SideTrack Restaurant, restaurateur Lawton Haygood's latest - and last - addition to the Chattanooga area's restaurant scene, opens for business today in Hixson.
Tonight's opening comes after four trial runs in which people were invited to eat free so SideTrack's staff could get the hang of the restaurant in a renovated space at 3514 Hixson Pike near Lupton Drive at the site of what was built as a Huddle House and used by two subsequent diners that went under: Hillbilly's and The Hixson Pike Diner.
"An hour into the [first] night, we found out they wired our dishwasher wrong," said Haygood, who made his mark on the Chattanooga area's restaurant scene as the creator of Sugar's Ribs, the Boathouse Rotisserie & Raw Bar and Canyon Grill, an upscale destination on the far side of Lookout Mountain.
"By Saturday night, it ran extremely well," he said. "Best opening crew I've ever had - and I've had a few."
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SideTrack’s initial hours are 4 p.m. to 10 p.m. from Tuesday through Sunday (and closed Mondays).
SideTrack restaurant is seen at 3514 Hixson Pike on Monday, Oct. 2, in Chattanooga, Tenn.The space has been completely remodeled and expanded. It will seat about 140 people, serve wine, liquor, beer and food cooked by wood fire - a signature of Haygood's restaurants. Haygood declined to say how much he's invested in the building, which he owns.
One of the restaurant's specialties is pizza grilled on a wood-fired grill. SideTrack also will have rotisserie chicken - that will be finished inside a wood-fired pizza oven.
Grilled trout also will be on the menu, with the tongue-in-cheek name, "flying fish," because that's sort of what it'll look like.
"We're just running a very simple, small menu," Haygood said. "We'll slowly add to it."
The "flying fish" and other items were a hit during the trial runs, he said.
"Even at soft opening everything done well. Fun menu, great design, friendly service, free on-premise parking. Go!" wrote Chattanooga resident Joseph Fidelibus on SideTrack's Facebook page.
SideTrack is next to a railroad track, which explains its name.
Haygood, 73, said the Hixson restaurant he's spent three to four years developing will be the last new restaurant he opens.
SideTrack's initial hours are 4 to 10 p.m. from Tuesday through Sunday and closed Mondays.
Contact staff writer Tim Omarzu at tomarzu@timesfreepress.com or www.facebook.com/MeetsForBusiness or on Twitter @meetforbusiness or 423-757-6651.