Big Spring Cafe

Big Spring Cafe
White single story building with a red car parked in front, also the restaurant's sign at photo right Big Spring Cafe in April 2011
Restaurant information
Established	1928
Current owner(s)	Pam Milam
Food type	Diner
Dress code	Casual
Street address	2906 Governors Drive SW
City	Huntsville
County	Madison
State	Alabama
Postal code/ZIP	35805-3723
Country	United States
Coordinates
Seating capacity	2 tables, 16 bar stools
Reservations	No

Big Spring Cafe is a greasy spoon restaurant located in Huntsville, Alabama. It opened in 1928, and is the oldest restaurant in the city. It is often noted as a landmark in the city and as one of Huntsville's "signature" restaurants.

History

The original Big Spring Cafe opened in 1928 at 119 Jefferson Street. It was located in a railroad boxcar near the Big Spring Canal. It then moved to 115 Gallatin Street (where the Von Braun Center parking garage now stands), and then to its current location on Governors Drive in 1970. This location provides 16 bar stools at the counter and two long tables for customers.

Troy Baucom opened the original location in downtown Huntsville in Spring 1928. The restaurant was sold to Hazel Beene in 1946 and, as business left the downtown core for the Memorial Parkway corridor, joined the exodus in 1970. Two years later, Beene turned the restaurant over to her sister and brother-in-law, Doris and Howard Cowley. The Cowleys operated Big Spring Cafe until selling it to their daughter, Pam Milam, in 1992. Citing the age and condition of the current building, Milam announced in March 2008 that she planned to relocate Big Spring Cafe just west on Governors Drive, in "a year or so", taking care to replicate the interior of the cafe in the new location. As of June 2014, that move has yet to take place.

Cuisine

When the original location opened in 1928, it served only hamburgers consisting of ground beef, salt, mustard, and onions on a roll. The current location, tucked between a meat market and a bait shop, offers both breakfast and lunch six days a week and is closed on Sundays. The menu now includes diner staples including hamburgers, hot dogs, and no-bean chili plus Southern specialties like Brunswick stew, slaw dogs, and fried bologna biscuits. The diner has its own special language for ordering some items. For example, a "hamburger with cheese" is a ground beef patty with mustard and onions on a square bun while a "cheeseburger" is a ground beef patty plus lettuce, tomato, and mayonnaise on a round bun. A bowl with equal portions of chili and Brunswick stew is ordered as "half and half" while that mix with slightly more chili is a "60–40".

Awards and honors

In February 2010, the Alabama Department of Tourism added the Big Spring Cafe's "chili burger & slaw dog" to their list of "100 dishes to eat in Alabama before you die". In July 2010, The Huntsville Times ranked Big Spring Cafe's "hamburger with cheese" at #5 on its list of "Huntsville's 20 most distinctive dishes".

See also

• List of hamburger restaurants