Bowlicious = Soup-er good time

OK. Here’s the deal.
You pay $50.
You go to the beautiful-in-any-season Hunter Valley Farm. You select a bowl out of hundreds created by generous East Tennessee artisans. You eat cheese and drink wine while bidding on a better-than-usual silent auction (mostly one-of-the-kind products also donated by local artisans).
You fill your beautiful new bowl with one of [...]

Don’t miss this event next year: “Symphony Soiree” brings international music - and food - to the table

There are all kinds of fancy fundraisers for the Knoxville Symphony: the elegant Crystal Ball, dinners and lunches in fine homes, and special private performances by visiting guest artists.
But my favorite one of all is a simple pot luck supper held in a church meeting hall early on a Sunday night. Florescent lights, paper napkins and [...]

Downtown: ideal setting for great progressive dinner

It is a real thrill to have a progressive dinner when everyone lives within walking distance. What better place for that than downtown?
At the end of this post, we’ll share some tips we’ve learned about how to have a great progressive dinner. But first, come along to a downtown version a bunch of us had just last Thursday. [...]

Wow! That was one expensive football!

The Evergreen Ball, a fundraiser for Friends of the Smokies, was held at Cherokee Country Club Feb. 12th after being postponed from its original date by inclement weather.
Of course there was the usual silent auction, dinner, live auction, dancing routine. But my favorite thing about it each year is that the Chillbillies are usually the performers. Yes, that [...]

Downtown goes to the dogs - and one cat!

From Great Danes to chihuahuas, the dogs definitely had their day in downtown Knoxville on Saturday. The third annual Mardi Growl parade and festival - a fund-raiser for Young-Williams Animal Center - attracted more than 300 canines and their humans. And one cat.
Although one wag described the event as “The Watch Where You Step Festival,” [...]

The “messenger god” meets the mortals (a lot of ‘em!) at Moxley Carmichael’s 2010 client party

We were a little nervous when former Sheriff Tim Hutchison and state Sen. Tim Burchett arrived at the Moxley Carmichael party at about the same time last Friday. The two men are locked in a not-all-that-friendly race to be the next Knox County mayor. But all was well. Soon the room filled with many other [...]

Another good reason to shop

Man, this is a good idea!
Some women friends donate $200 a piece through their women’s giving circle. Once a year they select a cause to support with those funds. In this case, it’s the SMART Girls program at the Boys and Girls Clubs. Then they celebrate by getting together to shop at a friendly upscale [...]

Read this and you will go to the symphony tonight

If your child shows musical promise, you might at first think it would be less expensive to start him or her out on a violin rather than a piano because pianos are so expensive.
You would be wrong.
According to violin star Rachel Barton Pine, “the best piano you can find costs less than just the bow of [...]

Does downtown need a dedicated business recruiter? Lack of new retailers is a real threat, some say

Someone who wakes up every day thinking about how to get more retail businesses to locate in downtown Knoxville. That’s what some folks think we need.
The other school of thought, though, is more like, “If we build it, they will come.” Don’t spend money on a dedicated recruiter, but rather spend money making downtown even [...]

“Light someone else’s candle.”

That was the instruction from Robert Loest, a nationally known investment adviser and downtown Knoxville resident, who was one of the organizers of the first annual “Strollstice” last night.
More than 50 people gathered at the Market House bell on Market Square to pick up candles and parade through Market Square, down Gay Street and other [...]