Fast fact
Shuford’s had operated for 33 years at the foot of Signal Mountain, according to the restaurant.
Shuford's barbecue restaurant on Signal Mountain Road, which closed after a mudslide leveled a nearby business last month, has found a new location where it will temporarily operate.
Plans are to reopen in the former site of the Southern Traditions Restaurant at 3224 Dayton Blvd. in Red Bank, said Madison Davis, daughter of Shuford's business owner Jeff Davis.
She said Southern Traditions has moved to another location at 2601 Dayton Blvd. Southern Traditions has changed its name to Red Bank Family Diner, according to that eatery.
The former Southern Traditions restaurant in Red Bank is being converted to a temporary home for Shuford's barbecue restaurant.Davis said plans are for Shuford's to be in operation at the new location next week. Shuford's owner expects to continue to look for a permanent location for that eatery, she said.
Earlier this month, the city of Chattanooga posted a sign on Shuford's longtime location on Signal Mountain Road, calling it a "dangerous" structure after the mudslide hit a Subway next door.
Davis said Shuford's had operated for 33 years at the foot of Signal Mountain. But, she said, the Dayton Boulevard restaurant site opening up was "perfect timing" for Shuford's.
Davis said the kitchen is a little bigger than inside the old Shuford's location, though personnel may continue to smoke the barbecue at the Signal Mountain Road facility with the OK from the city.
An employee of Shuford's Smokehouse looks on after an mudslide last month destroyed the Subway restaurant next door on Signal Mountain Road. / Staff file photo by Doug Strickland"It's not open to the public," she said about the old facility. At this point, Davis said, there's not a timetable as to how long Shuford's will operate on Dayton Boulevard.
To have stayed at the old restaurant location, Davis said that would have required the building of a retaining wall. However, that doesn't appear feasible, she said, noting the last estimate the restaurant received was about $400,000.
City spokeswoman Richel Albright said earlier that both the city and Hamilton County looked at the bank and felt it was unstable and had the potential to jeopardize the safety of the public.
She said the city's Land Development Office issued an order that the building was "a dangerous structure" in accordance with the building code. The office has the authority to pull occupancy if and when a building or its surrounding is declared dangerous, Albright said.
A former Vietnamese restaurant on Dayton Boulevard in Red Bank has been converted into the Red Bank Family Diner, formerly the Southern Traditions located a couple of block away.Late last month, the mudslide after heavy rains caused the Subway to collapse. While the restaurant normally opened for breakfast at 8 a.m., no one was in the building when it collapsed at around 9:30 a.m.
The business' owner, Owen Megahee, had closed its doors on Friday at around noon after a tree fell on an employee's car.
"I saw part of the hill trying to come down, so I was like, 'Let's get everybody out of here,'" he said.
Officials with the Chattanooga Fire Department said his decision potentially saved lives.
Contact Mike Pare at mpare@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6318. Follow him on Twitter @MikePareTFP.