The owner of T’s Restaurant has announced the famed restaurant will not be reopening.
The 75-year-old establishment on Mike Padgett Highway famous for its fried catfish and hushpuppies suffered massive damage from a fire that occurred on Labor Day in 2020. Much of the kitchen area was gutted.
In an interview on Sep. 17, owner Garrett Fulcher said the high cost of construction materials and the economy impacted by the pandemic was making it difficult to rebuild.
“We’re going through the same thing as everybody else,” Fulcher said at the time.
For months, people have speculated on when, if ever, the restaurant would reopen. However, it is official now that it won’t. In a statement to the media, Fulcher said his decision is final and word quickly spread on the internet.
“The thought of never having another T’s hushpuppy makes me sad,” one fan wrote on Facebook.
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T’s is not necessarily joining the Town Tavern and the Green Jacket as places where memories were made and are now memories themselves, however. The brand and its famous hushpuppies will survive in a new incarnation, similar to what happened with Fat Man’s.
In 2008, businessman Brad Usry shuttered the Fat Man’s retail store on Laney Walker Boulevard, started by his late father, Horace Usry Sr., in 1948, but kept the brand name alive with the popular Fat Man’s Cafe at Enterprise Mill.
Fulcher’s daughter, Tiffany Hagerty, recently opened her own version of T’s on Georgia Avenue in North Augusta. The small location that is primarily for to-go orders and catering offers many of the same recipes that made the original location famous.
Fulcher could not be reached for further comment.
Scott Hudson is the Senior Reporter for The Augusta Press. Reach him at scott@theaugustapress.com
