The owners of Solé Augusta are gearing up to introduce a new concept on the Broad Street corridor.
The new venture, Fifth & Fire, is to share many similarities with its predecessor five blocks up Broad. Solé had some 11,000 square feet of space renovated in the new building to include a patio and sprawling indoor and outdoor dining and lounging areas.
This includes a kitchen complete with 60 square feet of cooking space and two smokers, to accommodate regular patrons as well as catering customers. Solé offers catering services in-house, arranging buffets and hosting parties onsite.
The menu boasts a bounty of barbecue selections—pulled pork or chicken, beef brisket, ribs and sausage—served alongside classic sides like macaroni and cheese, baked beans and collard greens.
Preparing food to be delivered to businesses and events will prove a primary difference between Solé and Fifth & Fire, alongside the menu’s heavy emphasis on briskets and butts rather than sushi and steaks, notes general manager Dylan Pope.
“I think that we get our success from doing a lot of things the same,” Pope said. “Our leadership is the same, our managers are the same… everybody at the top, they know our culture and what we do, and that’s why we’re also successful at Solé, too.”
The Solé team bought the property—at the block of broad intersected with Monument Street—in 2017, and were preparing to develop the new restaurant in 2019, though those plans were interrupted by COVID, explains Pope.
“Honestly, Solé did great after COVID,” he said. “We were very blessed, actually, for how Solé has done. But we’re also all about timing and making sure that we do it the right way.”
Renovations began in January of this year, and the new spot is ready to launch this weekend. A gathering for family and friends on Friday evening will precede a soft opening of the eatery on Saturday, from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m.
Operating from Wednesday through Saturday, each week, the smokehouse will gradually acclimate itself to customers downtown until a grand opening on January 17. On the first Wednesday in February, Pope says, the restaurant will start offering lunches, leaning in to the daytime business crowd.
“We’re wanting to give businesses another option for lunches, and also to be able to help develop this side [of Broad Street],” he said. “We just kind of want to be an adding and adding force to it.”
Fifth & Fire, which will open Saturday, Dec. 14 at 4 p.m., is located at 551 Broad St. Solé Augusta is at 1033 Broad St.
Skyler Q. Andrews is a staff reporter for The Augusta Press. Reach him at skyler@theaugustapress.com.
