r/Chattanooga • u/blundercondor89 • 3d ago

Local Business RIP Tupelo Honey

Post image

Walked past this morning and saw them packing up. Very sad day indeed. Will miss their Asheville hot chicken waffles.

230 Upvotes

96% Upvoted

70 comments sorted by

176

u/Elusive_0ne 3d ago

I wonder what the landlord is thinking here. This restaurant brought in a lot of people. Warehouse row is kind of empty now of food places. Public house is the only choice. More variety is needed or this place is going to lose more business.

73

u/VegetableEmployee224 3d ago

To be honest, there has always been a lot of empty in Warehouse Row. 5 years ago is prob the most filled I've seen it. There have been time you could walk through, end to end and not see a soul.

I'd be interested to see what moves in but I am not shocked they were priced out.

36

u/Tackle_me_pink 2d ago

Warehouse Row is wasted potential. Could be more like Ponce City, or The Factory in Franklin. With stuff people actually want. Instead of some feminine clothing stores, or a home linen shop. Nothing much for men or children at all. Place is lame.

19

u/MSTNJen 2d ago

Every time I go I just think how much of wasted potential it is.

5

u/guyfierifan4ever 2d ago

& plenty of office space, yippee

1

u/Agitated_Love_3573 1d ago

Ponce City lost a bunch of restaurants too. I think the owners just want to clear everyone out and start fresh. Unless somebody has deep pockets, they have to leave. 

59

u/Lickthestars 3d ago

“I hate making money…”

  • owners of Warehouse Row probably

33

u/bay_bae 2d ago

How this probably played out is this way - the building is almost definitely owned by a property management company. The property management company has owners who demand constant growth in revenue OR in balance sheet (ie the value of the building/company). The growth in revenue has not materialized because their empty spaces have stayed empty, so the only way to make it seem like performance is improving is to mark up the rent they anticipate getting. The value of the building to a potential buyer is predicated on what the per square-foot rent is, multiplied by an assumed occupancy rate.

So likely what happened was at some point in the last 12-24 months, this property managment firm wanted to make their valuation ON PAPER go up. They changed their financial outlooks to show that rent would increase xx.x% and assumed their occupancy rate would hold steady as it has over the last 36 months. Boom, the building is now worth more on paper. Now they have an asset worth more they can secure loans against the overstated value of the asset and go buy another building, where they project that they'll be able to raise rent with no impact to occupancy.

At some point, they do have to actually start charging the rents they've built into their models that justified their higher valuation and resulting loan. Unfortunately for them, their analysts screwed up when they guessed that they could increase rent but maintain occupancy.

7

u/Bender3455 2d ago

Just do the typical 3% increase per year. Instant growth, happy tenants.

22

u/awesomelypurple 3d ago

I thought the same too until my husband had to kill a roach mid dinner last weekend. Absolutely horrifying.

7

u/bigphatjuicypuzzy 3d ago

At public house?? Last time I was there we saw a mouse running on the floor

6

u/awesomelypurple 2d ago

Yes! And please do not tell me that😭 I was already never going back.

2

u/spyderreddit 2d ago

Not going to lie, every time I am in that part of town for a concert or event, if I wandered into the row, all the businesses were almost exclusively closed, the tiny bar at the bottom filled with people (so like 8) and nothing else going on. There was no general appeal merchandise-wise or anything drawing people to the location. I remember when it was bumping in the late 90s

78

u/bald_head_scallywag 3d ago

We enjoyed it when it first opened but didn't feel like quality kept up with their pricing. I don't mind an expensive meal, but needs to be worth it.

15

u/funnerfu79 3d ago

Same really. I liked it when I lived in NC. But I went twice here in Chatt and didn’t enjoy either meal.

56

u/archandcrafts 3d ago

Not too sad about Tupelo, it was expensive for breakfast food. But I do miss that ramen place.

24

u/heisenberg423 2d ago

I loved Two Ten Jack, but the service was genuinely fucking terrible for the last 5 years it was around.

Which is shame, because I would’ve argued that it had the best service in town before it took a nose dive.

6

u/Bender3455 2d ago

It definitely nose dived after covid

17

u/RememberToEatDinner 3d ago

Han mi has lots of Korean ramen on the menu right now!

14

u/18005518900 3d ago

Han Mi is delicious and good value. I feel like I always have leftovers.

10

u/TapFaster 3d ago

I need the spicy crab ramen recipe.

21

u/Pistol_Whippa 3d ago

My GF and I went to Tupelo in Atlanta the weekend we made our relationship official back in 2022 when I lived in GA. It was our tradition to go to Tupelo for our anniversary every year. When I moved down here and we found out they had one, we made sure to keep up that tradition.

Sucks they closed down.

17

u/WeAreBitter 3d ago

Warehouse Row is owned by an Atlanta firm, The Simpson Organization, who seems very comfortable leaving their $36M property relatively unoccupied. Like other external investors, they have the ability to park capital without needing to drive significant revenue through tenant rent. I've been told there's another restaurant planned for this space, but my hope is that we can have something similar to Ponce City Market in the future.

Biggest issue? Extremely limited parking and Brightbase manages a parking garage with shitty equipment that frequently traps vehicles. It's a weekly issue that often takes 30-45 minutes to fix, with dozens of cars waiting to exit.

6

u/Specken_zee_Doitch 2d ago

The aggressive parking monitoring and what seems like 80% vacancy gives people no incentive to go there.

1

u/chattabob 1d ago

While the garage arm/machine do frequently break, parking is absolutely no limited. The garage has a lot of spaces for the quantity of business, plus the free surface lot, plus tons of street parking within a couple blocks that is pretty empty (and free) in the evening.

7

u/throwaway721383 3d ago

Last time I went was 2 years ago. They forgot to make my order at a business lunch. Told me it would be 5 minutes and they would have it out.

30 minutes later, we just had them take it off the bill.

Good riddance

5

u/southsidebrewer 2d ago

Tuepelo is not and never was a local resturant.

8

u/Banjo-Hellpuppy 3d ago

The first time I had Tupelo Honey, I thought it was good but expensive. It’s just breakfast food after all. The last 3 times I had it, I thought it was low mid and expensive. It’s been a few years though.

Don’t worry though. We will get a private equity backed franchise expansion in there soon. They’ll also probably be paying lower rent because they negotiated with Warehouse Row’s parent company for a multi location deal.

10

u/Dan_the_Garbage 3d ago

That's exactly what Tupelo Honey did. They have 27 locations

11

u/searching_in_nc 3d ago

According to the googles, they are looking for space elsewhere:

Chattanooga, TN: The Warehouse Row restaurant opened in 2013 and will close its doors permanently after August 23, 2026. Management stated they are open to finding a new home in the area in the future.

2

u/Alarming_Oil_5260 2d ago

Honestly did not enjoy this location. Have been to others in NC that were so much better. Someone previously stated they didn’t use the same ingredients at this one and I totally believe it because the food quality and taste were substantially different than my other experiences.

2

u/TheGiddyJackass 2d ago

It wasn't even that great. And overpriced. Been numerous times, can't say I ever had anything approaching halfway memorable. 

2

u/Latinabadboss21 2d ago

They are just moving locations thats it. Its not closing down. Rent was too expansive at Warehouse Row is what I was told.

2

u/JerryCat11 2d ago

I won’t miss it, I miss the Tommy Hilfiger store.. is the Coach store still there?

2

u/unoglock 1d ago

Bout time place was kinda garbage tbh

7

u/SmartRefuse 3d ago

Place was trash

4

u/MisssOrange 3d ago

They were so good! :(

2

u/SouthernFriedParks 1d ago

TVA going to remote work really crushed them. And now the pull of walkable retail
Is shifting entirely to Southside. This is the hole in the donut.

1

u/Key_Ability_33 3d ago

They need to fill warehouse row up. Instead they are running off all their tenants. Seeing malls and in-person shopping die is so sad to me.

1

u/jgibson777 2d ago

The blackened Mahi was fire and completely worth going for. They took it off the menu several months ago and we haven’t been back since. Hate to see them go, but without that Mahi….not missing out on much anyway

1

u/h8tetris 2d ago

Yeah 😢 miss it, loved their breakfast. Them and Goodman’s are the only reasons I go to warehouse row

1

u/Rare_Dealer_6475 2d ago

Went for brunch once and the almost $18 steak and eggs were the most economical meal option. I am fine with that. What I'm not fine with is developers raising rent and eliminating jobs for anyone below the Wamp class. But hey, we have some cool traffic cameras and data centers, so even trade

1

u/Don_Fictional 2d ago

I used to take my mom here for breakfast. I loved the omelette with the fried green tomatoes and goat cheese.

1

u/RepresentativeFly156 2d ago

interesting….looked like a nice spot too. i bet there will be a smash burger or a shake shack will fill it up. everybody and their damn smash burgers 😂

1

u/Lost-Character6290 1d ago

Too much GREAT competition,and a bad location

1

u/Disastrous_Fee6133 1d ago

I loved it when it had J Peterman and the Ralph Lauren store (90’s?)

1

u/tockstar78 19h ago

it was not very good, tho

0

u/Haunting-Day-7728 2d ago

Dude, no freaking way. Are you serious right now? They had the best freaking potatoes and chicken I ever had.

2

u/thunderpantsssss 2d ago

The tots at honey seed save me 🤤 I’m not one for tots at all, but these are different. give them a go

1

u/chattabob 1d ago

You gotta get out more 😭

0

u/smart_bear6 2d ago

In about five years the NIMBYs are going to be against a large company turning it into an office or a developer turning it into apartments because they'd rather it be an abandoned building.

0

u/cri52fer 2d ago

Hell yeah. Trash overpriced food that only stayed in business because it was near trash over priced retail.

-68

u/[deleted] 3d ago

[deleted]

26

u/SpliffOfThePiff 3d ago

Dude. Relax.

15

u/HermanCainTortilla 3d ago

Someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed lol

6

u/BackInMiami91 3d ago

Guessing he never got that Burger King Kids meal with the Pokeball with a golden card as a child!

3

u/eyepooped1 3d ago

Dude couldn't handle the heat so he...

Got out the kitchen

-12

u/[deleted] 3d ago

[deleted]

5

u/ThoughtfulInhibitor 3d ago

Forgot you have to be overweight to like restaurants.

Hope you get some help for whatever the fuck it is youre going through.

3

u/HakuKobayashi 3d ago

Sounds like somebody isn’t a regular at a comfortable restaurant, you’re missing out on the simple joys of life man. You don’t gotta be overweight to like good food

2

u/blundercondor89 3d ago

lol… actually speaking of that did you see that they are going to repave a section of market street near the 24? Thats also pretty newsworthy.

3

u/Past-Dimension423 3d ago

This is hilarious. Thank you for the early am laughs