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NOTE: This article appeared a day or so before our
closing In the Chattanooga Times Free Press..
We reopened in the original location on South
Lee Highway in
Cleveland, Tennessee in November 2004
CLEVELAND -- After today, there will no longer be a Rebel drive-in restaurant in Cleveland. There's been a Rebel here, serving its trademark gravy and biscuits in the morning and Lottaburgers and plate lunches the rest of the
day, for nearly 40 years. It's where many local couples met, and where their children found after-school jobs.
The dining room's been packed all week as people have come in to
remember the 1960s, '70s, '80s, '90s, and how much the Rebel has meant to North Ocoee Street. The crowds this week have taken her by surprise, said restaurant
owner Ruby Bryant. She is retiring. And it just seemed appropriate said her son Chip, that the Rebel retire too.
In 1962 Emary Bryant went to work for a Chattanooga area restaurant
chain called the Chow Now. They became the Rebel drive-ins when the
owner named them for his son's high school team mascot. Mr. Bryant acquired Rebel South in Cleveland. Then, about 1965, he bought The Bears Den on North Ocoee Street and named it Rebel North. Over the years, other Rebels in the Chattanooga area faded away. So did Rebel South.
"He got his cooking experience in the Navy, and then owned Emary's
Truck Stop here in the 1950s," said his son Chip, a career officer
with the Bradley County Sheriff's Department. "In those days there
was no fast food. There were no cafeterias. You either went to a cafe or to a truck stop."
When Mr. Bryant bought the Rebel, he brought along his truck-stop
gravy, a rare dish in those days for an establishment later
generations would call fast food. "He became known as the gravy king," said Chip Bryant. "It was even on his sign."
It was just part of the Rebel's uniqueness: a family sit-down restaurant that also offered curb service and a place for young people to meet. When fast food chains came to Cleveland in the 1960s, it didn't seem to matter to Rebel customers. Curb service did so well, Mr. Bryant said, the family decided not to bother with a drive-through window.
"It looks the same. It really does," said Vickie Haney as she signed the memory book Thursday. Her husband Charlie said he will miss the Lottaburgers. "That's why we are here today," he said.
"It just breaks my heart," said Mary Fritts, another customer. She worked at The Bears Den when she was a teen.
Emary Bryant died in 1988. The sentimental week has overwhelmed the family and workers, Chip Bryant said.
Rebel T-shirts are selling, well, like hot cakes. People are asking for the recipes. The
Mayfield's milk truck is making extra deliveries. At one point this week, the Rebel ran out of Lottaburgers. That's never happened before, Mr. Bryant said.
"It's been a lot of hard work but a lot of fun all these years,' said
Mrs. Bryant. 'I guess all good things must come to an end."
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