The Garages

The Garages is a group of 1930s-era tile-roofed automobile garage stalls arrayed around a courtyard on the 2300 block of 10th Terrace South. It is now best known as the location of owner Fritz Woehle's antiques showroom and the Garage Café.

After Woehle purchased the former complex in the late 1970s and opened a design office there, he began leasing individual stalls out to other small businesses, like Charlemagne Records and Crackerbox Productions (Grayson Dix).

Jimmy Watson leased a connected group of stalls on one corner for Garage Café in 1994 and was given permission to use the courtyard for outdoor seating.

In 2010 restaurateur Chris Hastings considered building a new restaurant in the adjacent spaces and covering the courtyard, which would have been shared with the bar. He dropped those plans in the face of a popular backlash and unfavorable cost estimates.

References

• Geiss, Chuck (September 30, 2010) "Naked Birmingham" Black & White
• Carlton, Bob (January 28, 2011) "Birmingham chef Chris Hastings drops plans for restaurant in Garage Cafe building." The Birmingham News