About

The original Big Spring Cafe opened in 1922 at 119 Jefferson Street in Downtown Huntsville. It was in a near the Big Spring Canal. It then moved a few other times to other locations then moved to 115 Gallatin Street, and then to its current location on Governors Drive in 2017.This location provides bar stools at the counter and boothes and tables for customers.

Susan Warner opened the original location in downtown Huntsville in Spring 1922. The restaurant was sold to other owners. As many business left the downtown core for the Memorial Parkway corridor, joined the exodus in 1970 to the Governors Drive Location. Two years later, the restaurant over to her sister and brother-in-law, Doris and Howard Cowley. The Cowleys operated Big Spring Cafe until selling it to their daughter, Pam Milam, in 1992. Citing the age and condition of the current building, Milam announced in March 2008 that she planned to relocate Big Spring Cafe just west on Governors Drive, in "a year or so", taking care to replicate the interior of the cafe in the new location. When the original location opened in 1922, it served only hamburgers consisting of ground beef, salt, mustard, and onions on a roll. The current location, tucked between a meat market and a bait shop, offers both breakfast and lunch six days a week and is closed on Sundays. The menu now includes diner staples including hamburgers, hot dogs, and no-bean chili plus Southern specialties like Brunswick stew, slaw dogs, and fried bologna biscuits. Our diner has its own special language for ordering some items. For example, a "hamburger with cheese" is a ground beef patty with mustard and onions on a square bun while a "cheeseburger" is a ground beef patty plus lettuce, tomato, and mayonnaise on a round bun. A bowl with equal portions of chili and Brunswick stew is ordered as "half and half" while that mix with slightly more chili is a "60–40".