The City Cafe at 901 Carter St. will close its doors June 26 with plans for a new location this fall, after 20 years of serving the downtown area.
The restaurant's closing comes as a result of the Hotel Bo, formerly the Days Inn Rivergate Hotel, deciding not to renew the restaurant's lease, the restaurant owner said.
City Cafe owner Lee Epstein said in a statement that decision was a "complete surprise" after the restaurant's many years at the location.
"Part of my soul is in this place," Epstein said in a telephone interview Monday. "So it's hard to walk away from it."
According to Epstein's statement, the Hotel Bo decided not to renew City Cafe's lease because the restaurant's concept does not fit in with the vision of the hotel's future.
The Hotel Bo is a part of Chattanooga's West Village, and its redesign came after the developers of the West Village acquired the property back in 2021 along with the Chattanooga Marriott Downtown and the Hotel Indigo Chattanooga-Downtown. Since its inception, the West Village has become an upscale social hub for food, drinks and shopping in Chattanooga's downtown.
Epstein stated he attempted to get an extension on the lease to stay open through the summer, but the Hotel Bo denied the extension.
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Work is underway to build a new City Cafe at 511 Broad St., next to the Mayan Kitchen, which Epstein co-owns.
The new location, according to Epstein, will be twice the size of the Carter Street location, with more seating for customers and a larger bakery to make more of the restaurant's desserts. It will still operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week like the other City Cafe locations.
Unlike the downtown location, the new City Cafe will not have a bar, although it will still serve beer.
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Despite a change in address and size, Epstein said the new City Cafe will remain the same place Chattanoogans have come to know during the past 20 years. He said the restaurant will have the same food, same cakes, and hopefully, the same ambiance as the Carter Street location.
The new City Cafe on Broad Street will not be ready for business until Sept. 1, Eptsein's statement said. The City Cafe locations on Lee Highway and in Cleveland are still open.