The Corner Cafe celebrates beginning of 2026 with New Year’s Day lunch

LEXINGTON, Tenn. — The Corner Cafe is a local Lexington staple and they’re celebrating the start of the year with festive food.

Owner and chef Terri McCormick tells us what’s on the menu.

“We are actually having our New Year’s Day, and were having hog jowl, or you can have beef sort ribs, corn bread, black eye peas, sweet potatoes, macaroni and cheese, and cabbage,” said McCormick.

The restaurant actually sold out of their new years plates around eleven which speaks to the tradition of the meal.

Typically each dish goes along with a good luck charm with cornbread representing gold, greens representing good fortune, and pork as a sign of prosperity.

“I enjoy serving my food to people and then meeting them, it’s always fun, and today I get to meet people because they’re looking for that meal because they don’t want to cook it themselves, so they’re like hey the corner cafe. So I’m like yes, so I get all kinds of new people in here,” said McCormick.

As all the many dishes compliment one another, the tradition of eating food to bring about a better year dates all the way back to the 19th century.

Although times have changed, different traditions and celebrations are alive and well. The corner cafe is open Monday through Friday from 7:30 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Tradition varies from region to region, so how ever you celebrate, you can’t go wrong with good food.