Over the past six years, Max Poppel and Dan Rose have helped transform Chattanooga's Southside with a pair of signature businesses that have brought thousands of tourists and locals to what was once a dilapidated block.
But when the developers of the Crash Pad hostel and the Flying Squirrel restaurant moved to Chattanooga from upstate New York in 2005, the two had no plans to even go into business. After graduating from Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, New York, Poppel and Rose came to Chattanooga for better rock climbing.
Interior of the Flying Squirrel restaurant"We both had a passion for climbing, and starting a business was the farthest thing from our minds," Poppel recalls.
Rose initially worked waiting tables at a local restaurant; Poppel sold life insurance and retirement plans, although the piece of the rock he was most interested in was one he could climb on area hills and mountains rather than any insurance product.
But the transplanted Massachusetts residents saw a void in Chattanooga's burgeoning outdoor sports market: a basecamp for climbers coming to Chattanooga.
"The rock climbing here is really unparalleled in terms of its quality, quantity and proximity and we were really blown away that there wasn't a campground or basecamp for climbers to go to already," Rose recalls.
So Poppel and Rose began studying other basecamps for climbers in other climbing-oriented destinations and decided to enroll in the Springboard business accelerator program offered at The Company Lab to develop plans for a hostel for climbers. In late 2011 after studying sites in and around Chattanooga, the pair decided to open a hostel known as the Crash Pad on a side street off of Main Street on the city's Southside.
"At the time, there were two houses on this block but it was really a forgotten block when we began to develop the Crash Pad," Rose says.
The Crash Pad was designed to not only cater to climbers, but also bikers, cavers, hang-glider pilots and other outdoor enthusiasts as well as other visitors to Chattanooga looking for a lower-cost hostel to stay. The $1.2 million hostel can sleep up to 39 and was quickly proved popular as the Southside began to redevelop with new housing and other businesses.
Flying Squirrel restaurant owners Dan Rose, left, and Max Poppel.Poppel and Rose initially operated the hostel themselves, but the rock climbers-turned-entrepreneurs soon began considering the idea of a grander restaurant and bar when they were unable to sell alcohol at the hostel.
"We wanted a good neighborhood bar and restaurant with great food and drinks and a very social atmosphere," Rose says. "There was so little going on in the Southside before we came down here and we wanted to create an anchor attraction that was new and different."
Rose sketched out some early design ideas for the restaurant with a logo showing a base jumper in free fall for what the developers originally planned to call "High Gravity." The graphic designer thought the logo looked more like a flying squirrel and the name soon took root.
The Flying Squirrel restaurant, which was designed by architect Thomas Palmer, features a glass and wood design built, in part, from pieces of a 115-year-old barn from McMinnville.
In 2015, the Flying Squirrel was named one of the best-designed bars in the nation by the American Institute of Architects, and Restaurant Hospitality magazine awarded bartender Matt Ballard's cocktail "The Reverend" honorable mention in its Best Cocktails in America contest.
"We have loved being creative in the design of this place and in the food and drinks we offer," Poppel says.
The Flying Squirrel seats about 90 people on the inside and another 60 on its outdoor patio. It includes a long bar facing outside in concert with the outdoor theme of the block and the adjacent Crash Pad hostel.
"It's the kind of place where people come who are dressed up and going out on the town at the same time others feel comfortable coming here right off the trail," Rose says.
The growth of the Southside continues to bring more restaurants, bars and entertainment to the region, but Rose says that helps bring customers to the area as much as it competes against the Flying Squirrel.
"Nobody is trying to do exactly what we are doing and more people are jumping on the Sunday brunch idea we started," Poppel says. "It's more of a destination and there is more for everybody."
Poppel and Rose also have acquired a warehouse behind the Terminal near the Chattanooga Choo Choo for a third business and Rose said they "are eager to do more concepts in this area.
"But for right now, we have no plans to develop that site and we're eager to button down what we have here before we try out our next venture," he says.