City Cafe Moved Around the Square for 92 Years. Its Last Corner Opens Again This Week

In the early 1970s, a 6-year-old drank his first cup of coffee at City Cafe, sitting beside his brother and his grandfather, who had been Rutherford County's sheriff. He tells the story in his Mr. Murfreesboro column in The Murfreesboro Pulse. In that room, he writes, "If you got to sit at the big table to the left as you walked in, man, you had arrived."

That table stood at 113 E. Main St. The cafe arrived at that address in 1992, after almost a century of moving from one storefront to another around the Public Square. Big Bad Breakfast's announced opening was Tuesday, Oct. 27, at 7 a.m. in that same space. The breakfast crowd City Cafe built on the Square has moved before, and right now it is spreading across several downtown storefronts.

A Cafe That Kept Changing Addresses

Most accounts give February 10, 1900, as City Cafe's founding date. Rutherford Source notes that "stories vary." It credits Henry and Dorsey Cantrell as the founders, while the Rutherford County Historical Society's history names Dorsey Cantrell. Based on what local historians and reporters have documented, the cafe made at least these stops:

1. 11 South Public Square. This was the first location, on what the Pulse calls the Big B side of the Square today. The Cantrells bottled milk from their Salem Pike dairy upstairs. Once the bottling moved out, the column says, the upstairs became a gambling and drinking room.
2. Several more spots around the Square. Rutherford Source lists the space where Joanie's now operates among them.
3. 113 E. Main St. Gary and Pat Simpson bought the restaurant in 1986 and moved it here in 1992.

Ownership changed even more often than the address. Owners over the years included the Manley brothers and families named Hall, Mason, McKnight, Watson, Cooper, Simpson, Perkins and Kellogg. In 1936, the cafe hired its first waitresses, sisters Audie and Sara Overall and Peggy Brown. Teresa and Rollin Kellogg were the final owners. According to Rutherford Source, the Kelloggs put pieces of the cafe's history on the menu and in the decor.

All that moving matters for the corner today. The cafe stayed City Cafe through new owners and new addresses because the habits came along with it.

What 113 East Main Was Known For

The breakfast plates had names. The "Hearty Murfree" came with two eggs, home fries, a small pancake, and biscuits and gravy or toast and grits. Its name is a play on Hardy Murfree, the man Murfreesboro is named for. In a 2018 review, the Pulse described the "Big Daddy" as country ham, three eggs, hash browns, fried apples, biscuits and gravy. Lunch was a meat-and-three with fried chicken, Salisbury steak, chicken and dumplings, meatloaf and catfish, plus turnip greens, okra, cream corn and pinto beans.

The talk was as well known as the food. Rutherford Source reports that City Cafe's election straw polls were right more than 90 percent of the time. The cafe was where you went to find out who would win before voting closed. The Mr. Murfreesboro column remembers the table talk covering marriages and new babies, job openings at State Farm, the VA and GE, MTSU news, and "who's gonna win the Celebration?" One longtime regular told the Historical Society he had eaten there since 1969, and the staff set aside deviled eggs for him.

City Cafe closed for good on Thursday, January 23, 2025, just 18 days short of its 125th anniversary. The Kelloggs' farewell post, quoted by Rutherford Source, repeated the cafe's motto:

"You come in as a stranger, and you leave as family."

When it closed, the Pulse column notes, City Cafe was known as Tennessee's oldest continuously running restaurant.

Who Is Running the New Kitchen

Big Bad Breakfast leased the space at 113 E. Main. WhatNow reported the lease in April 2026. The chain started in Oxford, Mississippi, in 2008. Murfreesboro is its seventh Tennessee location, following Nashville, Franklin, Memphis, Chattanooga, Spring Hill and South Pittsburg.

The managers are local. Barbara Thomas runs the restaurant, and many downtown regulars will remember her from B. McNeel's. She works with managing partner Molly James. According to the Mr. Murfreesboro column, the two plan to keep pieces of City Cafe alive in the new business. The Pulse first expected a September opening. The October 27 date came from the restaurant's later announcement.

Here is how the two restaurants compare:

Murfreesboro.com's opening report describes the menu as Southern breakfast standards with "a little Cajun flavor." Like City Cafe, the new restaurant is a breakfast-and-lunch place that closes in the early afternoon.

The Morning Table Now Spans a Block

City Cafe was the Square's one big morning meeting place for most of a century. That role is now shared by several storefronts within a short walk, and three of them opened or grew this year.

Joanie's at 13 S. Public Square opened its expanded adjoining space on July 20. The addition brought a coffee bar, lounge seating, more tables and a broader wine list. Rutherford Source lists this as one of City Cafe's earlier homes, so coffee and lingering tables are back in a room that once served them.

Bibles and Coffee: The Cafe at 214 W. Main St. announced a July 24 grand opening and sells coffee alongside Bibles and faith-oriented gifts. The Pulse's August business roundup describes it as a family-owned and operated cafe.

Cozy Toad at 19 S. Public Square opened its storefront this spring. Owner Lindsey K. sells plants, crafts, gifts, books and local goods, and the shop schedules monthly events. A shop with a regular event calendar gives people another reason to come downtown and run into each other.

Downtown is also adding places to gather after dark. 218 Tavern at 218 W. Vine St. has an outdoor concert and hangout area with local live music. Smackdab Brewing was billed by WGNS in 2025 as downtown Murfreesboro's first brewery. Its owners are Jeff Bellamy, Brent Fagan and Nowell Robbins. The brewery's own site still says "coming soon" and lists 225 North Front Street. The city's monthly building report shows a sign permit issued for that address on Sept. 17, 2026.

Dates on the Square Before the Year Ends

Big Bad Breakfast opens just ahead of downtown's holiday season. Main Street Murfreesboro and the city have these dates on the calendar:

The tree lighting includes Santa, performances and family activities around the Rutherford County Courthouse. The parade route runs along East Main to the Square, then West Main and Walnut. That puts 113 E. Main directly on the route.

Do you have a City Cafe story of your own, or are you curious about how downtown's changes are reshaping the blocks around the Square? We love hearing these conversations, and we follow them closely. A&M Homes is always happy to talk Murfreesboro over coffee. Contact Us anytime.