Munchies Lab gets approval to reopen in Columbia County

EVANS, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) – Munchies Lab, a restaurant known for its mixture of cuisines – and risqué waffles – will be reopening in Columbia County, its owner says.

The restaurant was previously on Walton Way in Augusta, but the owner said a decline in traffic and lack of space in the location influenced a decision to close in September.

However, the business posted on Facebook over the weekend that it has received the green light to reopen in Columbia County.

The post doesn’t say where the restaurant will open, but says it’s only waiting for its storefront sign and menus.

The owner estimates opening in the second week of January “if everything goes as planned.”

The restaurant has been known to question the norms in various ways, including serving waffles that look like genitals and with a menu title suggesting the shape isn’t a coincidence.

Included in the Facebook post is a scan of the business license from the county, which includes various rules.

Columbia County’s licensing rules have been in the spotlight before.

The Stay Social restaurant in Evans Towne Center was forced out of business after losing its liquor license. The county said the business made less than 50% of its revenues from food sales, which is against county rules.

The business had hosted a handful of drag shows before running afoul of the county, and some questioned whether that was the true reason for the loss of the license.

“There are bars operating all over Columbia County, and they’ve never been audited, and everyone knows the big open secret: The drag show comes up, and all of a sudden, this bar loses, not suspended for a day, not fined, not ‘Let’s take your license for three days and see if you can jack up your sales three percent’, they just take it, and it smacks a First Amendment problem,” Stay Social’s attorney Cary Wiggins said.

For example, another business didn’t lose its license, even though its kitchen reportedly consisted of an air fryer and a microwave oven.

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