Our story

The Garage started out as The Plaza Garages, a set of 1930s tile-roofed garage stalls built in 1924 around a central courtyard for tenants of the nearby Highland Plaza apartments. The old stalls are still part of the place today.

In the mid-1970s, architect Fritz Woehle bought the property. He used part of it as his design office and filled the rest with architectural fragments, antiques, and other things he collected over the years. Those collections became part of the courtyard and remain a big part of what gives The Garage its character.

In 1994, Jimmy Watson leased part of the old garage and opened the Garage Café, a bar and sandwich shop. It went on to be named one of GQ's "10 Bars Worth Flying To" and one of Southern Living's "Top 100 Bars in the South," and Esquire has written it up as well. Over the years, the courtyard, the old buildings, Woehle's collection, and the trees and wisteria became as much a part of the place as the bar itself.

After Jimmy Watson passed, his brother Kenny ran the Garage Café for a while before it closed. Fritz Woehle's daughter Kay reopened the space soon after as The Garage, keeping on most of the staff, including longtime bartender Jyl Williamson, along with the same décor and the same spirit that had always defined the place. After Fritz Woehle's passing, Kay carried the bar forward for years.

Kay eventually sold The Garage to longtime patron Bob “Irish Bob” Ryan, who remains the owner today, carrying on the same neighborhood bar and the character that made the place what it is.

Today, The Garage still feels more like a place that grew into itself than one that was designed all at once. Old garage stalls, antiques, trees, wisteria, and string lights all share the same courtyard. That's pretty much the idea.

Full hours, address, and a map are on the homepage, and the sandwich and drink menu is here.