Authored By chloe.morrison

In a move that involved players said is a win for everyone, The Bitter Alibi owners Matt Skudlarek and Jason Bowers will soon be acquiring the assets and taking over the lease of Riverview café The Farmer’s Daughter.

“It won’t be The Bitter Alibi; it also won’t be The Farmer’s Daughter,” Skudlarek said of the new restaurant that will go in the 1211 Hixson Pike space.

The Farmer’s Daughter’s last day in operation will be May 8, which is Mother’s Day. The new restaurant will have the same hours as The Farmer’s Daughter did, and Skudlarek and Bowers would eventually like to expand them.

“Smaller and better things”

The Farmer’s Daughter owners Ann Keener and Mike Mayo didn’t set out to be restaurateurs when they opened the Hixson Pike café; their mission was to advocate for local food and farmers, and move forward a conversation about sustainable agriculture.

“The conversation has changed,” Mayo said Friday.

Now, there are a lot of people making “meaningful commitments” to local food and agriculture-for example, Chattanooga’s Harvested Here Food Hub, he said.

So after nearly three years working long days and keeping their heads “down in eggs and bacon,” Mayo said he and Keener want to get back to the conversation and figure out the best way to continue supporting their mission.

He joked that while some people move on to “bigger and better things,” he and Keener want to do “smaller and better things.”

“We want to always be pushing the culture forward in the best possible way,” he said. “Selling bacon and eggs is awesome, but if you want to have the bandwidth to be a part of the conversations, it’s hard to do after 14 hours.”

So the duo is going to take a couple of months to figure out how to utilize their talents and resources to continue helping the community progress.

Handing over the momentum

Mayo and Keener are passing the business on to a duo who can carry on part of what they started.

The deal has been cemented “in principle” between the four involved, although the official transaction is still in the works. More details-for example, what the new restaurant’s name and staff needs will be-will come soon.

“Now, we are able to hand over this energy and momentum,” Mayo said.

And for Skudlarek and Bowers, the undertaking is in line with where they are and where they want to be going.

The Bitter Alibi has been open for about two years and has expanded from a downstairs bar with limited food options to a two-level restaurant that has a new menu and popular weekend brunch offerings. Skudlarek and Bowers also recently opened a cocktail lounge called The Fix on the third floor of the 825 Houston St. space, which is near the corner of Martin Luther King Boulevard.

“We can use the model they built and put our restaurant management [skills] behind that,” Skudlarek said. “That allows us to carry on and grow that restaurant with our own spin … and it opens the door for The Bitter Alibi to grow even more.”

Skudlarek and Bowers want to keep the “community aspect” of The Farmer’s Daughter. It will still be a place where members of the neighborhood can walk to and get coffee and breakfast, the duo said.

“We are going to try to be as involved in the neighborhood, because that’s been our thing on MLK,” Bowers said.

And, although it’s not an immediate focus, the duo also might work to animate the space for evening and night activities, Skudlarek said.

The new venture doesn’t mean The Bitter Alibi will be neglected, Bowers said. The duo has been staffing up and preparing for the change.

Mayo, Skudlarek and Bowers said the move is positive for everyone, but Mayo understands that the initial news might be a little unsettling, as any change can be.

“It’s going to be a little jarring, but the salve on that wound is how professional these guys are and what a damn good job they do,” Mayo said. “I have every confidence that as soon as someone … walks in those doors, they will be instantly excited.”

And if they wonder what Mayo and Keener are doing, they can feel confidence that the pair will be utilizing their talents to best benefit the community.

“Ann and I focusing our talents on what we do best, which is advocacy and community development, is going to create the best results for the most amount of people,” Mayo said.