Nestled in beautiful and historic downtown Madison Alabama, Main Street Cafe offers a truly unforgettable dining experience. Housed inside Madison’s 3rd City Hall(circa 1955), our guests enjoy an eclectic blend of Southern Comfort food coupled with an ever changing list of daily specials sure to tame even the toughest of appetites! Come have lunch in jail…without having to break any laws!

Today’s Main Street Cafe, owned and operated by Tammy and John Hall, was constructed to be Madisons third City Hall in 1954-55. The second City Hall was a two-story wooden structure located at Garner and Martin Streets. The building at 101 Main Street was converted into a cafe after its use in the 1990s as a gift shop by Tina and Brian Bice. Cindy Sensenberger leased it from the City of Madison in the year 2000 and opened for business in December of that year. In October 2018, she sold the business to Tammy and John Hall, and they still offer the same excellent cuisine to their customers and have a loyal clientele from throughout the region.

Today’s patrons at Main Street Cafe can have lunch or dinner in one of the two jail cells, which remain from the “old days” when this City Hall included offices for the Chief of Polices and his deputy on the east end of the building. The west end of the building was used for the Mayor’s office, City Clerk-Treasurer’s office, the Water Department, Collections Clerk, Inspector’s desk, and a long counter for handling city licenses and other public requests. The center of the building served to house the Volunteer Fire Department’s fire truck. There was a fire siren on the top of the building. It could be triggered by the Police Chief or the City Clerk. There was also a large button outside of the building that the Chief, City Clerk or the public could use to trigger the fire siren as needed. For special events, the fire truck was rolled out of the center bay of the building for “open house” days, children’s tours, city award ceremonies, and other community activities. Later, after the fire station was moved to the west end of Sullivan Street on the north Side of the railroad tracks, a judge’s bench was put in the middle room.