Welcome to the weekend!
We love a college town and Knoxville, Tennessee is no exception. At the city’s heart you’ll find the University of Tennessee (Go Vols!), but it is also home to the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame, and is considered the gateway to Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
We came through Knoxville a few years ago on a road trip and had an excellent time. We were certain that there was more of Knoxville’s food scene to dig into, so we returned to town this spring. The city lies in the Eastern part of the state in the Appalachian Mountains, right where the Tennessee River begins. This location drives Knoxville’s fun and vibrant restaurants and bars. Stay downtown and you’ll be walkable to many of our favorites, as well as the university and the Sunsphere, the tall golden landmark built when the city hosted the 1982 World’s Fair. Our dining picks feature several restaurants from alums of Blackberry Farm, a food-focused resort located 45 minutes away, including Potchke, where they make a mean matzoh ball soup. We’ll also send you to some can’t-miss bars, a great bakery, a delicious pizza spot, and much more.
This is our monthly Weekend Getaway newsletter, which digs into all our favorite places in a particular town. It’s for paid subscribers only, so upgrade your subscription to get all our best recommendations for Knoxville.
Our Knoxville dining guide is also available as a handy digital download, which organizes all our favorite places into daily itineraries. Our Field Guide to Knoxville offers a two-day food and drink itinerary and is included with a paid subscription. It can also be purchased for $10 on our website.
Finally, before we log off for the weekend, our Weekend Reading list includes a look at where food and beverage pros go in San Francisco, some Providence, Rhode Island recommendations, and a guide to America’s essential cheeses.
Thanks for reading!
— Amy Cavanaugh & Kenney Marlatt
Editors, American Weekender
American Weekender is a weekly travel newsletter that covers the best places to eat and drink around the country. Subscribe to receive it in your inbox every Friday and upgrade to paid for the best intel.
Eastern Tennessee Eats
KNOXVILLE, TENN. — We love road trips, which means we’ll often stop in a city for a day of exploration before heading on to our next spot. A few years back, we stopped through Knoxville on our way to Asheville, North Carolina. We had such a great time that we mentally bookmarked it as a place that demanded a return visit. So this spring, we hit the road to Knoxville in search of warmer weather and arrived armed with a growing list of bars and restaurants we wanted to check out.
We got into town just in time for afternoon cocktails at Tern Club, a tropically inspired bar that serves classic and original drinks. We were welcomed with a classic mai tai made with a house blend of rums, along with a potent frozen painkiller. Before our late-evening dinner reservation, we headed over to check out a new bar, which had an enticing snack menu that we figured would tide us over until dinner. It turned out to be one of our favorite cocktail bar visits so far this year.
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