Founded in 1997 by owner Scottie Bowman, The Big Chill and Grill began as a humble bar-and-grill on Market Street and has since grown into a flagship restaurant, a local institution, and one of the most inclusive bars in Chattanooga and the North Shore.
Currently located on the corner of Cherokee and Manufacturers, the homespun staple has embraced a family-friendly atmosphere during the day while maintaining a highly energetic nightlife after hours.
The building is brick, and the sign out front says The Big Chill and Grill, with the Big Chill font frozen over in ice blue next to a cold martini and the Grill in red on fire. It’s inviting, and there’s a playfulness to it that welcomes you in.
Inside, and by the bar, is what seems like an endless wall of their signature frozen daiquiris, right below a host of big-screen TVs for entertainment. Their menu is chock-full of comfort food.
Think Fried okra, Chicken Fried Chicken, or steak smothered in white gravy, with their signature dish likely being their Chicken Salad Melter on Sourdough. They also have vegetarian options. There is plenty of room for seating: booths, high tops, bar seating, and table tops.
They often showcase a variety of entertainment on weekdays, such as Monday Night Drag Bingo, Tuesday trivia, and live music on the second Sunday of each month during brunch.
Throughout the rest of the week and on weekends, they often have live shows, and on the first and third Saturday of the month, they have an 18 and up show called ‘Dinner with the Dolls’ that starts at 9 pm and is hosted by Veronica Day and friends.
Often they’ll host comedians, and on July 30th at 8:30 pm, they will be holding a Stand-Up South event starring multi-talented comedian and writer, Brooke Barry, also featuring performances by Jack Irwin and Dan Alex.
In sitting down with Brooke at The Pulse office to preview her show at The Big Chill, there was a vulnerability and openness about her that sets you at ease immediately. Barry’s comedy was shaped by her early life, and she has learned to turn suffering into humor.
While she spent most of her childhood moving from one small town in Georgia to another, being raised by dogs, as she references in her bio, she often tells people she is from Fitzgerald, Georgia.
At ten years old, she was kidnapped and lived out of a semi-truck. Throughout her life, she was often lied to about who her father was, and when she got in touch with her biological father, one of the last things he said to her was, “You’ve been nothing but a bastard child to me,” to which she responded, “I might be a bastard, but I’m the greatest loving bastard. And I’m still yours.”
Ultimately, Brooke mentioned that what she gleaned from such a rough upbringing was that she wasn’t going to let her parents' story define who she was. She went on to name her stand-up tour “The Greatest Lovin’ Bastard Tour” as a way of turning pain into humor and reclaiming her power.
Barry went on to suggest that “There are a lot of jokes built around trauma in some way. I don’t want to make it about trauma. But for me, the only way I have been able to move past the trauma is to look at it from a comedian’s heart. Like Bill Hicks, one of the reasons I loved him was that he could take this twisted societal logic and, by twisting it, in a way make it more logical. To me, that is the true heart of comedy.”
In discussing the message she wants audiences to take away from her show, Barry said that “I can’t wait to travel a bit and tell stories to strangers. If I’m lucky, they’ll laugh a lot, if they’re lucky, they’ll cry a little. I do want to make people laugh, but I also want to let people know that this is a story that comes from a real place.”
Finally, when asked about her performance at The Big Chill on the 30th, Brooke mentioned, “I’m excited. I am doing a new hour of material. This is the first show of this new hour of this tour, so it's pretty exciting.”