamese pho houses, Korean barbecue joints and Mexican taquerias reflects the city’s growing immigrant communities. Saigon Kitchen at 2923 Peach Orchard Road has been open since 2009 and serves a pho ga ($12.95) that uses a 12-hour bone broth. Three blocks east, El Patron Taqueria on Washington Road does a weekend barbacoa plate ($16) that draws customers from as far as Aiken, South Carolina.

A February 2026 report from Visit Augusta found that 68 percent of leisure travelers cited “local food and drink” as a primary motivation for their trip, up from 51 percent in 2022. The Convention and Visitors Bureau now lists 14 distinct food-tour itineraries, including the “Historic Soul Food Walk” that stops at five restaurants along Laney-Walker Boulevard, a corridor that was once the commercial heart of Augusta’s Black community.

Practical Advice for the Hungry Visitor

The Augusta Market on Saturdays at the Savannah River levee near Eighth Street runs from 8 a.m. until noon, rain or shine, from April through November. A $10 token buys you a cup of locally roasted Coffee from PERC, a striped bass taco from the Fish Camp food truck, and a pint of blackberries from Honey Ridge Farm in nearby Harlem, Georgia. Plan to arrive before 9 a.m., when the line for the loaded grits bowl at the Huckleberry Kitchen stand typically hits 30 people deep.

Reservations are now essential at the city’s top-tier tables. Frog Hollow Tavern on Reynolds Street, which earned a James Beard Award nomination in 2025 for its chef de cuisine, is booked solid through mid-August, with a waitlist of 65 parties as of last Friday. The tasting menu runs $95 per person, with wine pairings an additional $55. A more accessible pivot: the bar seating at Abel Brown on Broad Street, where the $25 à la carte menu is available without a reservation on Monday through Wednesday evenings.

For those wanting to cook like a local, the Augusta Culinary Institute at Augusta Technical College offers a three-hour “Summer in the South” class every Saturday through September for $85 per person. The course, taught by chef-instructor Derrick Weston, covers how to make shrimp and grits with Lowcountry gravy, a sweet potato biscuit recipe from an 1897 cookbook, and a muscadine cobbler using grapes from the Ocmulgee River region. The institute reports that 92 percent of attendees are out-of-town visitors, a sign that Augusta’s food culture is no longer a local secret.