City Cafe served its last meals on Thursday, Jan. 23, 2025. That was 18 days before its 125th anniversary, and Rutherford Source reported the restaurant had been running since around Feb. 10, 1900. The building at 113 E. Main St. has now gone nearly 21 months without breakfast. Big Bad Breakfast's own location page lists that address and still says "Coming Soon."
While the building sat empty, downtown mornings changed. The coffee, the long tables and the Saturday crowd City Cafe once held under one roof are now spread across several addresses within a few blocks. Big Bad Breakfast will open into that spread-out morning. It won't be stepping into a gap.
What closed was a gathering place as much as a kitchen
City Cafe changed owners and addresses more than once. Henry and Dorsey Cantrell started it, and the first location was on the Square at 11 South Public Square. Today that is one street number off from Joanie's at 13 S. Public Square. According to Rutherford Source, Gary and Pat Simpson bought the restaurant in 1986 and moved it to 113 E. Main St. in 1992. Teresa and Rollin Kellogg took over in 2014 and were its last owners.
It had almost closed once before. In November 2020 the Daily News Journal reported a pandemic-era closing announcement. Rutherford Source later wrote that the community stepped up and saved the business that time. The 2025 closing statement cited economic pressures and rising food costs. When the end came, Rutherford Source quoted one longtime customer who said she and her husband had been coming since they were married students at Middle Tennessee State University, "over 50 years ago." A patron who talked with NewsChannel 5 called the closing "super sad."
The "50 years" line matters for what comes next. City Cafe was the regular stop for a lot of people, so when it closed, they had to find somewhere else. This year, more downtown spaces built for long, sit-down mornings opened.
Where downtown mornings moved in the meantime
The biggest change this year happened on the Square. Joanie's at 13 S. Public Square opened a next-door addition this summer. The Murfreesboro Pulse said the addition nearly doubles the restaurant's footprint. It added a coffee bar, a lounge with couches, more table seating, a bigger wine selection and a tabletop Pac-Man game. The Pulse described the space as room for customers to "meet, work remotely, relax over coffee or enjoy a meal." That's a description of a gathering spot, and it opened on the same side of the Square where City Cafe started. Joanie's opens at 7 a.m. Monday through Saturday and runs until 9 p.m. Sunday hours are 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Two blocks west, Bibles and Coffee, The Cafe opened at 214 W. Main St. in July 2026, according to the company's visit page. The listed hours are 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday. The Pulse confirmed it was open by early August.
A few more openings this year aren't breakfast spots, but they add reasons to be downtown:
- 218 Tavern, 218 W. Vine St., opened with an indoor tavern and an outdoor concert and hangout area with local bands.
- Sprout & Sprig Plants, 418 N. Maney Ave., opened a physical shop after selling online and at pop-ups. It's open 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday.
So the old single breakfast table is now two open morning spots within a short walk, a bigger Joanie's on the Square and a new cafe on West Main. Once Big Bad Breakfast opens in the City Cafe building on East Main, that makes three.
What's confirmed about 113 E. Main, and what isn't
Big Bad Breakfast was founded in Oxford, Mississippi, by chef John Currence in 2008. The Pulse covered its move into the City Cafe building in its spring business roundups. In an August interview on WGNS, Managing Partner Molly James said the restaurant plans to keep City Cafe's original signs and interior woodwork. Barbara Thomas, known locally from her years running B. McNeel's, will manage the restaurant.
Here's where things stand as of Oct. 12, 2026:
Detail | Status |
|---|---|
Address | 113 E. Main St., the former City Cafe building |
Service | Breakfast and lunch, seven days a week, per WGNS |
Menu direction | Southern breakfast and lunch: biscuits, eggs, flapjacks, fried chicken, burgers, Bloody Marys and brunch cocktails, per the Pulse |
City Cafe features | Original signs and interior woodwork planned to stay, per WGNS |
Projected opening | Late September, per August and September local coverage |
Confirmed opening date | Not published |
Daily hours | Not published |
The late-September target has passed. The Pulse's October business roundup, published Oct. 1, didn't mention Big Bad Breakfast. The chain's Murfreesboro page carries an Aug. 28 publication date, so "Coming Soon" may simply be out of date. For now, the opening is still on its way, with no date set. Nothing published says whether City Cafe's big table survived the renovation.
Three Saturdays left for the market
The best-known downtown morning ritual right now is the Murfreesboro Saturday Market. Main Street Murfreesboro runs it around the Historic Rutherford County Courthouse from 8 a.m. to noon every Saturday through October. The 2026 season has 94 vendors for 73 weekly spots, so the lineup changes from week to week. A vendor map for each Saturday goes up on Fridays on the market's Instagram and Facebook pages and at Main Street Murfreesboro's market page. This year the market is also part of the first Tennessee Farmers Market Trail, with a QR code for prize entries.
That leaves Oct. 17, 24 and 31. The rest of the month's downtown calendar fits around them:
- Through Nov. 1: Scarecrows Downtown. Main Street Murfreesboro's handmade scarecrows went up around the Square the first weekend of October, per the Pulse fall guide.
- Friday, Oct. 16: An extra Friday Night Live concert with Matthias Lamparter, added to make up for a show postponed earlier in the season.
- Oct. 16–17: Cannonsburgh Village After Dark at 312 S. Front St., with flashlight exploring, crafts, games and music.
- Saturday, Oct. 24: Wine Around the Square, with a VIP party at 4:30 p.m. and the main event at 6 p.m. That same morning is the next-to-last market.
- Friday, Oct. 30, 3–5 p.m.: Trick or Treat Around the Square, with businesses around the courthouse handing out candy to children in costume.
The Pulse's October events roundup has the full listings. After the Oct. 31 market, the courthouse lawn has no recurring Saturday morning event on the published calendar. Joanie's, Bibles and Coffee and, once it opens, Big Bad Breakfast will be the ones keeping downtown mornings going.
East Main keeps changing around the building
The City Cafe building also sits on a block that's changing. Rutherford County has begun renovating 120 E. Main St. so it can move the Building Codes, Election Commission, Finance, Fire Rescue Administration, and Planning and Engineering departments there, according to the Pulse's October business roundup. Administrator of Elections Alan Farley said the new floor plan should help his office serve the thousands of residents who early vote there each election cycle.
Farther along, the same roundup reports that renovations have begun at One East College after years of delays. Developers expect to finish work on the church by early 2027. They plan to preserve the historic sanctuary and bell tower, which could become a restaurant, entertainment space or live music venue. The revised plan swaps the original 110-room hotel for 40 condos, 167 apartments, commercial space and possibly a parking garage.
That's the setting Big Bad Breakfast is opening into: county offices moving in just up the street, a historic church being renovated nearby, and the Square already supporting two expanded or new morning spots. The signs and woodwork from 124 years of City Cafe are set to stay at 113 E. Main St. when the doors open again.
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