KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — The menu at Potchke, a restaurant operating inside of the historic Regas Building, is filled with food meant to feed everyone's inner New Yorker.
For a snack, people can stop by and grab delicious chocolate babka bread, a kind of bread that usually has sweets baked into it. Anyone feeling more peckish can pick up some classic lox — a staple food in New York City Jewish communities.
"I think a restaurant like this is important because not everybody goes to synagogue or goes to shul," said Laurence Faber, the chef of the restaurant. "The Jewish deli has always been a gathering place for Jewish communities and Knoxville hasn't really had that. We want Potchke to be a gathering place for people in the community, and it all makes sense because the Regal used to be called the gathering place."
Faber took food from his time growing up and adapted them into the menu. His great grandparents immigrated from Ukraine, taking with them cuisines from the country. The restaurant recently hosted a "Borsch for Ukraine" event to raise funds and support people in the country.
The restaurant is located in the same building where Vienna Coffee was located.
It is open from Wednesday through Sunday, welcoming people in for breakfast at 8 a.m. and closing their doors at 3 p.m.
This story was updated to reflect that Faber's great grandparents immigrated from Ukraine. It previously said his grandparents were living in Ukraine.