Last month, new and former restaurants opened in Chattanooga along with new training schools, a fashion retailer and even a housing cluster for homeless people in hospice care. In October, manufacturing and freight brokerage business expansions also were announced in the Chattanooga region that collectively will add more than 1,000 new jobs.
Here's what opened, closed and changed names last month:
Opening
- Gordon Food Service. Chattanooga's newest grocery store, the Gordon Food Store on South Broad Street, caters to both wholesale and retail shoppers with its no-membership-fee model.
- 423 Taco. Chuy Esquivel, who has worked in the restaurant industry since age 16, opened 423 Taco on West Eighth Street in the West Village downtown in October. Esquivel said the focus of 423 Taco is on the tacos and the cocktails. The bar features an extensive offering of tequilas and mezcal with a daily happy hour.
- Neighbor. Six years after opening the Wine Down Bistro & Lounge in Ooltewah, Marcus and Georgia Garner are revamping the lounge portion of their Cambridge Square bar and restaurant into a new breakfast, brunch and lunch concept with a Southern flair. The new eatery known as Neighbor is scheduled to open in December and will feature a Southern mix of breakfast favorites and drink options.
- Go Gyro Go. Paco and Maria Fotiadis, who previously operated 2 Crazy Greeks from 2015 to 2019 in Hixson, opened Go Gyro Go as another food truck for two years before opening a brick-and-mortar restaurant last month in East Ridge in the old Fresh Burger Grill location. The menu features the items patrons of 2 Crazy Greeks and the Go Gyro Go food truck have come to expect - gyros, spanakopita, Greek lemon potatoes, salads, falafel and sausage and pepper sandwiches.
- Good Dog. The North Shore restaurant reopened with a new owner. Rock City, which also owns Clumpie's ice cream shops, bought and reopened Good Dog on Frazier Avenue during October.
- Virnig Manufacturing. A Minnesota-based manufacturer of skid steer attachments is retrofitting an abandoned tool and die plant in Pikeville, Tennessee. Virnig Manufacturing Inc. plans to invest $11.6 million to renovate and equip the former Eclipse plant in Pikeville and create 74 jobs. Virnig will fabricate, weld, paint, assemble and ship the same products in the 62,000-square-foot Pikeville plant that it does at its corporate headquarters in Rice, Minnesota.
- Life is Good. Roy and Jacqui Gress, who opened a fashion store known as Mountain Vibes in St. Elmo last year, shifted to South Broad Street downtown with a local outlet selling Life is Good fashion retail shop on Broad Street downtown.
- Chattanooga Construction Center. Gov. Bill Lee led a groundbreaking in October for an $8 million project to retrofit and equip the former Mary Ann Garber elementary school into a construction training facility for both high school and adult students.
- Smart Factory Institute. Aided by state and private grants, the nation's first Smart Factory Institute opened at the Volkswagen Academy where companies will have access to ways to improve manufacturing and advanced technology.
- Welcome Home. The nonprofit agency has provided housing for homeless Chattanoogans at the end of life, along with other hospice patients, in Brainerd since 2015. In October the group opened its new site on Quiet Creek Trail in Chattanooga that includes three houses to house 10 more residents.
Expanding
- Steam Logistics announced plans to create 400 jobs in a nearly $7 million expansion into the historic John Ross Building downtown where the company will shift its headquarters. The third-party logistics company founded in 2012 will expand to the Fourth and Broad street building next door to its existing offices, where it plans to more than double its workforce.
- Lodge Manufacturing, the cast iron cookware maker in South Pittsburg, is adding 239 jobs in a $59 million addition - the third factory expansion in the past decade.
- HomeServe USA is adding 150 more workers to its 600-employee call center on Lee Highway to handle its growing call center volumes. To attract enough workers, HomeServe recently boosted its starting pay from $12 to $16 an hour.
- Southern Champion Tray broke ground on a $60 million plant at the Riverport on Amnicola Highway. In the biggest expansion in the company's 94-year history, Southern Champion plans on adding 150 jobs.
- Tennessee Valley Federal Credit Union expanded into Walker County with a new branch office in Chickamauga.
- Five Star Foods expanded its vending and food operations into Florida by acquiring Gulf Coast Canteen.
Closing
Amanda Pinson Jewelry. After 20 years of operating a retail jewelry store on 13th Street and later in Warehouse Row, Amanda Pinson closed her jewelry store at the end of October. At age 70, Pinson said she was eager to spend more time with her family and decided to retire.
Changing names
- BancorpSouth, which has grown into the 15th biggest bank among the 27 banks operating in metropolitan Chattanooga, will take on the Cadence Bank moniker by the end of next year after BancorpSouth and Cadence completed their merger. BancorpSouth entered the Chattanooga market with a loan production office in 2014 and opened full-service bank offices in Cleveland, Tenn., in 2017 and in Chattanooga the following year.
- The Chattanooga-based Covenant Transport has been renamed Covenant Logistics Group Inc. The multi-year rebranding program is designed to broaden its logistics appeal to include its growing warehousing, transportation management and other shipping services.