Whistle Stop Cafe in Juliette, Georgia

The 1991 film, Fried Green Tomatoes, directed by John Avnet starring Kathy Bates, Jessica Tandy, Mary Stuart Masterson Mary Louise-Parker, Chris O'Donnell and other well knowns... was filmed in Juliette Georgia. The Whistle Stop Cafe was a very important part of the movie.

Juliette, Georgia is not far from Atlanta, and Juliette and the Whistle Stop Cafe are a great outing. The Whistle Stop Cafe serves good food, and the fried green tomatoes are excellent! The Peach Cobbler was outstanding.

History of the Whistle Stop Cafe

The Irondale Cafe in Irondale, Alabama was the setting for the wonderful novel "Fried Green Tomatoes at the WhistleStop Cafe" by author Fannie Flagg. The McMichael family bought the Cafe in 1972 from Ms. Flagg's great Aunt Bess and owned it for 28 years taking the little cafe from a seating capacity of 32 seats to 260. Irondale is located just east of Birmingham on I-20.

When the movie "Fried Green Tomatoes" was filmed in 1991, the filmmakers chose a closed building in Juliette, Georgia as the movie location for the Whistle Stop Cafe. The building was built in 1927 by Edward L. Williams, Sr. He ran a general merchandise store there for 45 years and finally closed the doors for good in 1972 simply stating, "I have had enough."

While in business, the store sold groceries, staples, gasoline, cattle feed, medicines, clothing and hardware. In Mr. Williams words, "everything from the cradle to the grave." He called everyone "Cuz" and was known to roll the dice to see who paid for the Coca-Colas.

Mrs. Williams, known to most as "Miss Lillian," helped run the store and also raised five boys and a girl. All of the children helped in the store until they went off to school or to military service.

The store was probably one the last of it's kind that delivered the groceries and also allowed folks to "charge" them; keeping a running tab. An antique file system loaded with old yellow tickets from the past along with the meat block, cash register, meat scales, wood heater, safe, and other smaller items remain in the cafe today.

The store was rented out for a while as a timber consultant/real estate office and then as an antique shop before the filming of "Fried Green Tomatoes." The store played a major role as "The Whistle Stop Cafe."

After the filming, Robert Williams, who had inherited the building, decided to make it into a real cafe and formed a partnership with friend Jerie Lynn Williams. Together they started the "Original Whistle Stop Cafe."