By Constance Smith

As the sun comes up on Main Street in downtown Hartselle, she sips her coffee at her favorite window table as she does each morning. Downtown may just be coming to life, but her day started hours ago, when most people are still tucked snuggly in their beds.

It all started about 17 years ago where in Eva, Rhonda Morris was an antique shop owner. People would come from all over to pick through and search out their treasures in Eva, much like they do here in our own Hartselle antique shops. Rhonda often thought to herself, “Wouldn’t it be great to have a little place where all of the antiquing visitors could get a cup of coffee and a Danish?”

That reoccurring thought turned into a reality as one day a location across the street from her shop became available. With only $1,600 in her pocket, she took a leap of faith and signed the lease. She furnished the location with finds from her antique store, and jumped right in with both feet. Not long after, a friend suggested she serve chicken salad and that was the catalyst that exploded her little coffee shop into a full-fledged restaurant. Soon Cahoots moved to Hartselle and settled in its home on Main Street where it has been serving lunch for 14 years.

When you walk in the front door, you know immediately that you are in a restaurant like no other. Cahoots is decorated with a little bit of humor and a seasoning of sass. From the skeletons drinking coffee in the corner, to the Fred Astaire sign and vintage organ, the antique store roots shine through. There are no two tables that even resemble each other in Cahoots. You can find yourself at a long farmhouse table, a retro diner table or even a honkytonk bar.

Then there is the food.

Rhonda describes the menu at Cahoots as “healthy comfort food.” Until just two years ago, there wasn’t even a fryer in the kitchen. She added one just for the French fries and fried green tomatoes. One of her favorite items on the menu is the chicken tacos. After all these years, the original chicken salad is still her most popular item and has been since she first served it in the old gas station building in Eva. Rhonda loves to come up with new things to serve and will quite literally dream up new items like her Bacon Jam Club sandwich.

In her unpretentious way, Rhonda will laughingly tell you that she still has no idea how to run a restaurant. But serving hundreds of lunches every day between the restaurant and the catering, she must be doing something right. While Cahoots is primarily a lunch location, they do open for special evening events like the night of the Hartselle Christmas Parade. Parade attendees can come in for a hot meal, listen to live music and even Santa is known to make an appearance.

The next time you are out doing some antiquing or you are shopping for that wedding gown, be sure to stop in to say “Hi!” and grab a great lunch. Cahoots is open Tuesday through Saturday and is located just west of the railroad tracks on Main Street. Rhonda Morris sees all of her customers as family, and when you are greeted by the flying blue pig out front, you’ll feel right at home.