There was a time when downtown Knoxville was the place not to go.
The 1960s ushered in a time of change with the establishment of the interstate systems. This led to a rise of suburban areas that drew a lot of downtown tenants out of the city. And so it happened—somewhere along the way, Knoxville lost its flavor.
But in 1982, the city would host the World’s Fair, largely in attempt to increase revenue in the downtown area. It worked, and we now have the big golden ball that decorates the Knoxville skyline as a memento— the Knoxville Sunsphere.
The Sunsphere pinned Knoxville back on the map, allowing for a good amount of revitalization. Today, one can pick from a wide variety of existing restaurants, and eagerly await the opening of many more that are in development.
The Oliver Royale, the latest addition to Market Square from the folks at The Oliver Hotel, now occupies what was previously Shonos in City. They identify as a “handsome bar” with a “chef-driven menu.”
General manager Courtney Schott expanded upon the concept of the new restaurant, explaining what the owners hoped to accomplish.
“They were hoping to fill a niche that Knoxville hadn’t quite yet filled, to bring people more what they might enjoy,” Schott said. “There are ethnic influences in our food, but we don’t fall into a genre of French or Italian or Hispanic … but we have influences from those and we’ve taken it and put, shall we say, some culinary artistic license into it to make it a Knoxville original, really.”
Schott explained that her team is highly sensitive to the impeccable service that it takes to keep a restaurant in existence, offering unique and cautionary insight into what it will take for restaurants to make it.
“Knoxville is a test market town for restaurants, and if you don’t really try to do your best at what you’re doing, success can be difficult,” Schott said.
Another soon to open Market Square restaurant, Market House Cafe, is coming soon to 36 Market Square where Orange Leaf was previously located. The café will start serving up freshly-made pastries, breads and coffee at 7 a.m. and transition into “fast, delicious lunches” and evening “relaxation an companionship,” sans the late night live music the Scruffy City owners are known for at their other businesses.
Still, other restaurants like Cholo Taqueria from the people behind Stock and Barrel, Babalu Tacos and Tapas, and the eatery planned by former Blackberry Farm and award-winning chef, Joseph Lenn, are all in the works.
In an article from Atlanta Magazine, Knoxville is explored as a getaway and labeled “Austin without the hype.” Austin, Texas, has countless restaurants that would satisfy any foodie, and it’s also home to one UT alumni and celebrity chef Tim Love and his Lonesome Dove restaurants –which along with one of his other chains, Love Shack, is planned to open in the Old City.
The article goes on to point out that Knoxville is indeed a college town, and how that shapes our food scene as well as our city’s culture.
“The hallmarks of collegiate culture—youthfulness, irony, experimentation, indie everything—color Knoxville’s food, music, nightlife, and ambience,” the article stated.
Martha Boggs, owner of the Bistro at the Bijou and Dazzo’s Pizzeria, said she has seen a lot of the changes in downtown throughout her years in the restaurant business. She explained that the way her restaurants have evolved is parallel to the way food trends have.
“When I first came here in 1993, it was just bar food, chicken wings, hamburgers and nachos, but we have evolved into more of an entrée-based type of menu,” Boggs said. “I really think that the biggest change is that people want to be more aware of where their food comes from, and they seem to be more concerned about their diet and what they’re putting in their body than they were, say, 15 years ago.”
When asked how she feels about all of the new eateries that have opened and plan to open, Boggs said, “the more the merrier.”
“You know, the ones that do a good job and have good food will be here for a while, and the ones that don’t won’t,” she said.
Previously mentioned Babalu Tacos and Tapas is one such new eatery that will be opening very soon. With operative locations in Jackson, Miss., Birmingham, Ala., Memphis and soon to open locations in Charlotte, NC, and Knoxville, Babalu was developed to be a cutting edge restaurant that is described as being more aligned with an ethnic, street food type of feel.
Al Roberts, executive VP of Eat Here Brands, the parent company of Babalu, explained why his company wanted to bring the restaurant to the downtown Knoxville area.
“Once we developed the philosophy of what we wanted to do with the food … we tried to decide what type of real estate and what areas we wanted to be (in), and we felt like second generation real estate is what we wanted to do,” Roberts explained. “Obviously when we looked at Knoxville, we felt Gay Street made a lot of sense for us. We love the old JCPenney Building.”
Babalu will offer a signature appetizer of guacamole made table side, a number of shareable sides, salads, tacos, sandwiches and numerous mouthwatering tapas, like creole shrimp and grits. Their adult beverage selection is extensive, and it doesn’t look like they’re messing around with desserts either with dulce de leche cheesecake, marshmallow sweet potato empanada, and a dessert sampler for those of you who don’t discriminate against dessert items.
Moving north along Gay St. and west on Jackson, you’ll find another fairly recent addition to the food scene.
With the success of their self-described off the beaten path Maryville Pike location, Sweet P’s BBQ was in search of a downtown location that would similarly position itself away from the heavily beaten path of Market Square, which owner Chris Ford explained just wasn’t their style.
“We wanted our next restaurant to be in some kind of cultural center; we certainly are not a strip mall brand,” Ford said. “Downtown didn’t have any barbeque, and it just seemed like an obvious place for us to go with our clientele and our brand.”
This led Sweet P’s to their Jackson Ave. location, expanding downtown restaurants to places beyond the expected.
And while Ford and the rest of us continue to watch as more restaurants move in and set up shop, we can all hope that Knoxville’s food scene continues to deliver and excite on all levels.
“Quite frankly, I’d like to see more diversity in Knoxville’s downtown food,” Ford said. “There’s a lot of good food downtown, for sure, but there’s a lot of the same stuff. “
Even so, Ford said he is happy to see the continued growth in his hometown.
“I grew up here, and for almost decades, downtown was nothing; it was a ghost town … so I love seeing people back downtown, I love seeing people making money downtown and people moving downtown. It’s been really awesome, and it’s cool to be a part of it,” Ford said.
“I think this next year’s going to really show more of what Knoxville’s food is all about.”
