John Shearer: Tim Hennen Fondly Recalls Opening of Yesterday’s 50 Years Ago

With the approval of liquor by the drink in Chattanooga in a voters’ referendum in late 1971, the city naturally started following a national trend of opening casual places where people – particularly singles in their 20s or 30s -- could go and eat and socialize over drinks.

It had to be a place where women felt comfortable, too, as a rowdy beer hall was out of the question.

It was in that spirit that Yesterday’s – as well as the Brass Register -- opened in downtown Chattanooga 50 years ago this summer. They had both followed the lead and been inspired by TGI Fridays, which had been started in New York City in 1965 but later opened its first franchised location in Memphis’ Overton Square.

But the two local bars and eateries had their own local and unique atmosphere, despite the inspiration of TGI Fridays and other nostalgically themed places like Shakey’s Pizza Parlor, the latter of which just served beer.

And with this focus on yesteryear while also trying to help people have a good enough time in the present to return, the two places also made a significant contribution to Chattanooga’s future. They both showed that a good and safe time could be had in downtown Chattanooga after work hours.

As a result, they would be among the key catalysts of the 1970s in getting people to begin to want to be in downtown Chattanooga again after hours and want to live there, a trend that has continued almost exponentially since that slowly moving renaissance of a half century ago.

As Yesterday’s proprietor Tim Hennen recalled of the early years, “We were downtown when it definitely wasn’t cool to be downtown.”

In connection with the 50^th anniversary of the opening of both Yesterday’s and the Brass Register – which are both now closed after years of blazing the modern path for downtown – I recently caught up with Mr. Hennen over the phone. I had also previously talked with early Brass Register proprietor Paul Boehm for a story that ran last month, and a link to it is at the bottom of this story.

Both the downtown Chattanooga places had ironically been inspired by TGI Fridays, but Mr. Hennen already knew plenty about the restaurant business, despite being only in his early 20s. The son of Louis and Melba Hennen was not born into a family of restaurateurs, as his father was a district sales manager for St. Louis/San Francisco Railway in the late 1960s.

But he did get some inspiration from just outside his house, as his neighbor across the street from their Wiley Avenue home in East Ridge was Chris Gulas, who was the vice president and general manager of Shoney’s restaurants.

“I was his favorite boy because I was his daughter Carol’s age,” Mr. Hennen said, adding that he even did some work for Shoney’s as a youngster.

One of many athletes in the family, Mr. Hennen had gone away to Gulf Coast Community College at Panama City, Fla., to try and play baseball after graduating from Notre Dame High in 1967. But the sand of the beach ended up being as big an attention grabber for him as the baseball sandlot or particularly the library. So, he ended up returning to Chattanooga and going to UTC.

But he did already have a mature focus on the food industry. With his background, he eventually ran Der Stein for a partnership of local investors after the German-themed restaurant and beer bar opened at the new Northgate Mall in 1972 as perhaps the first modern type of this kind of establishment in Hixson.

A forgotten fact is that the Der Stein group headed by President Arthur Provenzano announced plans to open a second Der Stein at the corner of Georgia Avenue and Patten Parkway a short time later.

To be called Der Stein Downtown, it was to be located at the site of the popular former Edmund’s Restaurant that by the early 1970s was headed by the friendly restaurant hosts Izzy and Lou Branum. Edmund’s had been opened in 1945 by Edmund B. Raines, who once ran the Davenport Hosiery Mill cafeteria and operated Glasgow Grill on 11^th Street.

Just as the Der Stein restaurant was being unveiled in the old Hotel Ross building where noted statesman and lawyer William Jennings Bryan had died from natural causes shortly after the Scopes Trial in 1925, though, Mr. Hennen had a change of heart regarding the operation.

As a result, he decided he wanted instead to open a nostalgic American-themed restaurant and bar at the site with some of his family members.

“I wanted to do a Fridays-type concept and went to Memphis, St. Louis and other places looking at concepts,” he said. “I remember Fridays had a stained-glass sign and I tried to emulate that. I thought it was a cool concept.”

He remembered having some conversations with Paul Boehm as the latter was planning the Brass Register, too, and Mr. Hennen remembers a particular conversation about some antiques Mr. Boehm had.

The theme of both places was to be toward the nostalgia of Americana around the late 1890s at a time when that was popular in American culture and business to do. As a result, the name of Yesterday’s was a natural.

While the Brass Register opened on June 2, 1973, a Saturday, Yesterday’s opened on Monday, June 11, of that same year, just nine days later. This dual development was suddenly like a downtown-wide version of two-for-one happy hour in terms of facility offerings for those wanting to eat, drink and socialize in a still-sparse city center.

And Tim Hennen and his family were ready to go. “I was only 23 when we opened. I was young and thought I knew everything, but I realized I didn’t,” he recalled with a laugh of his outlook at the time.

The Chattanooga Choo-Choo with its large restaurant offerings had also opened that spring, so downtown was definitely starting to slowly change for those Chattanoogans wanting to come back after normal daytime work hours.

This was also at a time when the legal drinking age in Chattanooga was 18, not 21, so the two Chattanooga bars had an even larger potential customer base, especially with UTC nearby.

Involved early on with Yesterday’s as investors were Tim and older brother Johnny Hennen, and, for the first two or three years, 1969 Baylor graduate Jack Spurlock, who had worked at a TGI Fridays in Nashville. Tim Hennen also remembered that oldest brother Jimmy, a former West Point football player and state champion wrestler, also helped give them some funds at that time while stationed in Europe.

A newspaper photograph accompanying an article announcing Yesterday’s opening shows Johnny, Tim and Jack alongside younger brother Mike Hennen and Bucky Burnham. All were wearing polo shirts with wide vertical stripes, visors and early 1970s’ hairstyles.

The article about the opening by noted Chattanooga Times journalist and future columnist Bill Casteel said, “The Hennen boys and Jack Spurlock have turned back the calendar on Patten Parkway. By spending some $65,000 and searching far and wide for antiques and fixtures, they have transformed the old Edmund’s Restaurant into a piece of yesterday. In fact, that is what they are calling this new eating place.”

He went on to write of the place that was open from lunchtime until past midnight, “It has a cozy, nostalgic atmosphere with low-hanging antique lights, exposed brick walls, stained-glass skylights, and a bar with a brass railing and brass spittoons.”

The story said the brass railings and large front doors were purchased from the Wrecking Bar Co. in Atlanta.

Mr. Burnham was to be bar manager and Rubin Bradley was to be the head chef. The menu early on included seafood and sirloin, with prices for an entrée ranging from just under $3 to just under $7 for fine steak. Several hamburger dishes were also available.

Early on, Yesterday’s also became known perhaps even more than the other downtown establishments as a place to hear bands in the evenings. Charlie Daniels once stopped by there, Tim Hennen said. And, of course, Overland Express was a mainstay, and the Velcro Pygmies also played there a lot.

And Yesterday’s was definitely a family operation much in the traditional spirit of the pubs and bars in Northern American cities.

Tim Hennen said he focused on the business aspect of Yesterday’s a lot early on, while Johnny concentrated on the front end of the operation dealing with customers. Mike Hennen was also involved in various aspects, including management, Tim said, before starting his own business that today is known as Custom Werks Graphics and which prints and produces promotional products. Denny Hennen, another brother, also became involved for years and often took care of the night-time operation. Sister Mary Helton also waited tables some.

An early sandwich maker not long after Yesterday’s opened was Roy Sayre, who was in his early 90s by then and had also worked at Edmund’s and Der Stein. A manager in later years was Dick Brady.

Despite or perhaps because of all the success of Yesterday’s, Tim Hennen became interested in additional restaurant-related businesses to fuel his strong entrepreneurial spirit. Other restaurants he became involved with as an owner or a partner while also continuing his interest in Yesterday’s were Timothy’s Staircase, D’Lites, Big River Grille and Brewing Works, Bones Smokehouse and Hennen’s, among others.

Most have done well, but some did not. Mr. Hennen joked that Timothy’s Staircase, also in Patten Parkway where the Honest Pint later was, did not do so well, but Yesterday’s was continuing to do well enough that it made the losses only negligible.

By the late 1990s, with so many different establishments starting to open downtown and due to the varying businesses Tim Hennen was involved with, and possibly other factors, a decision was made to close Yesterday’s after closing hours on Feb. 21, 1998, and into Feb. 22. And yes, Overland Express did come back for that final weekend to perform.

It was certainly a time of sentimental nostalgia. Jack and Missy Steiner from the Ruby Falls family talked in a newspaper interview of first meeting each other at Yesterday’s before marrying.

Today, the old site of Yesterday’s looks a little different. The old thin stone that surrounded the Yesterday’s entrance area is gone, and the building has been greatly spruced up and painted. It even has the name of the Tomorrow building, which both gets far away from the Yesterday’s name but is also perhaps an ode to it.

Jack Brown’s Beer and Burger Joint now occupies the old Yesterday’s site in remodeled space.

Popular downtown eating and drinking establishments had within a few years also followed Yesterday’s and Brass Register in the pre-1990s era before downtown really took off. Those included David’s on Vine Street and the Pickle Barrel near the corner of 11th and Market streets, with the latter still open today as a bar and restaurant, although under different owners than originally. Vine Street Market and the Gazebo by Fountain Square also became popular, although mainly as restaurants. The Chattanooga Choo-Choo also developed some entertainment facilities to go with its hotel rooms and dining offerings.

And now downtown is proliferated with all kinds of eating and drinking establishments, and people want to live downtown as was not the case when Yesterday’s opened in 1973.

Despite all the nostalgia of Yesterday’s opening 50 years ago this summer, Tim Hennen does not have several family members around to help him celebrate and remember the occasion. Brother Johnny, a champion racquetball player, died in 2016, Denny in 2017, and James “Jimmy” in 2022. And Tim and wife Corrine’s son, Michael, who had been a manager at Hennen’s, died in August 2011 at the age of 27 when he and friend Hannah Barnes were struck by a train while on foot at the railroad tracks by his maternal family’s McDonald Farm in Sale Creek.

Tim Hennen had an obvious tinge of sadness as he remembered his now-deceased family members.

But he did perk up over the phone when discussing the pride and enjoyment he and his family gained from finding a future in Yesterday’s beginning way back in 1973.

After all, that place and the Brass Register passed the torch on to other businesses and helped downtown Chattanooga begin to become the vibrant place it is today and helped slow the flight to the suburbs that had begun in the 1960s.

“We did it for 25 years,” he said with family pride, adding that a Hennen was almost always on site during its operation. “And that was the catalyst that spurred everything I’ve done since then. That is where I first made money.”

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To see the recent and related story on the history of the Brass Register, read here.

https://www.chattanoogan.com/2023/6/3/470036/John-Shearer-Proprietor-Paul-Boehm.aspx

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jcshearer2@comcast.net