About Central Park

From 1982 to Today

Our Story

Since 1982

  1. 1982

    Central Park Restaurants was founded in Chattanooga, Tennessee, in 1982 by a member of the Davenport family.

  2. Late 1980s

    What began as a few Chattanooga locations grew to more than 80 restaurants by the late 1980s. Central Park was known for its unique double drive-thru setup with no interior seating, and for affordable hamburgers, fries and shakes.

  3. Changing Hands

    The Davenport family ran Central Park for many years and eventually sold the entire franchise to a restaurant group in New York. That group ran it for some time and then sold it to a restaurant group in Orlando, Florida.

    Unfortunately, after the Davenports sold the franchise, the owner groups that followed brought very little oversight and quality control. The franchise lost many franchisees, and the menu stopped looking the same from one store to the next. By 2020, only seven restaurants were left.

  4. 2020

    In February 2020, current owners Calvin and Amy Ball purchased their first Central Park in Chattanooga. Neither of them had any restaurant experience, so they based the purchase on retaining Richie Clayton as their General Manager. Richie has worked at Central Park for more than 40 years and still runs day-to-day operations. He is an extremely important part of the team.

    Through hard work, renovations, and learning the fast-food industry, this newly formed team quadrupled sales at that location. They also spent significant time and effort getting the menu and the products back as close to the original as possible.

  5. Today

    In December of 2021, Calvin and Amy purchased the entire franchise from the Orlando group. They now own and operate four restaurants in the Chattanooga, Tennessee area and one in Cleveland, Tennessee, with a sixth location opening soon in Greeneville, Tennessee.

    The plan from here is to expand to 10 restaurants and see where that takes them, while continuing to serve great nostalgic Central Park food at competitive prices with great service.

    They hope you will visit one of their restaurants soon and enjoy what so many folks have cherished over the past 40 years.

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