Maria and Angel Chavez, formerly of Miami, are the third owners of the popular Mudpie Coffeehouse and Restaurant on Frazier Avenue. Click to enlarge.
photo by Hannah Campbell
As September came to a close, Mudpie Coffeehouse and Restaurant passed into Angel and Maria Chavez’s eager hands to begin the next leg of life on Frazier Avenue. The Chavezes want to keep the established atmosphere and menu and just add a bit of their own Miami-Cuban hospitality. Wednesday Cuban Night, anyone?
The new Mudpie features the existing menu, monkey hips and all, and they’ll add a few Cuban sandwiches and sweets. Thursdays still offer half-priced wine, but the new Mudpie drink is a made-from-scratch mojito with a secret ingredient. The Chavezes offer the Mudpie’s floor space to local musicians and wall space to local artists.
Mr. and Mrs. Chavez moved to Chattanooga only two weeks ago from Miami, where they have lived almost all their lives. They said that Miami’s noise, congestion and expense was killing them. They decided to scrap the Miami real estate business they owned and come to Chattanooga to do something more laid back…like running a restaurant.
“I told my wife, ‘If I leave Miami, the only place I’ll go is Chattanooga,’” says Mr. Chavez. Their family has been visiting friends here for five years. Mr. Chavez was involved with a popular restaurant and bar in Miami’s Coconut Grove neighborhood and said he’s always wanted to open his own place.
Mrs. Chavez says when she and her husband saw the “for sale” ad in the newspaper they thought it was too good to be true and took their time calling the realtor. The Chavezes popped in with the realtor on a Thursday night when the place was hopping.
“We were very impressed,” says Mrs. Chavez. “The atmosphere is what sold us.” And it didn’t hurt that Frazier Avenue reminds her of Coconut Grove.
“We walked in and fell in love,” said Mr. Chavez. They agree, “It’s us.” She said the old eclectic building and loud colors are perfect for them.
-THE PHILOSOPHY-
That lovable atmosphere was begun by the Mudpie’s first owner, Bridget Huckabay, who bought the building and started the business in 1994 when the North Shore was just beginning to wake up. “Chattanooga hadn’t really started the whole coffeehouse thing yet,” she said.
She and her husband used progressive city smarts they’d acquired in Seattle and Chicago to bring Chattanooga the neighborhood coffee shop - and bar-thing. She says she purposefully ignored the old adage that it’s impossible to be all things to all people and built a place people could and would frequent three times a day.
“I just kind of put together things that I like,” she said of the Mudpie name, mixing true art with “garage sale paintings” and the menu’s monkey hips and rice, a black beans and rice dish she named after a song on a mo-town mix CD played overhead.
Mrs. Huckabay, her husband and their business partner, John Clark, still own the Mudpie building and almost 10 other restaurant and retail spaces along Frazier. “I loved it when I had it,” she said. She said she sold the Mudpie business when the couple found out a baby was on the way in 2003.
Middle owner Howard Reagor bought the Mudpie from Mrs. Huckabay. “She had more funkiness in there than I did,” he said. “I’m an operations person.” Mr. Reagor owned the Mudpie for almost five years and expanded the kitchen, cash register and bar area, added liquor to the menu, and built the popular back deck.
He started free dessert Tuesdays, he expanded the menu with all-American fried food like French fries, burgers and sweet potato fries, and completely reorganized the pizza menu. Half-off wine night was his idea, and he bought new professional coffee equipment.
“It’s the best coffee I’ve ever had,” says Mrs. Chavez.
“I would never change that coffee,” says Mr. Reagor. He picked out the Kaldi gourmet Arabica coffee label. Mr. Reagor sold this year after the Market Street Bridge closing took a toll on him. He said 2005 was fabulous, but then the bridge closed and nothing was ever the same, though he agreed that business was getting better since the bridge reopened.
Mr. Chavez was clear that customer service is his number one priority. “We want our customers to feel like they’re VIP,” he says. He and his wife say the Mudpie is to be as “comfortable, clean and delicious as possible.”
“They’re hands-on owners,” says regular patron Chris Chaffin. She said Mr. Chavez chats with his customers non-stop. “(The Chavezes) love the fact that people love the Mudpie for a reason,” she says.
-NEW MENU AND EVENTS-
“We want to maintain the business as fantastic as it is,” says Mr. Chavez. All the weird cravings remain (Thai pizza, burritos, sweet potato fries) and a few additions are to come, including the Cuban sandwich, the Midnight sandwich and guava “pastelitos,” little Cuban pastries. In two weeks or so the couple plans to add a separate lunch menu and extend the Sunday brunch to 2 p.m.
Half-off wine Thursdays continue with live local music, and new ideas include Cuban Night on Wednesdays and karaoke on Fridays. Cuban Night will offer an extensive Cuban cuisine menu and Cuban music, though dancing is up to you.
Every holiday is an excuse for a party, and this Halloween’s Mudpie costume party is no exception. Mudpie will host fall college football game nights and later NFL game nights, too.
The deck-terrace has TVs, so although smoking won’t be allowed inside after Oct. 1 due to the new Tennessee policy, the terrace allows it and has all the amenities of inside. The parking lot out back is free after 5 p.m.
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“It is a fun way to work. I don’t see it as work,” says Mrs. Chavez. She said her employees make her feel young, and she and Mr. Chavez are glowing with their decision to move. The couple has four children, and Mrs. Chavez says her 12-year-old daughter has adapted well, thanks to Chattanooga’s hospitality, and doesn’t miss Miami at all.
“I’m very pleased,” says Mr. Chavez. “We are buying life and peace.”