KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — After a soft opening in April, there's growing excitement at Kerns Food Hall with the addition of new vendors.
One of those new vendors is Ramson Arimiyaw Ayuba, the owner of Kandilige, who's bringing the taste of West Africa to Knoxville.
"It's very stressful to be in a food truck," Ayuba said. "Here, I have a lot of things on my menu and people can have different kinds of choices."
Some vendors have been waiting to open since talks of the food hall started, before the COVID-19 pandemic. One of those is Awaken Coffee, which has a brick-and-mortar coffee shop in the Old City.
"It's been keeping up with the other store, which we were really surprised by," said Brooke Hilemon, the coffee shop's manager.
She said business has been slow on summer weekdays, but that busy weekends have made up for it.
"We're expecting a lot of craziness for football season," Hilemon said.
A spokesperson for Kerns Food Hall also said customers can expect more restaurants and options for tailgating towards the end of summer, into the fall season.