Almost a year after Porker’s Bar-B-Que shuttered its doors on Market Street, a new sandwich shop has opened in its place, giving downtown employees a new week day lunch and breakfast spot to frequent.
Kenny’s Southside Sandwiches opened last week at 1251 Market St. in the spot where Porker’s served barbeque favorites for over 25 years before closing last July because of the rising rent and food costs. Kenny’s owners – Josh Carter and Kenneth Burnap – are familiar with the area and coming from St. John’s Restaurant located right across the street from the their new casual eatery.
Kenneth Burnap (left) and Josh Carter (right) stand behind the counter at their new restaurant, Kenny’s Southside Sandwiches at 1251 Market St. Carter, owner of St. John’s Restaurant directly across the street, and Burnap, a longtime chef at St. John’s, said they are excited to bring a new breakfast and lunch eatery to Market Street and to try something different. The new sandwich shop is open from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday-Saturday.Carter, the owner of St. John’s, and Burnap, a longtime chef at the upscale dinner spot, had been eyeing the space for awhile, they said.
“I like all my restaurants a stone’s throw away,” Carter joked. He is also part-owner of Imbibe, a wine and spirits store along Broad Street.
“There’s a lot of demand for breakfast and lunch on this block,” he added. “It’s incredible how busy Porker’s used to get.”
The new sandwich shop serves breakfast and lunch and is open from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Saturday. The partners said they hope to attract a lot of businesses in the area for breakfast and lunch during the week but are hoping the Southside residents in the area embrace the new spot on the weekends.
Burnap has over 20 years of experience in the culinary field and was doing butchery and prep work at St. John’s. Burnap said he opened The Blue Plate among other restaurants in the area before starting at St. John’s 11 years ago.
Breakfast menu items include dishes like a ham and red eye gravy biscuit, pimento cheese and avocado toast, pancakes, banana bread and classic egg sandwiches. They also offer potato and egg bowls with breakfast prices around $5 or $6 on average.
For lunch, the menu includes a variety of sandwiches, burgers, fried chicken and hot dogs with salads, soups and sides. Menu items average about $9 or $10, and Burnap said most of the ingredients are from local farms either in Chattanooga or around the Southeast.
“We took Kenny’s strengths and put them on display,” Carter said about the menu.
Carter said the first week of being open was promising with the restaurant averaging 90 customers for lunch and 40 for breakfast. The restaurant can hold 75 customers at a time, and Burnap said they plan to provide a patio seating area in the future. The sandwich shop is decorated simply and was designed with the help of Widgets & Stone, a Southside design agency.
“It think it feels like a French cafe in here,” Burnap said.
There are about 15 employees with seven, full-time kitchen staff members and 75 percent of the front-end staff coming over from St. John’s for a day shift, Carter said.
“We’ve always done dinner service, so I’m excited to be doing breakfast and lunch for the first time,” Carter said. “People will be ordering at the counter, but we want them to know they will still get great table service like at St. John’s.”
Kenny’s Southside Sandwiches will also provide online ordering. Breakfast is served from 7 to 11 a.m. and lunch from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. For more information, visit “Kenny’s Southside Sandwiches” on Facebook.
Contact staff writer Allison Shirk at ashirk@timesfreepress.com, @Allison_Shirk or 423-757-6651.