The building at the corner of Market and King Streets has three sides, because the streets around it meet at an angle and the builders followed them. The National Register nomination for the district calls it the Old St. John's Hotel, dates it to around 1890 and describes it as a triangular Victorian commercial building with a terra cotta first floor and arched ground-floor openings. That nomination was written in 1992, when the building was vacant and in poor condition.
On August 20, 2026, a ribbon was cut at the door for The Trinity, a New Orleans-inspired restaurant. Three weeks earlier and a few blocks away, Bona Fide Restaurant and Bar had opened at 55 Johnson Street, in the glass-fronted building next to Niedlov's that was home to Flying Squirrel for a decade.
Both of the summer's biggest Southside openings went into rooms the neighborhood already knew. Both rooms also sat empty for a long stretch first. In this part of town, change at the dinner table comes slowly, through well-known buildings being passed from one tenant to the next.
The Gap Between Tenants
The timelines matter more than the openings. Here is how long each space waited:
| Address | Previous tenant's last chapter | New tenant | Time between |
|---|---|---|---|
| 55 Johnson St. | Ernest Chinese, last service July 13, 2025 | Bona Fide, opened July 31, 2026 | About 12.5 months |
| 1278 Market St. | St. John's Restaurant, moved to West Village in fall 2024 | The Trinity, ribbon cutting Aug. 20, 2026 | Nearly two years |
| 400 E. Main St. | Adelle's Creperie, closed June 28, 2026 | Understory Tea House | Opening date not published |
A year or more is a long time for a storefront to go dark on a block people walk every day. The signs change, but the rooms stay the same, so each new opening arrives at an address the neighborhood already knows.
55 Johnson Was Handed Down
The Johnson Street building has had three lives in 13 years. Max Poppel and Dan Rose founded the Crash Pad hostel in 2011 and opened Flying Squirrel next door in 2013. The building made an impression early. In May 2015 the Chattanooga Times Free Press described its broad glass façade under a sweeping metal roof, its exposed trusses and giant cedar beams. That June, the paper reported that Flying Squirrel had won the People's Choice vote for best-designed café and bar in the Restaurant Design Awards.
Flying Squirrel closed after service on Sunday, November 5, 2023, after a decade, and the owners relaunched the space as Ernest Chinese, a Chinese food and tiki cocktail concept, according to Chattanoogan.com. Ernest was open by early December 2023 and announced its final service for July 13, 2025.
The space was not simply put up for lease to the first taker. On Bona Fide's own site, the founders of both earlier concepts say they chose who came next:
"It was important to us to find the right tenant for this incredible space, and it is such a rush to see it come back to life." — Max Poppel and Dan Rose
Bona Fide says the chance to take 55 Johnson came in the summer of 2025, the same season Ernest closed. Five partners brought it together. The Pulse names the culinary team as head chef Joey Milenkovic, pastry chef Estela Felipe, Jared Padovani, who owns The Boneyard, Rachel Holland, and beverage director Garth Poe.
When the build-out ran longer than expected, the team started Bona Fide On Tour: In Good Company, a run of dinners hosted in other people's spaces. Partners included RT Lodge, The Boneyard, Monospace, Niedlov's, Calliope and Mean Jeen's. So the empty months were also months of introductions, much of it a few steps from the Johnson Street door.
The menu changes with the seasons and runs from housemade pastas to small plates, with craft cocktails, wine, beer and a long non-alcoholic list. On preview night, The Pulse's writer found paid parking beside State of Confusion, directly across the street. Reservations go through Resy, linked from the restaurant's site.
1278 Market Waited Longer
The Market Street building's longest run as a restaurant began in 2000, when Nathan Lindley launched St. John's Restaurant there. In 2024, after Byron and Ken DeFoor bought the restaurant, St. John's announced a move to the Mountain City Club building and aimed for a late-September opening in West Village, Chattanoogan.com reported. A year later, the Times Free Press confirmed it had made the move in 2024.
"St. John's" is still the name on the building's National Register record, and that is the history The Trinity moved into.
Longtime friends Ken Newburger, a New Orleans native, and Carlitos Fernandez founded The Trinity. "Every person from New Orleans has an unspoken mission to take New Orleans to the rest of the world," Newburger said at the opening, as reported by Chattanoogan.com. The same report says the founders want the room to feel like it belongs down the street from Galatoire's, Antoine's or Commander's Palace, and lists étouffée and grits and grillades on the menu. At opening, the restaurant was reported to serve daily from 4 to 10 p.m., with brunch on weekends. Those were opening-time hours, so call ahead before you go. Reservations run through Resy, linked from The Trinity's reservations page.
Main Street Turned Over Faster
The third space on the table followed a different clock. Adelle's Creperie closed June 28, 2026, after ten years on Main Street, the Times Free Press reported. Co-owner Carla Pritchard told Local 3 the decision was a family one, with the family shifting its focus to its other businesses.
The room already has its next tenant. Visit Chattanooga's "What's New" list now shows Understory Tea House at 400 E. Main St., a tea house and herbal apothecary that pairs traditional gongfu tea practice with Appalachian folk herbalism. Teas are prepared in small steeps, small bites come from Southern Squeeze, the tea ware is by a local artist, and there is no public Wi-Fi by design. A few doors down at 338 E. Main St., the same list shows Oui Oui Boulangerie, a French bakery from Parisian baker Johann Tremor that shares its space with Casa Cool, an art and lifestyle concept. The bigger, more complicated rooms on Johnson and Market took a year or more to fill. On Main, a smaller storefront changed hands within months.
New Rooms Are Even Further Out
The same day The Trinity cut its ribbon in a building from around 1890, ground broke on the Southside's next big batch of dining space. Station 33, at South Broad and 33rd Streets, plans a Mediterranean restaurant and food hall, shops, a 120-room Aloft hotel, more than 100 residences, a pedestrian plaza and a splash pad, according to Chattanoogan.com. The developers projected about two years of construction, with the main buildings finished in fall 2028.
Two years to build from scratch is about the same as the wait at 1278 Market. In both cases the Southside gets new dining on a timeline measured in years.
Closer in, the Arena Club at 1804 Chestnut Street, on the former Chattanooga Brewing Co. site, is listed for an October 2026 opening. It is another reused site. It is also members-only, with 12 indoor pickleball courts, two padel courts and its own dining program, and its site was still selling pre-opening memberships in mid-October.
What to watch on the Southside through the end of the year:
- 1804 Chestnut St., for the Arena Club's confirmed opening date.
- South Broad and 33rd, where Station 33's buildings are scheduled to rise through 2028.
If you own near Main, Market or Johnson and want to know how a well-known storefront's next tenant might affect your block, The Robinson Team follows these handoffs closely and is glad to talk them through with you. Contact Us.
