08/07/2026
Family legacyâŚdelicious food! Stay with us and plan a meal out! Mountaineer strong, Lauren & Taylor!!
Our Story!
The Mountaineer Cafe, re-established in 2025, is a locally owned, sister-operated restaurant in the heart of Madison, Virginia.
We are Lauren Yowell Eanes and Taylor Yowell, sisters who have called Madison home our entire lives. When Mad Pepper became available for purchase in the summer of 2025, we knew the time had finally come to bring our familyâs restaurant story full circle.
Our history with this business and building began more than two decades ago. In 2004, when Lauren was a freshman in high school, our momâs cousin, Debbie Hensley, brought her restaurant experience from Culpeperâwhere she had previously owned Jennersâto Madison and opened the original Mountaineer Cafe. After a soft opening for family and friends, Debbie offered Lauren a job that quickly grew from washing dishes to waiting tables.
In 2007, Debbie decided to sell the restaurant, and our family took a leap of faith by purchasing it. What followed were some of the most memorable years of our lives. Our entire family worked side by side, filling every role imaginableâfrom cooking and serving to washing dishes and greeting customers. More importantly, we built friendships and relationships with members of our community that continue to this day.
Taylor practically grew up in the restaurant. From an elementary school girl to a teenager, she learned how to wait tables, cook, and wash dishes long before most kids her age had their first jobs. The restaurant wasnât just where we workedâit was where we grew up.
In 2013, our family made the difficult decision to sell the business. After years of long hours and hard work, we were ready for life to slow down and spend more time with our growing family. Even after the restaurant changed hands over the years, we often found ourselves talking about how wonderful it would be to own it again someday and what we would do differently if we ever had the opportunity.
That âsomedayâ finally arrived in 2025 when a Facebook Marketplace listing advertising Mad Pepper for sale was sent to Lauren. It didnât take long for us to realize this was the opportunity we had been waiting for.
With the incredible support of our community, we were able to bring back the Mountaineer Cafe name and many of the traditions people remembered and loved. Youâll still find longtime favorites like our homemade chicken salad, classic homemade sides, jumbo-sized pancakes, and country favorites like scrapple and Kiteâs Country Ham. Weâve also added a few of our own creations that have quickly become customer favorites, including pickle fries, cheeseballs, fried cod, and more. We wanted to honor the past while adding a few sister touches that make the restaurant uniquely ours.
Above everything else, we are a family business.
That philosophy is one of the biggest reasons our hours are 7:00 AM to 2:00 PM, seven days a week. Lauren and her husband, Drew, are raising three active childrenâAfton, Zeke, and Axelâwhose lives are filled with school, sports, travel teams, and extracurricular activities. During our first time owning the restaurant, we learned that evenings in the restaurant often meant missing moments that you can never get back. This time around, weâve chosen to build a business that allows us to serve our community while still being present for our families.
We are also incredibly blessed with a supportive family for our children. Aunt Taylor and our childrenâs grandparents play a huge role in their lives, and we never want them to have to choose between attending a game, tournament, or school event and covering an empty shift at the restaurant. Family has always come first for us, and we believe that balance allows us to be our bestâboth at home and when serving our customers.
We hope youâll understand our commitment to that balance and find time to visit us during our daytime hours. On Saturdays and Sundays, we proudly serve breakfast all day, giving everyone a chance to enjoy their favorite breakfast dishes whenever they stop by.
The Mountaineer Cafe is more than a restaurant to us. Itâs a place filled with memories, family traditions, and communityâitâs our second home. We are incredibly grateful for the opportunity to continue its story and to create new memories with every guest who walks through our doors.
Thank you for supporting our local, family-owned business. Whether youâre a lifelong friend or visiting us for the very first time, we look forward to welcoming you to the Mountaineer Cafe and serving you for many years to come!
đLauren & Taylor
