Did Mac's make history in 2024?
A message from Brian and Jess.
Food as a verb thanks
for sponsoring this series
So many of you have asked: what is the future of Mac's Kitchen & Bar?
The beloved Rossville, Ga., restaurant closed on New Year's. In just over a year, Chef Brian McDonald and Jess Revels - you can read our profiles on each here and here - built a highly-regarded, head-turning restaurant that created a new standard in Chattanooga.
Mac's wasn't just beloved.
It was groundbreaking.
(FYI: Mac's closed because unreachable costs - rents, utilities and interest rates, they said.)
Over evening glasses of back-porch wine in 2018, they talked through and crafted out a brick-and-mortar vision: a daily menu populated with meat and produce sourced from local farmers.
Since opening night, their vision held true.
According to Brian and Jess, in 2024, they sourced 20,000 pounds of locally-grown produce.
And thanks to NewTerra Compost, they returned nearly all of their kitchen waste back to the ground and soil.
This makes Mac's 2024 a historic year.
Is there any modern restaurant in Chattanooga that can boast these numbers?
Some 20,000 pounds of locally-sourced food?
With little-to-no post-meal kitchen waste?
In 2024, did Mac's do what no other modern Chattanooga restaurant has done?
It's immeasurable and impossible - and still too early - to recognize the impact Mac's had on shaping and carving our food scene. What is indisputable? Mac's raised the standard; there's a high water mark - 20,000 pounds + nearly net-zero waste - that can inspire, encourage and hearten, well, all of us.
It both triples and lessens the sting: why are rents so high for such an influential restaurant in Rossville? And yet: surely, 2025 must hold something good for such influential chefs and restauranteurs.
"This isn’t a final goodbye," they posted. "This is a see you later."
This morning, Brian and Jess send a special message to our Food as a Verb community.
Their note - italicized, sent with love - begins here.
The following days after we announced leaving our lease in Rossville, we were flooded with an overwhelming amount of love, positivity, sadness and opportunities.
Me and Jess couldn’t be more proud of what we achieved from pop-ups, farm dinners, catering, and eventually Mac’s. We wouldn’t trade a single one of the days, good or bad.
Now that we have had time to process our journey, and get some much-needed rest and reflection. We are ready to get back to work.
Over 20,000 pounds of locally sourced produce came through our restaurant during the last two years, proving a lot of naysayers on the concept of farm-to-table wrong. That it is possible, and we are ready to expand on that model. Taking it further than what has been done here before.
Partnered with New Terra Composting, we operated at near-net zero food waste. And with that completing the circle of our food chain.
But the most important thing we accomplished thus far, was in building a community. And when we needed them the most, they showed up for us.
The future is bright, and it's thanks to so many wonderful people in this community.
While we are not in a position to announce anything right now, just know we are working hard on it all. And we can’t wait for you to grace our table yet again.
As always, much love.
See you soon.
Jess & Mac
- This Saturday, at Sequatchie Cove Farm, the Southeast Tennessee Young Farmers (SETNYF) are hosting a Resiliency Farming Discussion, Farm Tour and Workshop.
The event begins at 10 am central and includes a pot luck.
Sign up here.
SETNYF gives a description of the event:
Explore Sequatchie Cove Farm’s regeneratively-grazed pastures as a panel of growers, grazers, researchers and an herbalist digs into the topic of resilience in farming and its many facets: ecological, financial, social, etc.
Tour the farm and learn about how the farmers at Sequatchie Cove manage its pastures, animals, and enterprises, which include a large pastured egg operation, a flock of Khatadin sheep, heritage-breed pigs, beef cattle, gardens and heirloom corn.
Along the way, we will stop for a series of chats with our panelists. Hear from Alysia Leon of Bird Fork Farm, Melissa Shepherd of Quail Run Farm, Kelsey Keener of Sequatchie Cove Farm and one of our friends at Caney Fork Farm.
- For this Sunday, we're preparing one of our most precious and loved stories yet.
Three women, all pouring into a fourth - a most remarkable young woman.
Three milks, all seeping into one cake.
See you then, everyone.
Story ideas, questions, feedback? Interested in partnering with us? Email: david@foodasaverb.com
This story is 100% human generated; no AI chatbot was used in the creation of this content.
food as a verb thanks our sustaining partner:
food as a verb thanks our story sponsor:
Little Coyote
St. Elmo Restaurant Imbued with the Spirit of the Southwest
So many of you have asked: what is the future of Mac's Kitchen & Bar?
The beloved Rossville, Ga., restaurant closed on New Year's. In just over a year, Chef Brian McDonald and Jess Revels - you can read our profiles on each here and here - built a highly-regarded, head-turning restaurant that created a new standard in Chattanooga.
Mac's wasn't just beloved.
It was groundbreaking.
(FYI: Mac's closed because unreachable costs - rents, utilities and interest rates, they said.)
Over evening glasses of back-porch wine in 2018, they talked through and crafted out a brick-and-mortar vision: a daily menu populated with meat and produce sourced from local farmers.
Since opening night, their vision held true.
According to Brian and Jess, in 2024, they sourced 20,000 pounds of locally-grown produce.
And thanks to NewTerra Compost, they returned nearly all of their kitchen waste back to the ground and soil.
This makes Mac's 2024 a historic year.
Is there any modern restaurant in Chattanooga that can boast these numbers?
Some 20,000 pounds of locally-sourced food?
With little-to-no post-meal kitchen waste?
In 2024, did Mac's do what no other modern Chattanooga restaurant has done?
It's immeasurable and impossible - and still too early - to recognize the impact Mac's had on shaping and carving our food scene. What is indisputable? Mac's raised the standard; there's a high water mark - 20,000 pounds + nearly net-zero waste - that can inspire, encourage and hearten, well, all of us.
It both triples and lessens the sting: why are rents so high for such an influential restaurant in Rossville? And yet: surely, 2025 must hold something good for such influential chefs and restauranteurs.
"This isn’t a final goodbye," they posted. "This is a see you later."
This morning, Brian and Jess send a special message to our Food as a Verb community.
Their note - italicized, sent with love - begins here.
The following days after we announced leaving our lease in Rossville, we were flooded with an overwhelming amount of love, positivity, sadness and opportunities.
Me and Jess couldn’t be more proud of what we achieved from pop-ups, farm dinners, catering, and eventually Mac’s. We wouldn’t trade a single one of the days, good or bad.
Now that we have had time to process our journey, and get some much-needed rest and reflection. We are ready to get back to work.
Over 20,000 pounds of locally sourced produce came through our restaurant during the last two years, proving a lot of naysayers on the concept of farm-to-table wrong. That it is possible, and we are ready to expand on that model. Taking it further than what has been done here before.
Partnered with New Terra Composting, we operated at near-net zero food waste. And with that completing the circle of our food chain.
But the most important thing we accomplished thus far, was in building a community. And when we needed them the most, they showed up for us.
The future is bright, and it's thanks to so many wonderful people in this community.
While we are not in a position to announce anything right now, just know we are working hard on it all. And we can’t wait for you to grace our table yet again.
As always, much love.
See you soon.
Jess & Mac
- This Saturday, at Sequatchie Cove Farm, the Southeast Tennessee Young Farmers (SETNYF) are hosting a Resiliency Farming Discussion, Farm Tour and Workshop.
The event begins at 10 am central and includes a pot luck.
Sign up here.
SETNYF gives a description of the event:
Explore Sequatchie Cove Farm’s regeneratively-grazed pastures as a panel of growers, grazers, researchers and an herbalist digs into the topic of resilience in farming and its many facets: ecological, financial, social, etc.
Tour the farm and learn about how the farmers at Sequatchie Cove manage its pastures, animals, and enterprises, which include a large pastured egg operation, a flock of Khatadin sheep, heritage-breed pigs, beef cattle, gardens and heirloom corn.
Along the way, we will stop for a series of chats with our panelists. Hear from Alysia Leon of Bird Fork Farm, Melissa Shepherd of Quail Run Farm, Kelsey Keener of Sequatchie Cove Farm and one of our friends at Caney Fork Farm.
- For this Sunday, we're preparing one of our most precious and loved stories yet.
Three women, all pouring into a fourth - a most remarkable young woman.
Three milks, all seeping into one cake.
See you then, everyone.
Story ideas, questions, feedback? Interested in partnering with us? Email: david@foodasaverb.com
This story is 100% human generated; no AI chatbot was used in the creation of this content.
Food as a verb thanks our story sponsor:
Food as a Verb Thanks our sustaining partner:
St. Elmo Restaurant Imbued with the Spirit of the Southwest
