NEWS

Yelp puts Augusta restaurant on list of top 100 places in U.S. to eat

Miguel Legoas
mlegoas@augustachronicle.com
Jackie M’s & Son’s co-owner Clinton McCalla Jr., left, and cook Russell Smyre III, RIGHT, working behind the grill during Thursday night dinner rush. [MIGUEL LEGOAS/THE AUGUSTA CHRONICLE]

Philadelphia native Allyson Hauptman had not been able to find a true Philly cheesesteak in all of Georgia, let alone Augusta. But, she was hopeful the taste of a Jackie M’s & Son’s cheesesteak would give her that feeling of home again.

She learned of the restaurant after it was recently ranked in Yelp’s top 100 places to eat in America. Jackie M’s & Son’s was at no. 77, has five stars on Yelp and just under five stars on Google and Facebook. The business was born in 2001 from the minds of Jackie McCalla and her husband, Clinton Sr., according to their son, co-owner and operator Clinton McCalla Jr.

"My father’s from Philadelphia, and my mom wanted to open up some type of food business or what not, because she had been in culinary school and she’s been cooking all her life,“ McCalla said. ”My dad suggested, you know, ’Why don’t we do a Philly cheese steak place?’ Because there’s not a lot of them around here, if any at that time.“

The menu boasts a variety of southern and Philadelphia style dishes from cheesesteaks and sandwiches to home-made french fries and desserts. Jackie McCalla said they have always made food with a consistent, quality standard, and the recent burst of publicity will not change that to drive up profits.

“When I first started doing this, we went through all the different types of steak to see what was the best for our customers, not so much what was cheapest,” she said. “It’s an Amoroso roll, which is the bakery is in Philly and that’s what all the cheesesteaks are made of...When we first opened, we weren’t big enough to ship it to us, and so my husband lived in the neighborhood where the bakery was, and somebody emailed him the recipe, and so it took us like six months to get it right.”

After learning the business was run by a son of Philadelphia, Hauptman was encouraged as she waited for her cheesesteak Thursday night.

“The big thing about a Philly cheesesteak is that the grill is almost only used for cheesesteak meat, and from what I can see from them doing back in the kitchen, they’re just knocking out cheesesteaks on one grill, so that’ll help the flavor,” Hauptman said.

Returning customers like Terry Stallings of North Augusta are proud of the business’s success.

“I had the chicken philly and the jerk sauce, that’s a little bit more spicier, I’ve been coming here off and on,” Stallings said. “It was great, it’s how I expect as always. I’m just glad it’s their season to boom.”

Jackie’s M’s & Son is located at 3308 Milledgeville Road and currently open Tuesday through Saturday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and from 5 to 8 p.m.

Slideshow:Yelp’s top 100 places to eat in 2020