BlairMay 02, 2014knoxville, tennessee, United States, eat, ron pope, south, bbqComment

Knox-thrill

BlairMay 02, 2014knoxville, tennessee, United States, eat, ron pope, south, bbqComment

Weheeelllllllll, hello! Happiest Friday to you. Since I've been up for hours for no reason (it's 6:30am), thought I'd update the old blog. And here's the big shock - I'm writing about a trip that was JUST taken. This wasn't months ago, y'all. This is pretty fresh.

Knoxville is one of the best places on Earth. Yes, I'm completely biased as I lived there for 4 years while going to college, but it's seriously one of the cutest little American cities. I've taken Ron back there once before, but that was during an SEC football game so the experience was a bit different (think a massive sea of people wearing head to toe orange, drinking whiskey at noon, and doling out high fives). This time we went back for Ron to play a show. It was also the day before Easter, so this Bible-belt city was much more relaxed.

Aside from the University of Tennessee campus, Knoxville is home to an amazing, historic downtown. To be quite honest, while I was in school, downtown was in a definite slump that it has since pulled out of. Now, Market Square is constantly crawling with locals and The Old City is refreshed with new music venues and non-chain restaurants (a serious win in some of these small towns).

SO here are some things:

EATS: Before the show at The Bowery, we had dinner at The Crown & Goose. While it looks like your standard pub, the food is pretty ridiculous. We tentatively ordered a cheese board to start and while it wasn't the most adventurous, it was definitely tasty & well put together. Pretty much everyone got the duck confit (which they raved about). I got the seared tuna salad, which was surprisingly out of this world. I'm sorry that I was so surprised by this place... I just though it was going to be subpar bar food. SORRYYYY.
EATS: I had to take the boys to eat at Calhoun's on the River (a Knoxville staple). We sat on the deck, watched the Tennessee river, and ate BBQ. STILL SO GOOD.
DRINKS: Scruffy City Hall // Preservation Pub // Downtown Grill & Brewery - there were some cute wine bars, but in a van full of boys those aren't often the first choice.
SHOPS: I also picked up some cute earrings and a necklace on my way out of town at Earth To Old City. Um, so cheap. I miss cheap things. Damn New York!
EATS AGAIN: I REALLY wanted to try Knox Mason... but we didn't have time. Next time!