Augusta Eats: Family opens downhome restaurant with just a few weeks to plan, prepare
Seizing a business opportunity sometimes means acting fast. Restaurant owners Norman and Rhonda Coleman found that out firsthand.
The Colemans had been running pop-up restaurant tents selling downhome cooking at busy Augusta-area locations. For years, they had thought about opening a fixed-address restaurant, but the timing was never quite right.
Then, in September, the Munchies Lab restaurant at 1022-A Walton Way announced it was closing. Its last day open was Sept. 16.
Coleman’s Lunch Box held its soft opening just five weeks later, a freshly painted logo on the wall.
“We inquired about it, got the call and said we could get it,” Mr. Coleman said. “So we came on in, painting and cleaning and making it into a nice restaurant where you can have a good lunch and enjoy yourselves.”
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“The family just came together,” Mrs. Coleman said. “We just talked everything through and got everything together. It’s been something we’ve been wanting to do for a while”
“We decided to just step out on faith,” Mr. Coleman said. “Put God first and everything will fall in line.”
The Colemans have been together for 20 years and married for nine of them. Mrs. Coleman said one of the reasons she and her husband “connect well together” is the division of labor. He cooks and she bakes.
Mr. Coleman had been an executive chef with other restaurants but decided he wanted to pour his culinary experience into his own eatery.
“It’s something good for the family, for us to start our own business,” Mrs. Coleman said. “There’s nothing wrong with working for someone else, but it’s good when you’re able to work for yourself.”
The food tastes like it sprung from family recipes handed down over generations, but Mr. Coleman said the most popular menu items “I create on my own.”
A big seller is the Chef’s Pasta, which nestles chicken, shrimp and andouille sausage on a bed of pasta covered with Mr. Coleman’s homemade alfredo sauce.
Among the selection of burgers, sandwiches and wraps is the Honey Bun Bacon Cheese Burger, which is exactly like it sounds – the standard hamburger bun is replaced by a large sweet roll.
Mrs. Coleman concentrates on creating cakes and cupcakes, which are available in customer-accessible grab-and-go coolers. The cakes include flavors such as strawberry and German chocolate.
She does not, however, make key lime pies. She doesn’t have to. The big dessert seller at Coleman’s is her key lime cake, a two-layer cake with buttercream frosting and just the right hints of sweetness and citrus tang.
While the Colemans are still getting settled in their new location, they won’t rule out opening another restaurant down the road.
“If it’s God’s plan, we will,” Mr. Coleman said.
This article originally appeared on Augusta Chronicle: Augusta Eats: Wife bakes, husband cooks at new downhome restaurant
