The second floor of the Meybohm building at Evans Towne Center sat empty for roughly three years. The previous tenant, Stay Social Tap and Table, closed in 2022 and left behind a two-story corner space with windows overlooking Evans Towne Center Park and the Columbia County Performing Arts Center. For a location that good, three years is a long vacancy — and the people who eventually took it over say that gap told them everything they needed to know.
Shawn and Katy Ledford have owned Mellow Mushroom restaurants in the Augusta area long enough to have a working theory about what Evans residents actually want to eat. Their answer, opened April 1, 2025 at 7025 Evans Town Center Blvd, is Towne Center Tavern: a locally owned, family-run American tavern serving house-smoked meats, elevated pub food, and a full bar — not a franchise, not a chain placeholder, not a concept that tested well in Atlanta and got dropped here. Shawn Ledford told The Augusta Press he wanted "just another casual dining option in Evans that's maybe outside of the franchise."
That is the thesis of this post, stated plainly: the Evans Towne Center corridor is attracting locally invested operators right now, and the pattern is concentrated enough that it is worth updating your mental map of where to eat in this zip code.
What Towne Center Tavern Actually Is
The menu is what Ledford calls elevated American pub food. The specifics matter here: hand-cut fries, house-smoked wings, a Steak Dipper (sliced ribeye and provolone on a hoagie), a TCT Dipper (smoked meatloaf, onions, and gouda on a Cuban roll), and a full bar that includes, if early reviews are to be believed, a frozen Irish coffee that keeps showing up in comments unprompted. The space has an outdoor patio in addition to indoor seating, and the view from the second floor looks directly across at the park and the performing arts center.
The restaurant opened for dinner only during Masters week 2025, then added lunch service after the tournament. As of early 2026, hours run 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. The Ledfords reported repeat customers within the first two weeks of full service. That is not surprising when the prior alternative in that specific building was a three-year vacancy.
What is worth noting about the Ledfords as operators: they did not open here because the rent was cheap or because a national franchise scout identified Evans as an underserved market. They opened here because they already live and work in this community and know what it is missing. That distinction matters when you are deciding whether a new restaurant will still be open in two years.
The Summer Arrival That Changes the Conversation
If Towne Center Tavern was the first signal, Nordhavn-Rustik is the signal that something structural is shifting.
The concept broke ground in October 2025 at 406 Town Park Blvd, near the Ponder Place Office Park in Evans, and is targeting a summer 2026 opening. It is a standalone building, roughly 6,000 square feet, built in a Scandinavian architectural style. The investors chose not to share a building with other tenants — Dr. John Bojescul, a retired Army colonel and orthopedic surgeon who is one of the investing partners, explained the reasoning directly: "All the other restaurants are in a building, or you've got to share it with somebody. So I didn't want to share."
The concept runs two operations under one roof. The Nordhavn side is fine dining with a menu influenced by German, Danish, and Norwegian cuisine — roughly 70% seafood, 30% meat, with the possibility of wild game including elk or bison, according to Business Debut. The Rustik side operates as a European-style bakery and deli during the day: fresh breads, pastries, sandwiches, and coffee. In the late afternoon, when the bakery counter winds down, that same space converts to private dining and event use. Executive chef Justin Hayes described the arrangement to WJBF: the Rustik side by day is for hanging out, working, or small meetings; the Nordhavn side at night is where the structured dinner service runs.
There is nothing else like this concept in the CSRA. That is either a risk or an opportunity, and the people backing it have enough local knowledge and personal investment to believe it is the latter. A retired Army surgeon who encountered this style of restaurant while traveling through northern Europe, decided Evans was ready for it, and put his own name on a groundbreaking ceremony is not a passive investor. He is someone with a stake in the community who is willing to bet his credibility that the market has matured enough to support it.
The Third Data Point Makes It a Pattern
Two locally-owned concepts on one corridor is interesting. Three makes it a trend worth paying attention to.
Eggs Up Grill opened in early 2025 at the Shoppes at Evans Towne Park, 1200 Towne Park Lane, after a planned December 2024 opening was pushed back by Hurricane Helene. The operator is Clarissa and Alvin Knotts, a father-daughter duo who signed a four-location development agreement that makes Evans their flagship market. Eggs Up Grill is a franchise — it is not independent the way Towne Center Tavern is — but the Knotts family made a specific choice to build out their entire local portfolio here rather than spreading across multiple markets. Evans was the first location. That is a vote of confidence in the corridor.
The breakfast and brunch segment is one of the harder categories to fill in a suburban market, because it requires consistent morning traffic and a reason for residents to leave home for eggs when eggs are easy to make at home. The fact that the Evans location has sustained operations and the Knotts family is continuing with their expansion plan suggests the traffic is there.
What the Park Changes
These three openings would be individually interesting. What makes them a reason to rethink a Friday night routine is the geography.
Evans Towne Center Park sits at the center of this corridor. The Columbia County Performing Arts Center is directly across from the park. Towne Center Tavern's outdoor patio looks out at both. Nordhavn-Rustik is close enough that it functions as the same general destination. Eggs Up Grill is a short drive down Towne Park Lane.
This is not a strip mall food court where you park, eat, and leave. The park is usable before and after dinner — walkable, open, landscaped, with enough space to extend an evening without spending more money. For Highland Lakes residents, this changes the calculation for a weeknight out. The question is no longer just "where do we eat" but "what do we do with the two hours around eating," and the answer is now built into the geography.
The outdoor patio at Towne Center Tavern overlooking the park and performing arts center was not an accident in the design. Ledford cited that foot traffic specifically as a reason he wanted that building: "I really just kind of fell in love with this location, with the foot traffic being from the park and the performing arts center." He designed the space to face what makes the location worth being in.
The Part That Usually Goes Unsaid
Evans has always had chain restaurants. The Washington Road and Belair Road corridors are full of them, and they are not going anywhere. The point of this post is not that chains are bad or that every independent restaurant that opens here will survive. Some will close. That is how restaurants work.
The point is that three locally-invested operators opened or broke ground on the Evans Towne Center corridor within roughly 18 months of each other, and each of them cited the specific community — not the market demographics, not a franchise territory map — as the reason they chose this location. That kind of clustering does not happen by accident. It happens when early operators succeed and others take notice, or when operators who already know this community decide the timing is right.
For a Highland Lakes resident who has been defaulting to the same four or five chain restaurants out of habit, this is the update: the habit is based on an outdated mental map. The corridor changed. Towne Center Tavern is already there. Nordhavn-Rustik is arriving this summer. The park is still free.
Ehrin Fairey lives and works in this community. If you are thinking about what a move in or around Evans might look like — whether that means selling your current home or buying your next one — get in touch for a free home marketing plan. Sell smarter and give back.
