Mac’s Kitchen and Bar has found a new location at 1320 Dodds Ave.
Last New Year’s Eve, as the clock struck midnight and glasses clinked with champagne toasts, Brian McDonald and Jess Revels were closing the end of a chapter.
Their beloved restaurant, Mac’s Kitchen and Bar, was closing at the McFarland Avenue location in Rossville due to increases in rent. McDonald and Revels told their community this was not goodbye, just see you later.
(READ MORE: Restaurant Scene: Mac’s Kitchen and Bar to temporarily close and relocate)
“We were gut-wrenched, honestly, leaving there,” McDonald said while we chatted in the new home. “We did our best to make it work out there. Landlord’s price was too high. We just couldn’t float it.”
So folks were thrilled when the team announced via Instagram plans to relocate to a charming 1920s home in the Ridgedale neighborhood.
THE LOCATION
Their lease will start in May, and they will begin renovations. Revels and McDonald walked through the space — which was a studio for therapists and physical therapists — pointing out changes to come. The main front wall is coming down to make way for the bar, inviting people to sit and drink by the cozy fireplace. Then in the back room, banquets will line the wall underneath big windows and chandeliers. The other back rooms will be turned into the kitchen. Pending renovations, the plan is to open this summer.
They are also launching a fundraiser that will run for a month. The fundraiser will include perks like annual founders dinners and more.
“(We want to) make the community feel like they’re as much a part of it as we believe they are,” McDonald said.
The community has already rallied behind them in support. The owners of Barking Legs Theater, Ann Law and Dr. Bruce Kaplan, are renting the space to McDonald and Revels and have been working to make sure they have everything they need to succeed.
Gabrielle Chevalier, the vice president of the Ridgedale Community Association, said by phone how excited she was to have Mac’s in the neighborhood.
“It’s especially worth celebrating that local landlords and a local business in need of a space were able to unite and bring something really unique to the area,” she said
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Chevalier went on to explain that the Ridgedale community is very intentional about working together and emphasizes the importance of knowing your neighbors.
“They’ve (McDonald and Revels) been really committed to Ridgedale for a long time,” she said, “and so we’re really excited to see them finally get to open and celebrate the space they’ve wanted for quite some time.”
Chevalier said it’s “proof of how well Chattanooga’s ecosystems can work together … from farmers to business owners, to landlords in the neighborhood, it’s a perfect example of what local communities can be and create together.”
The neighborhood hosts Barking Legs Theatre, the second location of Sleepyhead Coffee, Barque BBQ, Lo Main and Yellow Racket Records.
HEAVY TRANSITION
This interim period has not been easy for Revels and McDonald.
“Brian’s mom got even more sick,” Revels said. “We lost her last month. Literally a year and a month after his dad passed.”
McDonald said it was a “heavy” transition.
“We’re just now coming to grips with what’s happened in the last year,” he added.
Revels laughed that she was a little manic the first month after Mac’s closed.
“I was mosaicing tables with broken pieces of plates saved from restaurant, painting old wine bottles,” she said. “‘What do I do with myself and my hands?’ I’ve worked in the food industry since I was 13.”
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Now they’ve found their rhythm and said they feel more motivated than ever. They’re looking forward to all the details of dinner service. They miss those pre-shift jitters, the calm before the storm. The restaurant industry is in their blood.
“You have to want it, and it was to be everything,” Revels said about the business.
They’ve been in touch with farmers with whom they have longtime friendships. When asked why it’s worth it — all the long hours, the razor thin margins, the exhausting work mentally and physically, McDonald answered right away.
“It’s creating a moment for somebody,” he said. “When you have people over for dinner, being able to let people sit and unwind and lay down their burdens and experience a moment around food is the only reason I love this. Creating moments, those food memories stay with you for a lifetime.”
BIGGER THAN US
McDonald and Revels are going to continue working with local farms and produce, but they’ve gone a step further.
“What we’ve always wanted to do was to farm and supply the restaurant,” McDonald said. “That was always the dream. That’s the storybook ending.”
It looks like they may have that storybook ending. The team was able convince their main supplier/farmer to move his production to a farm here in Chattanooga, so he will be in close proximity to Mac’s, and they’ll be able to work directly with him growing food that will end up on plates of happy diners.
By bringing their own farmer, Revels said he and McDonald just changed the farmer’s life and did so potentially for a generation or more.
“We were waiting for the perfect one (property),” McDonald said, “the one that felt bigger than us, like we were stepping into something that was going to be bigger than what we created.”
Contact Lyric Lewin at llewin@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6215.