Rossville’s Old South Restaurant stays busy in the mornings and afternoons with regulars dining at the counter or seated at tables throughout.
“Our restaurant is kind of like Cheers, where everybody knows your name,” said Old South owner Karen Kay. “When a customer walks in the door, we greet them with their name. A lot of our customers are repeat customers and eat with us twice a day. Some of the men that come in for breakfast are retired and they return for lunch.”
At 6:45 a.m., a group of six retired men known as Club 22 comes in to eat before going out to play a round of golf. Later in the morning, William Cooke, of Rossville, comes by to order vegetables for brunch. The Heartley family stops in for brunch too. Mary Heartley orders lunch, while her husband Junior orders breakfast.
The regular customers all agree that Old South has the “best coffee in the world.”
The good food and family atmosphere contribute to repeat award wins for the restaurant. Old South was recently named the 2014 Chattanooga Times Free Press “Best of the Best” for Best Early Bird Dinner, Best Meal for the Money and Best Meal Under $10. The restaurant was also a finalist for Best Country Cooking, Best Meat and Three, Best Breakfast and Best Lunch.
“We’ve been a finalist for the Best Breakfast for three years,” Kay said. “We want to win that category so bad.”
The restaurant has a lot of top-sellers.
“People love our fresh sausage,” Kay said in regards to customers’ breakfast favorites. “We get it from a local processing plant and we hand-pat it. Our bacon is a thick cut. And our country ham is a favorite. Our breakfast cook has been here for 10 years. She knows how people want their eggs when they walk in.”
For lunch, patrons like to order burgers, she said. Old South uses fresh ground chuck delivered daily that is then hand-patted, giving the burger a better texture, said Kay.
“We can attribute success to our staff here,” she said. “We have very loyal employees with very low turnover. People here have a familiar face serving them. They feel comfortable and more at home with someone familiar.”
Other lunchtime best-sellers include homemade meatloaf, turkey and dressing, marinated chicken tenders, fried okra and coleslaw.
“We make from-scratch cream potatoes,” Kay said, adding that they are also a customer favorite. “We peel potatoes and boil them every day.”
She and her husband Stan have been running the restaurant for 16 years. Stan Kay even designed the logo that features a barn and wheel image.
Located at 796 Chickamauga Ave. in Rossville, the restaurant can be reached at 706-866-8933, oldsouthrestaurant.com or by finding “Old South Restaurant” on Facebook, where daily specials are posted.