Lemonade House Grille site opening in Cape

Cape Girardeau soon will have a restaurant focused on lemonade and “crazy burgers,” thanks to the efforts of franchise owners Chelsea Eaton and her fiance, Lucas Clabough of Jackson.

Lemonade House Grille was founded in Poplar Bluff, Missouri, by Jim Hoyt, whom Eaton met on the fair-food circuit.

“He was selling lemonade at the fair, and I was selling cake pops at a fair,” she recalled. “He always called me the cake-pop girl.”

At first, she and Hoyt discussed selling her cake pops in the existing Lemonade House Grille, but eventually decided to start her own franchise.

“We signed the franchise agreement in June,” she said.

Lucas Clabough and Chelsea Eaton pose with their children, from left, Knox, Blaze, Pierce, Ames, Brody and Aubree, pose for a photo at the Lemonade House Grille in Dexter, Missouri, the day the couple signed a franchise agreement to open a location in Cape Girardeau.Courtesy

Since then, Eaton said she and Clabough been renovating the building at 350 N. Kingshighway, across from Taco Bell.

Eaton, who owns a Farmer’s Insurance agency, said she and her fiance, who is pastor at Mercy Hill Church in Jackson, enjoy entrepreneurial tendencies.

“We’re always looking for a new business opportunity,” she said. “Cape really had a market for something that offered unique menu items that are family-friendly in terms of price and atmosphere.”

She said the menu features a variety of specialty burgers, such as the macaroni-and-cheese baconburger.

“One of my favorites probably is the butler burger,” Eaton said. “It’s got caramelized onions and fresh aioli.”

Their menu also features a half-dozen types of street tacos, gourmet hot dogs “and, of course, over 20 different flavors of lemonade that are fresh-squeezed and fresh-brewed,” Eaton said.

The restaurant, which will seat about 115 people, not including an outdoor patio, seeks about 25 employees and is expected to open before mid-November.

“We’ll be set up as fast-casual,” Eaton said. “McAllister’s is a good example. People will order at the bar, and food will be taken to their table.”

The new location will be the fifth Lemonade House Grille — or sixth, counting a food truck.

And for dessert, Eaton said her restaurant will feature her cake pops.

“We’ve enlarged them so it’s about four times the size of a normal cake pop,” she said. “It will definitely be its own type of feature item.”

The restaurant also will include a party room that seats 25 to 30 people.

tgraef@semissourian.com

(573) 388-3627