Bistro at the Bijou: a chef-owned restaurant

After closing for renovations for a week after New Year’s and limping along without bar service for a couple more weeks, the Bistro at the Bijou is back in full swing and better than ever.
Martha Boggs, who has been general manager of the Bistro for 17 years, purchased the restaurant from absentee owners who have held it [...]

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 [...]

All in a pleasant downtown Knoxville Sunday afternoon: 3-1/2 hours, 14 homes and zombies

Everywhere you looked in downtown Knoxville Sunday afternoon, you would see people wearing white stickers and carrying white booklets strolling in the mild weather.
They were on Market Square, in the Old City, and even on the Clinch Avenue Bridge. More than 600 of them.
They were the enthusiastic participants in the City People Home Tour. Those booklets held [...]

Just another Thursday night in K-town

Wow! There were so many things going on in and around downtown last night, it was impossible to be everywhere I was supposed to be. I teamed up with my friend Susan Brown and here is a sample of a few events we either attended or had someone we know attend. And there were some, such as [...]

Market Square: “A place of serendipitous meetings”

How can a place have a personality? How can a place be organic?
He doesn’t know the answers to that. But Jack Neely knows that Market Square has those qualities.
Neely, Knoxville’s unofficial historian, made those observations Wednesday night at a book-launching party for his new paperback, “Market Square: A History of the Most Democratic Place on [...]

“There’s no one like Wallace”

You hear the same things over and over about Wallace Baumann. He was a fascinating conversationalist and a meticulous dresser. He knew everything about Knoxville’s history. He loved music and movies. He was a great friend. And he liked his bacon crisp.
Wallace Baumann died this month at the age of 84 following a very serious lung operation. [...]

Death of “Heartland” draws 10,000 to mourn, party

Michael Ginsburg picked up his black flute and began playing the haunting theme to the “Heartland Series” clear and sweet. Thousands of folks sweating it out in 94-degree heat at the Museum of Appalachia Saturday fell into a reverent hush. The melody was sad and lonely and it seemed to hang in the air.

The atmosphere [...]

A tart slice of city life

Every year around this time, a little drama plays out at Kendrick Place, the downtown condo development near Chesapeake’s restaurant.
It pits neighbor against neighbor and even has a life hanging in the balance. The life of a controversial pear tree.
Here’s the problem. For a long time - some think from around 1982 when the historic [...]

The 90-year legacy of Regas touches on many fronts

As Knoxville Mayor Bill Haslam stumps across the state on his campaign to be the next Tennessee governor, he says there are two things people say to him all the time:

How good is the football team going to be?
I remember Knoxville because I celebrated (pick one) an engagement, anniversary or graduation at Regas restaurant.

It’s easy [...]

Downtown’s big loss: several stalwarts departing

One of downtown Knoxville’s most familiar sights - lawyer Dennis McCarthy walking his adorable beagle, Lily - is about to be just a memory. Dennis and his wife, Judy, are leaving downtown to move to a farmhouse in Loudon County.
Although they have owned the farmhouse for quite awhile, the McCarthys have lived and worked downtown [...]