Where to find Chattanooga-area restaurant supply stores

Chattanooga-area foodies can find four restaurant supply stores that also cater to residential customers.

The first in town, Chattanooga Restaurant Supply, was started as a food distribution co-op in 1948 by six restaurant owners. It has since grown to more than 100 member owners, says General Manager Bobbie Swearingen.

“It’s really a cool concept that the restaurant owners are really the owners (of the supply store). We work for them,” she says of the store’s staff.

Chattanooga Restaurant Supply’s member restaurants can be found all around the region, from Blue Ridge, Chatsworth and Ellijay in Northwest Georgia to Athens, Dunlap and Copperhill in Southeast Tennessee to countless cities in between.