Chevelle’s revving up new restaurant in Hayesville

• See more photos of the restaurant’s preparations.

There’s a hood by the stove, a fender beneath the kitchen sink, and assorted auto parts stretched across the table. A dollar store stereo hums country music from the window ledge.

But Larry Butler wouldn’t have it any other way.

“Our passions have always been music, food and cars, so we kind of brought everything together,” the co-owner of Chevelle’s said.

After opening up Chevelle’s restaurant in Murphy last July, Butler set his sights on expanding to Hayesville once Clay County’s alcohol vote had passed.

Butler said Re/Max accepted his offer for the old Country Cottage restaurant in just a few days.

“Honestly, I wasn’t 100 percent ready for that,” he said. “I thought there’d be some negotiating in-between but they agreed the first time out. It’s been exciting.”

The old house that the restaurant was built in dates back 100 years, Butler said. It was owned most recently by the bank.

“It was a lot rougher than we thought. There’s a lot of cover-up…to make it look better than it was,” he said.

Upon taking the walls apart, Butler said his team noticed structural problems that needed to be repaired.

“We weren’t really 100 percent ready for that,” he said. “That’s why it’s actually taken a lot longer [to open].”

Chevelle’s was originally slated to open in Hayesville in time for Christmas. The date has since been pushed back twice, to January and now February.

“We’re shooting for SuperBowl Sunday,” Butler said. “We’ll have six TVs hanging up. We’ll cover all sporting events and Nascar events; it’ll be a real fun place.”

Butler said he already has his eyes on expanding the property to include the old Cottage Bakery next door to create a larger venue than Murphy. He said his future plans also included opening a third location in Andrews.

“We’ve been speaking with [town elder] Steve Jordan, he has a building there on the four-lane that’s available,” he said. “And there’s supposed to be a casino going in above the airport there in Andrews.”

Unlike the Murphy restaurant, the ceilings in Hayesville’s venue are too low to incorporate a stage for musicians, though Butler said he was committed to keeping patrons entertained.

The plan is to have karaoke on Mondays, live jams on Fridays and bands on Saturday evenings.

“We definitely don’t schedule everybody,” he said. “You might not like country music but if you come in it will be the best country band that is available in this area, [not] just some people hackin’ away at something.”

Butler said his oldest daughter books the bands, some traveling from Knoxville, Chattanooga and Atlanta to perform. He described the talent as a mix of local and regional.

The menu will vary slightly to offer different specials at each location, he said.

Butler described Hayesville’s venue as “a little cozier, a little smaller,” but noted that there’s more kitchen space than the Murphy location.

While he aims to keep an open kitchen where customers can easily see what’s going on, Butler said that while customers will be able to look in, they won’t get a full view in Hayesville because of the design of the building.

The new restaurant will seat about 90 when all is said and done, just about ten seats less than the Murphy location. Chevelle’s had a hiring day about two weeks ago.

“We had 100 applications within an hour and a half. That was very exciting,” Butler said. “We have 321 shifts to fill.”

He plans to hire 30 or more positions for Hayesville, roughly equal to the staff of the Murphy venue.

Butler said he’s racing to tie up a few loose ends before the grand opening of the motor sports restaurant, but that so far, everything’s right on track.