Car runs into Mexican restaurant near Lee Highway

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (WDEF) – A restaurant on Lee Highway suffered a scare Tuesday morning.

Armando and his family have owned the Molcajete Mexican Restaurant on Lee Highway for a decade.

They were getting ready for a long Tuesday of serving customers when a surprise came through the front door.

“I was eating, we open at 11, I was still eating some food. Next thing you know I hear like an explosion, so I thought something had exploded in the kitchen or something, then the car is coming in through the front,” Armando said. 

Chaos then ensued.

A SUV that crashed into the Molcajete Mexican Restaurant on Lee Highway Tuesday. (Courtesy: Sarah-Brett Reynolds)

Armando said, “One of my co-workers he was kind of close to the incident, but he had enough time to kind of get away from the car. We did have somebody in a booth right next to the car, but nothing happened to them, thank God.”

The vehicle that went through the front of this restaurant totally destroyed the front doors, and things could have been so much worse if this were peak dinner time.

“Well, that would’ve been a really big situation,” Armando said. “Usually we’re in the front, my sister is in there, sitting the people down, cashing people out, and that’s where the biggest impact was. It would’ve been way bigger… God protects us.”

Witnesses say the driver told them they thought they had hit their brake, but the car accelerated instead.

Chattanooga Police have given the driver involved a citation for failure to exercise due care.

Chattanooga firefighters said the building is structurally sound, and the owners say they’ll be back soon.

“Unfortunately, we would love to be open. We would love for you all to come out and eat but give us a couple of days, we’ll back up,” Armando said. “We always have that other location open up in Ooltewah, and we just ask them to support us just for the time that we are going to be closed down.”