CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. — An automotive-themed restaurant chain has picked Chattanooga for its Tennessee debut, opening a Ford’s Garage beside one of the busiest shopping districts in the region.
The restaurant sits at 2102 Hamilton Place Blvd., close to Hamilton Place Mall and just off I-75 near its junction with I-24. The building covers 8,000 square feet with room for roughly 250 diners. Inside, the look borrows from a 1920s filling station, with Ford Motor Co. memorabilia on display.
The menu centers on half-pound Certified Angus Beef burgers, with grilled salmon, a chicken plate topped with goat cheese and a Chardonnay lemon butter sauce, onion-ring towers and shrimp appetizers alongside local craft beer and cocktails. Guests can eat in or order for pickup. Doors open at 11 a.m. every day; closing time is 10 p.m. Sunday to Thursday and an hour later on Friday and Saturday nights.
A franchise group called TN Legends, made up of Tennessee natives with more than 100 years of combined restaurant experience, owns and runs the location. It is the 36th Ford’s Garage, and the chain now operates in nine states.
The site lands in East Brainerd, the southeastern part of Hamilton County in ZIP code 37421. That area grew quickly once I-75 was finished through the county in the 1960s and 1970s, and growth sped up again after Hamilton Place Mall opened in 1987. The mall and nearby Gunbarrel Road form one of the main commercial corridors in the metro, with I-75 at Gunbarrel about two minutes from the area’s homes.
