Behind Those Doors: Development in the City

Winter isn't the biggest time of the year for construction, though with the winter we've had, conditions would have been pretty good for constructing on all but a few days. There are several projects about which people downtown are pretty excited or interested and here's what seems to be going on with a couple.

Recent View inside 304 S. Gay

The dental offices are quickly being put in place at 304 S. Gay Street on the bottom floor of the residence there. I think I heard something about hours being added by sometime this spring. I'm also pretty sure this gives us two dentists downtown, as I believe another works out of the, appropriately, Medical Arts Building on Main.

415 S. Gay

Doors at 415 S. Gay, Knoxville

The other doors I noticed this week were at 415 S. Gay. And beautiful doors, they are. If I remember correctly, this was slated to be a bar, but I have to say the doors look too pretty for a common bar. Maybe the plan is for something really upscale. Unless I'm mistaken, a business (restaurant first, then bar) has been in the works at this address for three years. It looks like something is finally happening.

In the category of not so much going on:

120 S. Central Street: The former home of Big Don's Elegant Junk, the owner promised "something completely different," but so far there is little sign of much going on.

1 Market Square: I thought once the CBID grant was offered, we'd see work begin immediately on the former Market Square Kitchen as it transforms to Tupelo Honey. I hope the inactivity simply means it's winter and not that there's a snag.

400 Block of Union Avenue: These retail fronts look like they have since the garage to which they are attached was built. The floors in some of the units are still gravel and the facades which are slated, with $12,000 of CBID money to be upgraded and changed, still look the same. Again, I'm hoping spring.

Arnstein Building: I saw a guy hammering inside a fifth floor window today. Supposedly the upper floors are leased as soon as they are finished, but the lower floor is, so far, pretty windows with numerous rumors attached. I wish it would become something that would make a splash. We need a little splash.

Two Business Monday: 31 Bistro, Julie Apple Handbags

31 Bistro (formerly La Costa), Market Square, Knoxville

I'm no food critic and I know nothing about women's handbags - or men's for that matter - but I found myself in each of these businesses recently, so I thought I'd send out a few thoughts. Take them for what they are - one guy's opinion.


Omelet at 31 Bistro, Market Square, Knoxville

Most of you probably know by now that 31 Bistro has taken place of long-time Market Square restaurant La Costa. I've eaten at La Costa many times over the years and I've almost always enjoyed the meals. It was always just a little different and a little surprising. A year ago it was purchased by a former Knox County teacher Sabrina Brittain.

Cheese Grits, Eggs and (Benton's!) Bacon

In the last year I've eaten there less. It seems I end up there for brunch most often. Several months ago we arrived after opening time, but the restaurant seemed to be closed. When we opened the door and looked inside none of the employees gathered acknowledged our presence until we said something. They didn't know anything about the coupon we'd gotten via e-mail that morning and said they'd ask about it, but never mentioned it again. Service was poor and the coffee, which had once been good, was awful.

Biscuits and Gravy, 31 Bistro, Knoxville

We gave it a try once again last week and the service was better. Our waitress was very patient and worked with our special requests. The food was good. I don't think anyone at the table would have had a major complaint. Still, it just didn't seem quite as different from other brunches as it had seemed before. My dominant impression of a brunch will likely always be the quality of the coffee. I found it odd that as the restaurant shifts emphasis to local, farm-to-table food they would use industrial coffee. There are a number of great local roasters, including one I'll soon feature on this blog. Ironically there is another fine roaster who used to provide coffee for La Costa before the change in ownership.

I'll try them again and I only wish them the very best, but my most recent impressions haven't been positive. Weigh in below if you've had a better experience or have eaten there for dinner recently.


Julianne Applegate schools Urban Woman on Handbags

The other business is quite different. Julie Apple Handbags on the 100 block of Gay Street is the brainchild of Julianne Applegate who left the high-flying life of the fashion industry to pursue her dream of making sustainable, fair-labor handbags of her own design. I first heard her present at Pecha-Kucha a year or so ago and Urban Woman has been scoping out the place ever since. 

Julianne Applegate gives Urban Woman some options



Bags at Julie Apple, 100 Block of Gay Street, Knoxville

Friday night the stars finally aligned that we were on the 100 block at the same time the store was open. Ms. Applegate was on hand to personally welcome customers into the colorful, cozy and inviting shop. She took time to explain the versatility of the bags, many of which may be worn different ways. She also emphasized that the purses are made from recycled materials assembled with fair-labor and are, themselves, recyclable when they are to be retired.


Urban Woman continually returns to her favorite bag - It's getting serious!

 As with all products developed and manufactured with such standards in mind, they are not cheap. Want a ten dollar handbag? Go to Target. A thirty dollar handbag? Steinmart. A great quality bag with a unique design and sustainable ideals infused in its very fabric? Some were available for just over fifty dollars. The newer designs, which naturally caught Urban Woman's eye? Extremely close to one hundred after taxes.

Celebrity Clerk Steven Dupree completes the deal

Is it worth it? I suppose part of the answer is that it depends on whether that price is justifiable in your financial world and how much you are willing to pay to support products and producers which represent high ideals. Would I pay that much for a purse? No. Of course, I don't carry a purse and I wasn't making the decision. So, at the end of the night I pulled out the debit card because you know what? The bag may be worth a hundred dollars, but a happy Urban Woman is priceless, my friends.

Watch for her about town as she sports the bag pictured below and be sure to check out Julie Apple handbags. It really is a cool business.

The bag in question

Related articles

• La Costa to reopen as 31 Bistro (knoxnews.com)

People Watching in the City

Macaw on Union Avenue

Isn't the people watching in a city one of the best things about the whole experience? In some respects we have a pretty homogeneous downtown population. It's a mostly white crowd with a large contingent of twenty-somethings and a large contingent of fifty and sixty-somethings. Fortunately, there are exceptions and I hope the exceptions grow.

Alexia Pantanizopoulos and friends play Beatles and more

A little percussion helps - busking on Market Square

It's not that people watching can't be interesting in Walmart - there's an entire website devoted to it. It's also the only activity that helps me survive the rare drudgery of a trip to the mall. What else could save time spent in that artificially-lighted wasteland? For me, people watching is about the only attraction in that sterile environment. I can't even get a decent cup of coffee in a Knoxville mall.

Sheila and the Sandwich Board - Union Avenue

Man taking matters into his own hands.

This was one of the most interesting sights of the month. This older gentleman, decked out in his suspenders and suit pants is painting the curb in front of the City-County Building with yellow spray paint. I assume he felt that curb is some sort of hazard. I wonder if he would be commended by city officials or arrested for defacing public property. Still, you have to like it: If you think your world needs to be changed, change it!

Lovers at World's Fair Park on a lazy Sunday morning

A star in her own mind.

The World's Fair Park is a great place to see some odd or simply interesting people. It seems to be the place for quite strolling or dangling your feet in the water (even if a tractor is looking over your shoulder) with the one you love. I also discovered the young woman pictured above giving a very enthusiastic performance to the audience in her head. I might try that sometime. I've also seen an acting class on the stage and sometimes the Frisbee skills displayed on the lawn are superb.

Bill and the Boy

Bill and the Boy

Kind a cool moment led to the two pictures above. I like sitting with Bill for a few minutes now and again to catch up on the gossip in the city and see how he's doing. This particular day we were talking about Worship in the City and I commented that surely the crowds must be good for his busking business. He told me that it wasn't, that the fundamentalists acted like he has a disease and avoid him. As he railed against religious people in general, the young boy approached and asked him if he'd like a sandwich from Subway. He carefully took Bill's order and scurried back to his mother and the two walked toward the deli. I'm not sure if it changed Bill's assessment of anybody, but it was pretty sweet.

So, the city is different. Stroll a few blocks and you might just as well run into some of Knoxville's most wealthy citizens and homeless people. You'll likely see musicians, whether you recognize them or not, Knoxville is full of them. You'll see the cool and the hopelessly uncool. Lovers and the lonely. It goes on, but you'll almost always see something you didn't expect if you keep your eyes open. That would generally require more of us to unplug our ear buds, stop staring at our smart phones and unglue them from our ears. Be here, now, right?

I'll hopefully see you all at the Hola Festival on Saturday. Have a great weekend in the city.

Chickens on Market Square

Live Chicken, Market Square, Knoxville

When was the last time live chickens could be seen on Market Square? It sounds like a question perfectly suited for Jack Neely. I'm not sure when that historic event happened, but I was there recently when at least one live chicken and a host of yellow-clad wannabes showed up.

Erin, Russell, Freddy-the-Chicken and many yellow-clad dancers

The Corporate types rally the innocents.

The entire event, of course was a promotional stunt to launch a website coupon service similar to Groupon or Livingsocial. DealChicken is a new entry into the sweepstakes and our local affiliate on the Square, WBIR, televised their event. I'm not sure when the local "news" channel became the local news, entertainment and promotional channel, but it seems that what they've all become. I guess it's better than the version of the "news" that involves intolerant people shouting slogans at one another. But I digress.

Urban Dad, Urban Toddler and Todd Howell

It was a fun and colorful event with cute children all around. They kept playing that awful "Chicken Dance" song over and over again. I was determined to blog for you good people, so I endured. One highlight was that Urban Dad and Urban Toddler got their picture taken with her personal hero: Todd Howell. She has to say goodnight to him every night on the television before she goes to bed (early news).

I'm not sure if she sang or talked, but she was a cutie.

Erin Donovan and Russel Biven hammed it up with the crowd and the children. Freddy from WDVX was there with his chicken outfit and, of course, there was the aforementioned live poultry participant.

Cynthia Tweets a Chicken! What New York City Tweeter can top that?

One of the funny moments for me was blogging about the event while a fellow blogger (hey Cynthia) tweeted the event. So I took her picture meaning I blogged her while she tweeted me blogging her. She apparently twits a mean tweet (I made that up - is that right?) and has been nominated for best tweeter on Knoxville.com, so you might want to go vote for her. Now you've seen her in action!

The actual dance finally arrived: Chicken Dancers on Market Square!

Too Cute

I'll leave you with a great video to keep you going through the day. Yes, the "Chicken Song" is probably the best song ever written, but even that's not cool enough for my discerning readers. In the video below, I've upped the ante with those perennial groovy cats and chicks (get it?) from the Lawrence Welk Show! Check out these babes shaking their tail feathers to the pounding beat of the accordion! A one, a two . . .

Who are we? Who will we become?

Those of you who read this blog regularly know I'm prone to making odd connections. Several events I've attended or walked past in the last few weeks merged in my mind and presented the question: Who are we? Of course, if we are a city - even a small one - the answer to that question isn't simple. We are and should be diverse. Some of us prefer the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra while others prefer Sundown in the City. Many people love the Vols while others are simply irritated with game day traffic and don't have any use for college football. We all, apparently, love biscuits.
 
So, if we are diverse and diversity is good, what is the question? What decision do we have to make? While there is little danger that the KSO or the Vols will disappear any time soon, there are other, smaller scale pursuits that will only survive if they are supported, will only grow if they are supported in a large way. Some of these caught my attention.

Linda Parson Marion reads her poetry at Union Avenue Books

I attended a poetry reading at Union Avenue Books. I mentioned it in a previous post: Linda Parsons Marion read from her book Bound. It was a great event and plans are underway to make it a monthly happening at Union Avenue books. I believe the appreciation of poetry, while always more limited in appeal, is a measure of the intellectual pulse of a culture. For a poetry reading it was well attended: around twenty people listened and a few purchased the book.

Greg Tardy takes a solo at Jazz on the Square, Knoxville, June 2011

Jazz Great Donald Brown mingles at Jazz on the Square, Knoxville

I've also enthusiastically supported the Jazz on the Square series. The music has been absolutely phenomenal when the weather hasn't interfered, which has been the case a couple of nights. Isn't jazz about as sophisticated and urban as any American music?

Lance Owens sits in with the regular band at Jazz on the Square

Knoxville Jazz Legend Lance Owens

A reliable group of about fifty to seventy-five people station themselves in front of the stage and probably some number of those dining outside at the various restaurants chose that time so they could eat and enjoy the music.

Then there is wrestling. This fine sport, some of you will remember, has been prominently featured on this blog as a part of my post on least appropriate Christmas floats. On a recent night when a decent crowd gathered at Union Avenue Books for a special event, hundreds of enthusiastic wrestling fans gathered on the square. Masks, Mohawks and mullets could be spotted throughout the crowd of mostly families. The pantomime of wrestling, which is the best it could be called, was awful. The crowd roared; hundreds of them delighting at every move.

I stayed only long enough to take the pictures and pondered as I walked home - is this who we are? More people will come to downtown for wrestling than for jazz or poetry combined? The announcer at the wrestling match even put it directly: "Forget music, we're gonna make this a wrasslin' town." Is that true? Is it possible? You vote by what you support, so what do you want to see downtown, jazz, poetry or wrasslin'? It's your choice.

More Pictures Waiting for a Blog to Happen

Here are a few others to clean out the photographic cupboard as June drifts away. For the people who read the blog for the articles - sort of like Playboy, right? - we'll get back to that soon enough. First, here are a few more interesting images that just didn't find their text.

Prom Couple

Prom season always provides its own style of entertainment. Some of the dresses and tuxes are gorgeous and some are, well, a little outlandish for my taste. Some of the couples are beautiful with their eyes aglow with the sheer magnitude of the possibilities. Bless their hearts.

Jimmy Hyams and partner broadcasting from the Square.

I don't know how many of you follow college football (if your pulse just quickened like mine at the combination of those two words, you may be an addict.), but if you do, you probably know this guy. I don't listen to local sports talk, but Jimmy Hyams is one of the most authoritative and knowledgeable people in the universe on Southeastern Conference football.

Hoopers and Dancers on the Square

Dancing, happy, innocent children on the Square.

We should probably all dance more. I'd love to be as uninhibited as these children who were dancing for the complete joy of the movement. "May your heart always be joyful." - Bob Dylan -

Time Traveler on Wall Avenue

I'm not sure why this guy struck me quite like he did, but longtime readers of this blog know that I can tell a time traveler when I see one. Is that a butternut colored Civil War era top and hat. I think so.

Joy in the fountain, Market Square, May 2011

I love when the fountain gets fired up each spring. Like dancing to music, it's another way children - and not a few adults - lose their reserve and get their inner child groove on.

Child offering a drink to Jake

I watched this happen from the bench with Bill (the same stop that gave me the pictures of the girls from the other post). The boy filled his bucked with water from the fountain and unbidden by anyone, came over and offered his bucket to Jake who didn't seem to mind the chlorine at all.

Isn't spring in the city awesome?

Breaking News: Market Square Kitchen Closes



Market Square Kitchen, 1 Market Square, Knoxville, 2004 - 2011

 I don't usually do more than one blog a day - simply because I have an actual life, but this couldn't really wait. I'll do my regular blog tomorrow, but for now I wanted to get the word out that Market Square Kitchen officially closed and cleared out the last of their tables, chairs and other items today. It had occupied that spot since 2004 when it replaced the Soup Kitchen. The business may reappear, but not in downtown Knoxville.

1 Market Square, Knoxville, Empty, April 26, 2011

It appears a new tenant will be forthcoming and the restaurant will serve breakfast, lunch and dinner and will be directly affiliated with the new Hotel St. Oliver. At the moment, that leaves one new business, an empty building, an empty store-front and a soon-to-be-closed store-front on the four corners of Market Square. The situation won't last, of course, but it is striking to consider since those are four of the premier addresses on the square.

1 Market Square, Knoxville, April 26, 2011

I'll have more details as part of a downtown business update on Friday. Check back then for more. Now: back to our regular programming.