Chef Tam‘s Underground Cafe is set to open in the old Imagine space on January 28th.
Owner Tamra Eddy chose that date because it’s her late father’s birthday. Her father was a chef, her grandfather a bbq pitmaster, her grandmother a baker. “It’s in me,” she says.
Underground Cafe will serve Southern classics with a gourmet flair, says Eddy. We’re talking fried ribs, mac and cheese, tacos, catfish, jerk shrimp, and peach cobbler nachos (!).
As for the name of the cafe, Eddy says initially she was going to open in a space with an underground kitchen. The name stuck, she says, because she recognized how accurate it is. “[My talent as a chef] has been hidden so long. It works perfectly for me.”
Eddy, who was the chef at the Lighthouse, began looking for a space a couple months ago. She reached out online and was led to the Imagine space. She’s currently giving the restaurant a good scrubbing and plans to hang old black-and-white images of her family to complete the homey feel.
