Chattanooga Choo Choo’s old maintenance shed now houses Hotel Chalet’s new restaurant, Elsie’s Daughter

Repurposing is a big thing in architecture today, and that’s what Chloe Wright and Ryan Smith have done with the opening of their second restaurant, Elsie’s Daughter. The couple also opened Rosecomb on Barton Avenue in the summer of 2021.

Elsie’s is located in a building tucked behind the new Hotel Chalet and its refurbished train cars at the Chattanooga Choo Choo. It’s housed in a small building, once a maintenance shed, that in past years may have gone unnoticed by visitors to the complex, which includes lodging and entertainment venues. But now, just like the hotel has been given a new life, so has that old building once housing the things that made the Choo Choo hum. It’s now a restaurant, Elsie’s Daughter, that embraces the flavors and spirit of Appalachia with a taste of French-Belgian cuisine.