Chow time: Retired Army major honors military veterans with comfort-food mecca in Evans

Rally Point Grille is recruiting a small army.

The Evans restaurant opened in June 2023 as a friendly, respectful tribute to the men and women who serve and have served in the U.S. military.

Turns out the restaurant was just the beginning.

For more than a year, Rally Point has established a beachhead to boost community activity. Live music fills the air on weekends - pop on Saturdays, jazz on Sundays and karaoke on Tuesdays. Games of live trivia and music bingo repeat weekly. It's even become a collection point for blood drives and back-to-school supplies.

Rally Point is living up to its name, taken from the military term for a place for members of a unit to gather and regain strength.

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The restaurant's veteran theme is no gimmick. It's authentic to its core - or perhaps its Corps.

Marine Corps veterans Ralph and Carrie Roeger founded Semper Fi Grille in metro Atlanta in 2015 to honor their fellow veterans, active military and first-responders.

That got the attention of Kerry O'Neal, who retired as a U.S. Army major in 2012. The Roegers expressed interest in expanding the pro-veteran concept into a franchise, and O'Neal seized the opportunity to open a veteran-friendly restaurant in the backyard of Fort Eisenhower, one of the Army's busiest installations.

If the restaurant's name doesn't clue you in to its theme, the decor should. Combat webbing hangs from the ceiling. Decades' worth of wall photos show the many faces of military recruits in and out of action. And each order of fries comes in aluminum canteen drinking cups familiar to every soldier.

The menu is American-style comfort food with military flourish. The fried pickle spears are Breaded Bayonets. The barbecue-glazed meatloaf is the Medevac Meatloaf. Rally Point's 12 types of burgers include a simple bacon burger, with a choice of cheese, that's named for Lance Cpl. Squire "Skip" Wells, a Georgian who was one of four Marines killed in a 2015 mass shooting at the Navy and Marine Corps Reserve Center in Chattanooga, Tenn.

Rally Point also honors veterans by assisting fellow entrepreneurs. The restaurant's epic Bloody Marys are made using Heroes Vodka, a Tennessee distillery founded by a Marine veteran honoring two fallen comrades.

The many specialty beers at the bar are from the Service Brewing Co., founded in 2014 in Savannah by West Point graduate Army veteran Kevin Ryan. The newest flavor, unveiled earlier this summer, is the "Ooh! Aah! Bomb Pop Sour," with fruity tastes of blue raspberry, cherry and lime.

If you're a Taylor Swift fan, Friday the 13th might be your lucky day in September. That's when Rally Point will hold its Swiftie Night karaoke contest. Desserts are half-price, and participants are encouraged to dress up.

Rally Point Grille is at 4446 Washington Rd. in Evans, in the Liberty Square shopping center across from the Evans Walmart Supercenter.

This article originally appeared on Augusta Chronicle: Love good food? Love your country? Visit Columbia County's Rally Point