Augusta Eats: Popular area steakhouse opens a meat market and more next door

The name is familiar, but you won't forget the taste.

Residents around Augusta for the past 30 years or so should remember Mallys Bagels 'n Grits. The popular breakfast destination premiered at 2742 Washington Rd., moved downtown about a decade later, switched from in-house dining to catering only and quietly faded away.

The Mallys name is back. This time, it's at 2860 Washington Rd. as Mallys Market.

Henry Scheer, a cofounder of the popular TBonz Steakhouses in Augusta and Evans, opened the original Mallys in 1994, eight years after helping open the Augusta TBonz at 2856 Washington Rd.

He discovered that the steakhouse customers enjoyed the cuts of meat so much, they would routinely ask Scheer if they could buy a filet mignon or a New York strip to grill at home.

"People always want to buy our meats," Scheer told The Augusta Chronicle in January 2023. "Some of our local customers, we'll like sell them a loin or something, but then we thought, 'Well, we can sell it to the public 'cause we buy such good meat.'"

The result is Mallys Market, a mélange of concepts under one roof ? a meat market; a sit-down café; a grab-and-go food stop; an events space for up to 50 people; and a specialty items gift shop.

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Available smoked meats and butcher cuts of raw meat include six types of steak and bone-in pork chops. All beef is 100% Angus.

Mallys Market's menu of sandwiches and hot-bar items changes slightly from day to day. Pay special attention to Smokin' Saturdays, when half-pound plates of smoked brisket, smoked ribs, smoked turkey or pulled pork give customers a brush of the master's touch that cooks TBonz meats to a perfect turn.

The grab-and-go sandwiches are tasty, but the best grabs give customers the familiar tastes TBonz patrons have come to love. The biggest containers for the buzzworthy she-crab soup hold one quart, but you won't be stopped if you try to buy two.

Another asked-after specialty is TBonz's homemade salad dressings, which are now available at Mallys Market by the bottle, in ranch, honey mustard and Thousand Island flavors. Perhaps the best, which deserves to be set apart from the rest, is the bleu cheese dressing.

The renovated building at 2860 Washington Rd. is more than 40 years old. Le Chateau Great Steaks opened there in 1978. For a short time it became Tolliver’s Restaurant in 1981, then 2860 Top O’ The Line in 1982. In 1987 Michael Jones reopened it as Michael’s Fine Food and Entertainment and featured a piano bar. In 2005 it became the Washington Hall catering facility as part of TBonz.

Mallys Market is open from 11:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays.

This article originally appeared on Augusta Chronicle: Augusta Eats: Rally to Mallys for fresh meats, favorite deli foods