Chef-owner Matt Gallaher of Emilia with his fiancee, Jessica Capalik, whose family owns Savelli’s, another popular Italian restaurant.
Our friends at the Knoxville Museum of Art have for many years been celebrating the start of summer with a big fundraising blowout! First it was “Summer Soiree,” often held at the historic Middlebrook mansion in west Knoxville. That morphed into “Kickoff to Summer,” a rollicking party held downtown at the museum itself. Both shindigs were huge fun and huge successes.
The event this year made another pivot and became “Taste of Summer,” held recently at the museum. Taylor Lolley, the museum’s director of fundraising events, explains the reason for the affair’s latest iteration. “We thought it needed a refresh,” she said. “L’Amour du Vin is such a success that we wanted to get the next generation involved,” she said, referring to the KMA’s hugely expensive and hugely popular food and wine-centered extravaganza featuring a celebrity chef each year.
Lolley said Taste of Summer is casual and less expensive than the signature fundraiser that L’Amour du Vin has become. “It’s kind of L’Amour du Vin light!” she laughed. Continue reading
