Southside has a new bar to fall in love with—and the neighborhood has already welcomed it with grateful stomachs.
Bona Fide is the brain child of five Chattanooga industry stalwarts: head chef Joey Milenkovic, pastry chef Estela Felipe, bar managers Rachel Holland and Garth Poe, and project manager Jared Padovani. The industry brought them together; soon, friendships formed, and ideas were shared after long nights behind the bar and in the kitchen.
55 Johnson Street is an address many locals know by feel—iconic in a city that doesn’t use the word lightly. When the former Flying Squirrel and Ernest Chinese space became available last summer, plenty of others wanted in on it, too.
That it landed with Bona Fide’s team felt like good timing, and a responsibility. Their approach is to preserve rather than replace: keeping it the neighborhood spot you can turn to on any given night, whether that’s a family dinner, a seat at the bar, a special celebration, or a date. The sustainability built into the property—the composting, the reclaimed wood, the chef’s garden on the patio—carried over, standards they wanted to hold onto.
Until the doors opened, Chattanoogans got to know Bona Fide through a series of pop-ups. It gave the team something to sink into while the behind-the-scenes work ground on. It turned out to be the best kind of buzz-building: a way to refine dishes and drinks against real community feedback. The pop-ups deepened relationships with local partners and, over a long opening process, gave the team confidence in what they were creating.
That approach shows on the plate. The menu is fun, inviting, and approachable, simple dishes executed well. The product is the star and fresh, seasonal flavors take the lead. The goal is to make guests feel confident trying something they’ve never had before—whether it’s a clarified piña colada with a silky mouthfeel, or pasta made with einkorn flour, an ancient grain that lends a nutty flavor. More specifically, Milenkovic’s background in Italian cooking runs through the handmade pastas, while Felipe’s Brazilian roots surface in passionfruit and other bright notes. Nearly everything on the menu can be made gluten-free, and a number of the cocktails can go zero-proof.
“You can enjoy the same things and it doesn’t feel like a second thought,” says Holland.
The drinks themselves grew out of the pop-ups: riffs on the classics, refined event by event, with a lot of the syrups and ingredients made by hand at home. It’s homemade in the best sense: having fun with it, working with what they have to create something memorable.
On the sweet side, Felipe’s Bananamisu is a fusion of the Italian classic and Southern banana pudding. It’s exactly the kind of treat the menu is built to invite you toward—and it’s already a Bona Fide favorite.
Chattanooga is rich with industry veterans, and this group trusts one another to do what they do best—which is exactly what lets them collaborate and thrive. They're not trying to reinvent hospitality or be different for different’s sake. They just want to be better. And that philosophy is in everything: how they talk about the people who built this with them, and in something much simpler, too. They’re happy to come to work. People are excited to show up, to cook, to pour, to eat, to help guests have a great meal and even better time.
“Our mission statement is, ‘sharing delicious moments in good faith,’ and that says everything,” Felipe says.