Knoxville — Downtown Knoxville has become a destination for foodies. And with more than 75 restaurants in less than a square mile from Market Square, it's not hard to see why.
Award-winning chefs, recognition from travel magazines, and all kinds of eclectic foods to choose from make for a fabulous food experience in the heart of the city. With top chefs bringing unique fare to downtown, we profiled several cool spots that are worth the hype.
PHOTOS: Eat your way through downtown Knoxville
Olibea
We start with Olibea in the Old City: cozy, quaint and a bit of a twist.
Olibea is a restaurant in the Old City offering up classic comfort food with a Mexican twist, owner Jeffrey Dealejandro explained. The restaurant opened in 2014, and is named after Dealejandro's two kids, Oliver and Beatrice.
“Olibea was meant to really be a comfort spot," Dealejandro said. "We serve really good, yummy comfort food."
He describes the spot on Central Street as a homey place that's warm and inviting to all who walk through the doors.
One meal you can order on the menu in October?
"Local sweet potatoes, mushroom, fried cheese and a duck egg," Dealejandro said, with "a beet and ginger pico de gallo.”
Another menu item to try is the fried chicken biscuit with chow-chow, a whipped sorghum and gravy with a biscuit. Or you can taste a "really yummy" buttermilk pancake made with Cruze Farm buttermilk.
For a full look at the menu, click here.
Rebel Kitchen
A place where all bread and pastries are baked in-house
Olibea isn't the only great spot in the Old City. These few blocks have such a great food scene that keeps getting better every day. And one spot in particular has very creative and innovative dishes: Rebel Kitchen.
"Our idea here is that we would show it to you in a different way," Executive Chef Paul Sellas said. "We are utilizing as many local and top ingredients that we can get our hands on and presenting it in a more thoughtful way."
The restaurant serves up what its website describes as "a unique dining experience that is adventurous, creative, interactive, and inspiring" in a setting that is small, intimate and relaxed. You can sit at the counter and have fun or joke around with the staff.
“We are very anti-pretentious; we really want people to come in here and feel comfortable," Sellas said. "We don't want anybody to come in here and feel like they have to have a tie on."
They bake all breads and pastries, and have fish on the menu on a daily basis.
"Through inspirations of culinary trends, modern techniques, creativity, and seasonality, Rebel Kitchen creates a fine dining experience that is approachable and fun," according to its website.
The food itself is fresh, local and different, like the Tuna Nicoise Salad or the Dover Sole with Escarole.
And it's sustainably sourced as well, with its beef, lamb, or poultry being pasture-raised, humanely treated and fed grass or organic non-GMO grain. Their fish is all from non-endangered, wild populations, and other seafood is also sustainably sourced.
For the full menu, click here.
A Dopo Pizza
For our next spot--- it's all about the pizza!
A Dopo is is a pizzeria that sits just outside the Old City. The restaurant specializes in wood-fired sourdough, Neapolitan style pizza with all kinds of different toppings like eggplant and honey.
“The pizzas themselves are different,"owner Brian Strutz said. "They're bubbly, they're charred, they have black spots on them, and that's by design.”
And once you're done with that pizza?
“We also have gelato that we make in house," Strutz said. "Local cream, local milk, really, really high quality ingredients.”
Strutz said he's fascinated by the process of sourdough and loves bread, and he's known since high school he wanted to be a chef or restaurant owner.
A Dopo is a sit-down spot with an extensive Italian wine list, Strutz explained. You come in, sit down and maybe order a bottle of wine before selecting a pizza or two.
"If you walk in here, we hope that people are at first surprised at what they see," he said.
For all your pizza and wine options and more, click here.
J.C. Holdway
A farm-to-table restaurant that's chic, but comfortable.
Sourcing foods from local farms with a focus on those in season is a priority for the chefs at J.C. Holdway, a restaurant on Union Ave. a few blocks away from Market Square.
“We use regional products from the area, supporting a lot of farmers in the farmers market,” Executive Chef and Owner Jospeh Lenn said.
The menu is filled with selections like pork belly biscuits and wood-grilled ribeye with vanilla buttermilk panna cotta for dessert.
The restaurant is named after Lenn's late uncle, Joseph Charles Holdway, or “Uncle Joe,” as Lenn called him to honor him and his lifelong pursuit of food, according to the restaurant's website.
The restaurant uses wood-fire techniques, inspired by old-world cooking and rural Appalachia.
Lenn "believes that the flavor the wood imparts to the food is something that cannot be recreated by gas or electric cooking and that it further elevates the dish," the website said.
One Southern favorite available?
“A fun play on shrimp and grits, but not so traditional,” Lenn said.
The restaurant was the recipient of the 2013 James Beard Award for Best Chef Southeast.
Want to know what else is on the award-winning menu? Click here.
Stock and Barrel
Last stop, Stock and Barrel in Market Square.
This restaurant is hosted by a very old building on Market Square, but has a hip, modern feel that aims to make customers feel at home in a welcoming atmosphere, along with its signature burgers and bourbon combinations.
“We are a very casual burger joint," Manager Jerry Wilkerson said. "We have about 20 different hamburgers, and we have a huge selection of whiskeys and bourbons."
The goal of the restaurant is to create a space for quality Knoxville burgers created with fresh and local ingredients, its website said, with a farm-to-table concept and a full bar to go along with it.
The restaurant has partnered with local producers Mitchell Family Farms in Blaine, Tennessee, Flour Head Bakery and Benton's Smoky Mountain Country Hams.
So if a burger topped with cheese, fried onions, Benton's bacon and a side of duck fries with a glass of bourbon sounds like it could be your thing, you'll love it.
And to top it all off? A s'mores milkshake to wash it down.
For their menu, click here.