It isn’t fine dining.

Chef and co-founder Matt Gallaher insists Knox Mason not be labeled anything synonymous with “fancy.”

He’d rather his two-year-old restaurant fall into the “casual dining” category that caters to the community, yet it sits cozily on the 100 block of Gay Street among designer boutiques and art galleries. The restaurant’s mark, a rustic, wooden sign, hangs above the entrance with white lettering which spells out “Knox Mason.”

In the back of his mind, Gallaher always knew he’d have his own restaurant. His passion for food blossomed as a child with a mother who grew vegetables on their land in Knox County and cooked dinner with the bounty every night. Their diets changed with the seasons.

When he was nine, his mother opened a catering business and restaurant. Before he was even a teenager, Gallaher was working for salary in the kitchen.

“I think I was getting $8 a week,” Gallaher recalled with a laugh. “Basically my allowance.”

Gallaher’s path from earning less than minimum wage to opening Knox Mason took a few turns. He originally earned a degree in chemical engineering and business from the University of Tennessee — all while working in restaurants to pay tuition. Not two years after graduation, Gallaher decided he wasn’t interested in engineering.

“If I was going to make a career, I wanted it to be something I really loved. I want to open my own restaurant. Have my own place,” Gallaher said. “There are so many years of training and learning that if I was going to do it, I wanted to do it for myself.”

At first, he didn’t do it for himself. He spent four years in the kitchen at Blackberry Farm, a luxury hotel and resort in the Appalachian Mountains. From there, he traveled the world cooking for bands like Kings of Leon, The Eagles and Neil Young. He later made his way back to Middle Tennessee where he spent two years cooking for Governor Bill Haslam.

Finally, he was ready to open a restaurant founded on his roots as a Southern man eating Southern food.

The sliver of a restaurant, with its shotgun style layout, seems to come from a world of high-end dining. It looks like something found in New York but with an undeniable Southern charm. With a capacity of 50 people and tables less than a foot apart, there’s an intimate coziness about the place. Snagging a seat at the bar offers diners a show of the three chefs expertly preparing plates as the orders flow in throughout the night.

“We don’t have a secret kitchen downstairs. There’s no back room,” Gallaher said. “It makes us a stronger team because there’s not a barrier to our communication or eye line.”

Natalie Blocher, junior in psychology, has been on the team for almost a year. From the fresh, spicy pork rinds to deviled eggs to the decadent banana pudding and everything in between, Blocher brings it to the table.

“It’s really nice to work with people who take enormous pride in the work they do,” Blocher said. “It reminds me that I want to find a job I feel passionate about and strive to always do better in whatever I’m doing.”

Knox Mason’s menu is intentionally small and printed in-house, allowing for ebbs and flows of local produce. His dogmatic approach to sourcing local has Gallaher buying fryer oil and other pantry items from afar, but during the summer, when the farmers’ market is in full swing, he says they spend about 70 percent of their food dollars on Tennessee farms.

“We do better than most when it comes to sourcing locally and seasonally, so the menu reflects that,” Gallaher said. “We make buttermilk biscuits at brunch, grits, collard greens and mac ‘n’ cheese.”

The five main courses served for dinner are listed on the menu with their ingredients’ sources like Roasted Ashley Farms chicken and Anson Mills farro ‘risotto.’ The sourcing and simplicity of the food allows each plate to shine.

“I wasn’t sure if Knoxville was ready for a restaurant the way I wanted to do it – if it was ready for Knox Mason,” Gallaher said. “That’s been a huge surprise — how well we’ve been received. I had a notion, but I didn’t know that it would be this great.”

Knox Mason is located at 131 S. Gay Street and is open Tuesday through Saturday 4-11 p.m., Friday and Saturday until 12 a.m. and Sunday’s brunch is 10 a.m. – 2 p.m.