Two new restaurants are coming to Chattanooga.
Riverport Grille is being opened by John McClellan who also owns Mike’s Hole in the Wall pub on Cherokee Boulevard, and Kane Weathers. The new restaurant is in the previous location of Blue Water Grill, 224 Broad Street. Riverport Grill will be a full-service, family-friendly restaurant with the capacity to seat over 200 people. The sales are expected to be 70 percent from food and 30 percent from beer and liquor sales. The business has its own training standards for alcohol sales Mr. Weathers told the Beer Board and all servers will have a server’s cards from the Tennessee Alcoholic Beverage Commission.
El Tapatio Mexican Restaurant, 7601 East Brainerd Road, Unit 133, is owned by Jose Manuel Zaragoga who also owns La Altena on East Brainerd Road. At the beer board meeting on Thursday, He was approved for a beer license for the new business. Servers will ask for IDs to confirm age at the tables, he said.
The newest Food City will soon open at 1375 Broad St. Both a consumer and carry-out beer license were approved for this location. Owner and CEO of K-V-A-T Food Stores Steve Smith said the grocery store will be a different concept than the other stores in the area. It will be 53.000 square feet and will have a large fresh area, he said. The building was designed to conform to Chattanooga’s Form Based Code and will have townhomes built behind the store. On the 13th Street side, there will be store front businesses, that he said are now all already leased. The grocery store will be the first to open and the retail stores will open in Phase 2.
McCamey Animal Center was approved for a special beer permit for “Paw Palooza” that was held on Saturday. Inga Fricke, executive director of McCamey said last year, this was voted one of Chattanooga’s best of the best local events of the year. This year she hopes to have over 1,000 people attend the activities. The event took up the entire Coolidge Park. There were several rescue groups present and other animal shelters, 70 vendors, food trucks and the Chattanooga Zoo doing demonstrations. There also were dog agility contests. There was a beer garden thanks to partners who donated and served the beer. These partners were Chattanooga Brewing, Naked River Brewing, Hutton and Smith and Five Witts.
The Dream will hold “Stop the Violence Summer Fest” at 2308 Glass Street on June 29 from 3:30 to 7:30 p.m. The event will take place in the fenced parking lot as well as inside The Dream bar. Licensed security guards will be present at the outside gate.