Eat & Swig

America. The Diner. Is Opening Soon – And Will Replace Eggs Over Baxter

Posted On: 31 Jul 2015 - 11:41am

Craving a boozy milkshake and a burger with grilled cheese sandwiches for buns? You’re in luck – America. The Diner. will open within the next two weeks at 962 Baxter Avenue, the space that currently houses Eggs Over Baxter.

The plans for America. The Diner. were first announced in February. Dustin Staggers and company were poised to open by summer - but plans for America. The Diner. were first challenged by the church adjacent to the proposed location (at 814 Cherokee Road), then entirely halted after the property changed hands.

Enter: Eggs Over Baxter, at 962 Baxter Avenue. Staggers, Eric Morris and Ethan Ray already hold their Ten Tables dining club there every Monday evening, so Staggers he took the opportunity to relocate America. The Diner. “We’re hoping to open the seventh [of August], [2015] but It will be open within two weeks.” Eggs Over Baxter opened in April of this year after Eggs Over Frankfort’s success at 2712 Frankfort Ave. Eggs Over Baxter’s last day in operation will be this coming Sunday, August 2. Eggs Over Frankfort will remain open - owner Jackson Nave is a partner in America. The Diner.

The menu for the diner has changed slightly – click through the slideshow at the bottom of this article to see the projected opening menu for America. The Diner. There will also be a bar program: “We’re going to have a full cocktail menu with drinks that are very diner-centric. We’ll have alcoholic malts and milkshakes.” Staggers’ chef de cuisine at America. The Diner. will be LaMonte Bobo, who’s worked at Eddie Merlot’s, Wild Eggs, Eggs Over Frankfort, Wild Rita’s, Napa River Grill and Against the Grain, among others.

Staggers has often reiterated his love for what he calls “fat kid food. I love making eggs and sausage and bacon and all my hamburgers – my hamburgers from the Monkey Wrench are coming back – and fried chicken, and meatloaf, and chicken pot pie, and chicken n’ dumplings…you know me, I just have such a fervor for making delicious food that when we open up a new concept all the culinary delights on the menu excite me as a person.”

There are 11 burgers on America. The Diner.’s menu – including a “Tampa Melt” with grilled cheese sandwiches as buns. There’s also a “Statue of Liberty Burger Challenge” – for $50, you get a massive 3.5 lb burger (a blend of Fox Hollow Farm’s ground beef, brisket and skirt steak) with 16 slices of bacon, eight slices of American cheese, lettuce, tomato, spicy Russian dressing and 1 lb of crinkle-cut fries or tater tots. If you succeed in downing the whole thing in less than 30 minutes, “The American Victor” will get a t-shirt, a picture of themselves on the Wall of Victors, and their meal for free. If you fail – you pay for the burger, and you end up on the wall of shame. Half of the proceeds from each Statue of Liberty Burger Challenge will go to Active Heroes.

So – what about Staggers and co.’s newly-opened Epic Sammich Co., which just happens to be a moment’s walk away from the diner? Staggers says the menus at America. The Diner. and Epic Sammich Co. have been arranged on purpose to avoid competition or overlap.