As part of Graduate Hotel Knoxville, Saloon 16 blends western styles with Peyton Manning’s story in every aspect of the restaurant.
Located at 1706 Cumberland Ave. on the Strip, Saloon 16 functions as part of the restaurant side of Graduate Hotel Knoxville. Along with Poindexter Coffee, the restaurant serves everyone regardless of if they are staying in the hotel. It opened in August of 2020 in association with Peyton Manning.
Food and beverage director for Graduate Hotel and Saloon 16 Noel Raymond discussed the restaurant and what they aim to bring to Knoxville and students at the University of Tennessee, especially in telling a story.
“The menu itself, Peyton was very involved in it, and there’s basically a story behind all of the entrées whether it be the Cheese Bings, whether it be Ray and Lucy’s Beer Dip, every little aspect has a story behind it,” Raymond said.
Saloon 16 is located in the Graduate Knoxville Hotel and offers lounge seating for guests.
Along with the menu, the walls of the saloon are decorated with memorabilia and references to Peyton Manning, like notes on the wall and sheriff badges on the bar. The restaurant even provides small papers for staff that detail what each item on the wall and menu means. For example, there’s a wall-spanning cowboy mural of Peyton Manning and the UT football team that is a recreation of a famous painting.
“The whole thing is just really, really overwhelming,” Raymond said. “You could spend probably an hour just looking in there and seeing everything and asking questions.”
Saloon 16 on Cumberland Ave offers bar and lounge seating for guests to enjoy the menu of drinks, appetizers and expanding entree selections.
This extends to the menu as well. Each item on the menu is named after someone important in Manning’s life, whether that be family or a UT faculty member. Menu items like the Max, Fraz and Hawk’s Wings get their name from equipment managers at UT, or Go Go’s Spoon Burger is named after Manning’s mother and is based on her recipe.
General manager for Graduate Hotel Kirk Figgins discussed this aspect of the menu.
“As far as the stories behind the menu items, Peyton wanted to pay homage to the people that meant the most to him and his college football career,” Figgins said.
They update their menu constantly, adding and taking away dishes based on reception. They are currently planning on adding more entrée meals to their menu to go along with their large drink section and appetizers. Raymond wants to make Saloon 16 a restaurant, bar and gathering place for everyone.
“Everything has a story relating to something about the saloon or about the Graduate or about Peyton,” Raymond said.
Raymond’s favorite menu item is Peyton’s Chicken Parm Sandwich, which is based on the Nationwide ads that Manning represented. Figgins said that his favorite item on the menu is the Graduate Burger, specifically with double burger patties.
Figgins also discussed Graduate Hotel Knoxville, talking about how the hotel aims to represent UT and Knoxville in just about every part of the building.
“The hotel has a lot of character,” Figgins said. “The building itself has been around, it’s been on campus for going on 70 years. It’s got 112 rooms and we’re right on the Strip on Cumberland Avenue, literally right next to campus. So, one of our neighbors is the Kappa Sig fraternity house right there on Lake Avenue.”
The hotel is open for students to come in and grab coffee, study or even hang out in the lobby.
“We get a lot of visitors for the university … from students walking by and popping in to get a coffee or a meal at Saloon 16. We are actually the closest hotel within walking distance to Neyland Stadium and Thompson Boling Arena. So, on a football game day or a home basketball game, the atmosphere within the hotel is second to none.”
For guests staying in the hotel, each room is customized with UT and Knoxville homages, like Vol Navy boat as the front desk, hidden power T’s scattered throughout the building, numbers that represent the years that UT has won a national championship and mysterious scarab beetles in some of the rooms.
“We also have a 10,000-pound bear that we named Gus sitting in front of the hotel, he’s holding a sign that says, ‘Welcome to Graduate Knoxville,’” Figgins said.
Along with that, they want the hotel to remind guests of their college experience. With its 112 rooms, the hotel is right on campus as well as within walking distance to everything on campus.
“It definitely calls to the spirit of the university,” Figgins said. “Every piece in the hotel was thoughtfully curated by our in-house design team to really call to the memories of alumni and visiting and prospective students, to give them a taste of what it would be like to attend the University of Tennessee.”
Figgins and Raymond hope that people will join them either at the hotel or at Saloon 16. They have specialty nights and events planned for students to come, like $5 burger nights and trivia, as well as introverted book clubs at the hotel. Figgins hopes that Graduate Hotel Knoxville will become a major destination for guests to stay at.
“We want to continue to be the hotel of choice for students and visiting family and prospective students,” Figgins said.
Saloon 16 is a place to drink, eat and lounge among the collection of UT memorabilia and decor.
Raymond is currently looking forward to summer, where he hopes that students staying in Knoxville or on campus will stop by Saloon 16 during their break.
“We’re really looking at what we can do for those students who are still here for the summertime and how we can make this place their first choice when they’re still here … to come visit with us, to drink with us, to have a burger with us, to dine, to stop in and see what’s going on,” Raymond said.
Saloon 16 welcomes guest with a western patio entrance before entering the lounge space within.
