The Monen Restaurant Group continues to expand its footprint in the Chattanooga area with plans to more than double the square footage of its Milk & Honey location on the North Shore, and to completely makeover both Market South on Main Street and the Sticky Fingers Hamilton Place location, according to Mike Monen.
Monen said in a telephone interview Wednesday that the Milk & Honey location will be expanding to 4,800-square-feet from about 2,000, and will add a patio and indoor dining area, in addition to expanding its menu.
"It will be more along the lines of our Nashville Milk & Honey location, which is our busiest of all of the restaurants we have," he said.
The Taco Mamacita restaurant nearby was the couple's first venture into the restaurant business together, opening in 2008. It is the second busiest restaurant on their roster, Monen said. They now also own and operate Community Pie, Urban Stack, Hi-Fi Clydes Chattanooga and Hi-Fi Clydes Nashville. In addition, Monen said he and wife Taylor have plans to turn the former Sticky Fingers location, which they own, in East Brainerd near Hamilton Place Mall into a Taco Mamacita, but that project will likely not open until about this time next year.
"We have a lot going on, but with COVID and everything, it will take time," he said.
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Milk & Honey expanding, Market South to change, Sticky Fingers Hamilton Place to become a Taco Mamacita
Monen began his restaurant career as a dishwasher at a Sticky Fingers franchise in Charleston, South Carolina, while a college student. He later became a partner and brought the franchise, which the partners later sold, to Chattanooga in 1997 and said the Hamilton Place location is where he met his wife.
"It has special meaning to us and people will not recognize it when we are finished redoing it, but we have so much going on, that will likely open around this time next year."
Top priority is the Milk & Honey location and then he said planning will be finalized on what to do with Market South. One plan that has been floated is to turn it into a music venue.
"That is certainly the rumor," Monen said, "but we're not sure yet. We have several ideas and will try to make some decision in the next few weeks."
Monen said the Milk & Honey location was started shortly after the husband and wife opened Community Pie in 2013 with the intent of selling pizza, beer and gelato.
"We couldn't make enough gelato, so we opened Milk & Honey on the North Shore and have expanded it two times since then."
It has offered primarily to-go items with a limited menu, but the expansion will allow it to be more like the Nashville store, which opened in 2016 in a nearly 5,000-square-foot space that includes a full menu and in-store dining. The new space, which will extend the footprint to almost North Market Street, will allow for seating for 130 people, he said.
Contact Barry Courter at bcourter@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6354.