Located in Market Street at Heath Brook
GOOD EATS: EGGS UP GRILL
‘Good Food & Reasonable Prices’ By Rick Allen • Photos By John Jernigan
Eggs Up Grill may be a chain, but its convenient location on SR 200 in the center of everything means you’ll probably be swinging by before you know it.
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t seems that Brad Harper has a knack for finding emerging food concepts. First it was Zaxby’s. He brought the first Zaxby’s Chicken Fingers & Buffalo Wings to Ocala to the lot on Southwest 27th Avenue across from Goodwill near the Paddock Mall. That was nearly 20 years ago. As I recall, he told me back then that he encountered a Zaxby’s in—Georgia, I think—and immediately bought into the concept. Now there are at least half-a-dozen Zaxby’s eateries scattered around Ocala and Marion County today. It’s almost déjà vu—or “eggsa vu,” if you will. He encountered an Eggs Up Grill, considered by FSR (Full-Service
OCALA’S GOOD LIFE retirement redefined
Restaurants) magazine to be one of the top emerging chains, in Georgia (where else?) and again bought into the concept. “I loved the warm, welcome, and attentive service the restaurant had provided,” Harper said in a 2019 report on 1851franchise.com. “It encompassed all the feel-good words, and the food was terrific as well.” As 2019 was closing, Harper’s Eggs Up Grill was opening. This is the first Eggs Up in Florida. A second Florida link opened not long ago in Riverview. According to the Eggs Up website, there are 41 units throughout the Southeast and another 12-15 are in various stages of hatching this year. The 1851franchise.com report indicates that
