On an almost perfect downtown Knoxville weekend

Stephen Hunley at Square Room

Music of several varieties. Dinner at a favorite restaurant. Impromptu cocktail party at our condo. Shopping at the Market Square Farmers’ Market. Manicure at a downtown salon. And friends, friends, friends.

Though drizzly, this past weekend was a showcase of joyful downtown Knoxville living.

Friday evening brought a crowd into the Bistro on Gay, a pleasant combination of pre-symphony diners and Friday happy hour revelers. A short stroll down Gay Street led to the best Moxley Carmichael Masterworks of the year as the Knoxville Symphony concluded its 2008-2009 season with an exhilarating Liszt/Mahler program featuring guest pianist Alexander Ghindin, which garnered a rave review in the News Sentinel the next day.

We dawdled a little too long at our downtown condo on Saturday morning, getting to the Farmers’ Market by 10 and missing out on the strawberries. But we did score some swiss chard, homemade bread and fresh eggs from “happy” hens (at least that’s what the farmer said). Ran into several buddies – both downtown dwellers and suburbanites who drove in for the market – and we all kept saying the same thing: “Isn’t this wonderful?”

An appointment at Salon Visage was followed by lunch on the patio at Trio for more people watching and howdies with passing friends. And then, knowing we had to be at The Square Room at 8 for a CD release party, a spur-of-the-moment decision to invite folks over to the condo for cocktails. How? Twitter, of course! (And a few phone calls to the Twitter hold-outs.)

These last-minute social arrangements, as usual, provided a convivial gathering. Even though they were told not to, guests arrived bearing gifts: wine, flowers and even some of those strawberries we had missed out on. Janet Testerman, an inspired cook and former caterer, brought a dramatic blue cheese/fig concoction that wowed everyone.

Stephen Hunley and band members

At 7:45, those of us going to the CD party headed out. About 300 folks crammed into the new performance venue at Four Market Square to hear Stephen Hunley, Con Hunley’s nephew, deliver an enthusiastic rock-and-roll performance with his band, which included some members of Con’s band. Con was in the audience, which ranged in age from 21 to 70 and included everyone from college students to county commissioners.

We fell into bed Saturday and were awakened by the pealing of church bells Sunday morning signaling time to return to Market Square for our standing brunch gathering with an eclectic group at the corner table in Tomato Head. Wide-ranging discussion of politics and literature and politics and gossip and politics. Sunday concluded with a lovely dinner at The Emporium for symphony donors. (More on that in a later post.)

All of this made our conundrum worse, of course. We moved downtown a little over a year ago while our house in the suburbs was being renovated. And we fell hard in love with downtown living. Absolutely crazy in love with it! Now, even though we’ve moved back to the house, we can’t quite give up our condo. But we’ve put so much money into the renovation, we are reluctant to put the house up for sale in this down market. (My friend Robert Loest patiently continues to explain the concept of “sunk costs” to me!)

I don’t know what we ultimately will do. But this weekend was a perfect example of the gem our downtown has become. Even in the rain, the happiness was palpable.