After several months of construction delays, Parkway Pourhouse restaurant and bar opened this week in the new Cameron Harbor development.
The restaurant, at 801 Riverfront Parkway, is the newest venture of local restaurateurs Dustin Choate, owner of Tremont Tavern and co-owner at Feed Co. Table & Tavern, and Miguel Morales, co-owner at Feed Co. Table & Tavern and 1885 Grill. George Lewallen, general manager at Tremont Tavern, is the majority owner and will be running the new spot just outside of downtown.
A little more refined than Tremont Tavern, Lewallen said the restaurant serves traditional New Orleans cuisine with some “local flair.” It offers the atmosphere of a pub with a 1,000-square-foot patio outside the 4,200-square-foot restaurant.
Lewallen said the business partners were approached two years ago by developers about doing a concept similar to their existing restaurants. At the time, there were about 500 people living in Cameron Harbor, he said.
“The opportunity to be essentially downtown without being downtown geographically and to have about 2,000 people living within half a mile of the front door was pretty much a no brainer,” Lewallen said.
Parkway Pourhouse is one of the first restaurants to open in the area, and it sits right across the street from the new Chattanooga Whiskey riverfront headquarters. There is both on-site parking and off-street parking available.
Nashville-based Evergreen Real Estate is leading the development of Cameron Harbor. The development is a mix of for-sale homes, condos and rentals as well as retail space. Developer Aaron White described the three business partners as “first-class operators” of other local restaurants.
“Quite frankly, when they expressed interest we thought it was a perfect fit,” White said. “We turned down some other folks to get them in there. We feel privileged to have them.”
White said they are currently looking for other prospective retailers to move into the Exchange at Cameron Harbor buildings. Right now, he said a sandwich shop, coffee spot and bar have all shown interest.
Parkway Pourhouse is open from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. seven days a week, but to start out, it won’t open until about 3 or 4 p.m. on Mondays. Lewallen said they hired about 40 employees, and in the future, they might also give customers the opportunity to purchase growlers to carry out since there will be several residents in the area.
For more information, visit facebook.com/parkwaypourhouse.
Contact staff writer Allison Shirk at ashirk@timesfreepress.com, @Allison_Shirk or 423-757-6651.