It’s a drizzly Thursday at the City Café Diner on Lee Highway, and business is steady. An order of avocado toast, topped with fried eggs, is a sign that the breakfast crowd is lingering, while burgers are bound for later arrivals.
Servers bustle among the tables delivering brimming plates and bottomless refills of coffee and tea. Towering cakes can be seen from across the room for anyone craving something sweet. Neon signs wish customers “Welcome” and “Thank You” as they enter and leave.
The space is contemporary but classic, the model of a modern American diner, a restaurant concept that originated in 1872 as a horse-drawn lunch wagon. Around the start of the 20th century, these homestyle restaurants became the stationary business model we know today. The Art Deco glamour that defined them in the 1920s dimmed during the Great Depression, but even then, they offered the comfort of filling food without a hefty price tag. And their extended hours reset the tradition of a fixed mealtime.
That philosophy lives on at City Café, says Lindsay Alcantara, a manager of the Lee Highway location. As she watches plates coming from the kitchen, she says she’s never surprised to see the breakfast special cross the counter, no matter the time of day.
Enough for a shared meal for two — or one ravenous appetite — the plattered feast, offering two pancakes, three eggs, two pieces of sausage, two pieces of bacon and the choice of home fries or grits, is a house specialty and customer favorite, “hands down,” she says. “It’s good food and plenty of it.”
City Café has more than 300 items on the menu, and any dish can be ordered at any time.
“We serve breakfast all day, but you can get everything all day,” says Alcantara. “If you come in at 7 a.m. and want chicken Parmesan, that’s fine, too.”
The ample, all-hours menu means that the cooks work magic, she says. “They can put out an omelet one minute, chicken souvlaki the next and a lasagna without missing a beat.”
City Café recently revamped the menu to make it more “contemporary and community-focused,” she explains. It includes the addition of plant-based Impossible burgers and other healthful selections, such as turkey sausage, steel-cut oats, Greek yogurt and avocado toast.
“The choices reflect where we are now, rather than where we were five years ago,” Alcantara says. “You need to do that to stay relevant and respectful of what your customers want.”
The Lee Highway location is one of three such diners owned by Lee Epstein and Jacob Lemus. The original location in downtown Chattanooga is relocating to 511 Broad St., and the third is just off Interstate 75 on 25th Street in Cleveland, Tennessee.
(READ MORE: City Café prepares to open new downtown site)
Alcantara says the clientele at the Lee Highway location, which is tucked into a Best Western Heritage Inn, includes long-haul truckers who schedule overnights at the hotel as they pass through town as well as neighborhood families with young children who appreciate the casual atmosphere. There are breakfast regulars whose favorite dishes are so familiar that the servers and cooks know their orders by heart.
“And we get ball teams who play tournaments [in Chattanooga] every year,” Alcantara says. “They stay in this hotel so they can eat here.”
Though no longer a 24/7 establishment, the full-service restaurant, which can seat 100 or so customers, is open from 6:30 or 7 a.m. to midnight or later, depending on the day.
“It’s not too fancy,” she says. “You don’t feel like you have to dress up to go out to eat, although you can.”
For more information, go to thecitycafemenu.com.
Your Table’s Ready
Here are a few more places around Chattanooga that have a casual, diner vibe.
— Dub’s Place: 4408 Dayton Blvd., Red Bank. The colorful decor is a throwback to the 1950s. Hearty burgers and ice cream are staples. 423-875-3151, Facebook
— Haven’s Diner: 4817 Highway 58. “Why cook when you have Haven’s?” reads a message at the top of the menu board, which regularly lists at least 10 meats and a dozen sides as daily specials. 423-468-3829, Facebook
— Legion Cafe: 540 Park City Road, Rossville. Operated by the American Legion Battlefield Post 214, the restaurant offers deli sandwiches and meat-and-two plates. Saturdays are breakfast only. 706-866-3992, Facebook
— Lillie Mae’s Place: 4712 Dayton Blvd., Red Bank. This homey Southern restaurant serves family recipes at breakfast, lunch and dinner. 423-875-8999, Facebook
— Wimpie’s Country Restaurant: 9826 Dayton Pike, Soddy-Daisy. A fixture across from City Hall, the restaurant opens at 5 a.m. six days a week with home cooking for breakfast, lunch and dinner. 423-332-6201, wimpiesrestaurant.com