Chattz to close Friday

One of Chattanooga’s oldest coffee shops is closing downtown.

Chattz on Market Street announced Tuesday it will shut its doors this week after more than 15 years of operation. The Chattanooga Coffee Co., which opened the store in the Park Plaza building in the 1000 block of Market Street on Sept. 11, 2002, is closing the downtown store at noon Friday.

The company will continue to operate its wholesale roasting business and its other store at 2627 S. Broad St., where it has roasted its coffee over the past decade and a half.

“Our efforts and focus will shift to our expanding roasting business under the Chattanooga Coffee Co. name and perhaps we may be back here in the future,” said Eileen Mason, who co-owns the business along with Evelyn Wheeler. “We’ll still be supplying our coffee to restaurants around town and have our other location. But we’ve run into some obstacles with all of the contruction going on in this building right now.”

In a notice of the closing posted Tuesday, Mason and Wheeler said the ongoing renovation of their building led to the decision to shut down the Market Street storefront “after 15 wonderful years of service to downtown Chattanooga.”

“Due to building renovation and the parking impact, we believe the time has come to close Chattz on Market,” the owners said in their statement.

Chattz on Market opened in the fall of 2002, a year after 9/11. In the wake of the attacks on 9/11, Mason and Wheeler were forced to shutter their previous travel business arranging trips to the Middle East.

The success of their coffee shop,

which was one of the first in downtown Chattanooga, led to the opening of another Chattz in the Block building at 225 Broad St. But that ultimately closed after three years of operation.

The owners plan to be at Chattz on Market Thursday and Friday to greet long-time customers. Loyalty cards may still be redeemed at the Chattz on South Broad, Mason said.

Contact Dave Flessner at dflessner@timesfreepress.com or at 423-757-6340.