An Atlanta-based diner is planning to make its way to the CSRA, soon.
Thumbs Up Diner announced earlier this month that it will be opening a new location in Augusta, and its website is already teasing with a “coming soon” page. The restaurant is slated to open at 1297 Ellis St., the former site of Huddle House, parallel to Broad Street in the downtown corridor.
Its chosen spot would be apt considering its menu. Thumbs Up, founded by owner Lou Locricchio with its first location in downtown Decatur, Ga. in the early 80s, is known for a robust breakfast menu—eggs, grits, pancakes, potatoes varieties of waffles, bacon and sausage are all mainstays of most of the items to choose from, and are the basic ingredients of its “build your own breakfast” option.
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The Atlanta diner’s hardy “Breakfast Originals” boasts selections such as smoked chicken wings with waffle, its seaside breakfast, with catfish fillet, and Southwestern scrambled eggs, complete with tortilla and guacamole.
Thumbs Up has eight locations, currently, all of them in or around the Atlanta metro area, with its flagship location on Edgewood Avenue, near Atlanta’s Martin Luther King Jr. Historic District.
The downtown Augusta Huddle House is one of several in the area that have closed over the last few years since the height of the COVID pandemic. This includes one on Tobacco Road in Hephzibah—which is now Osaka Japanese Restaurant—and one on Avenue of the States in Fort Eisenhower.
Unlike Huddle House, which is usually open for 24 hours, Thumbs Up diner locations are typically open for breakfast in lunch hours, opening at 7 a.m. and closing at 3 or 4 p.m. The Augusta location is expected to open by the end of this year.
Skyler Q. Andrews is a staff reporter covering business for The Augusta Press. Reach him at skyler@theaugustapress.com.
