Hey, y’all, this is Sharon with Tourist in your Town! In today’s episode, I’m going to talk about food, food, and more food. And beer. And more beer. I’ve been hanging out in East Tennessee where I’ve been trying to go to new places and try new things. Also, visiting old places and learning to love them again. I thought I’d share some of those places with you.
Knoxville
Soul Good
I’ll start with a place called Soul Good located in the Mechanicsville area of Knoxville, TN. Soul Good is a faith-based restaurant. Andrew Osakue, partial owner, says he wanted to bring employment opportunities to the area. Follow this link to find out more about him and his purpose, I’m here to talk about the food. My favorite dish at the Soul Good is the Golden Ring Fish sandwich. Deep fried fish on a bun topped with tartar sauce and an onion ring. Can’t go wrong! The wings are also delicious. Soul Good also has Sno-cones, smoothies, and standard sammies, like turkey blt, etc. So, if you are in the area and looking for a cool little spot to have lunch, give them a visit. They make everybody feel welcome with a “Welcome to Soul Good” shout when you come in the door.
Chop House
I had a hankering for a cheeseburger. Now I know where to get good cheeseburgers, but none of the best places was available to me. I thought since I was headed to the pet store and there is a Chop House right beside it, I’d go to Chop House. I usually have other things there. But thought I’d give their cheeseburger a try. The cheeseburger was fine. I would not order a cheeseburger there again. But I did try the salmon dip with shrimp chips. Now, salmon dip sounded gross to me. But, I figured what the heck, let’s try something new and different. And y’all, it was delicious! The chips that come with it are made with shrimp so they are pretty tasty on their own but combined with the dip, it was perfect. Not at all fishy tasting. So, if you go to Chop House, get a steak, a pork chop, or the salmon filet, whatever. But definitely try the salmon dip! Oh, and the Bloody Mary was excellent!
SunSpot
We used to go to Sunspot on a regular basis especially for brunch. They used to have a crab cake benedict that I loved. But they have changed their menu and no longer offer it. We were in the area and thought we’d give it a try anyway. It was a bit lackluster. I had the toad in the hole. The eggs were perfectly cooked, but flavor-wise it was not impressive. My husband went with the french toast. We did not know that it came with 20 pounds of cooked apples. If you have a big sweet tooth, this is for you. But we just don’t like sweets enough to have this again. They do make a yummy Bloody Mary, though.
Morristown
1907 Brewing Company and Fry Nanny Food Ship
Morristown is a small town about 45 minutes East of Knoxville. They have these cool overhead walkways that we wanted to see (go see pics) and I had read that a new brewery opened there and we finally made it over. For a quick video view visit, click here.
The 1907 Brewing Company does not serve food but they usually have a food truck around the corner and you can bring food in. When we were there, the food truck was the Fry Nanny Food Ship. They have a fun alien theme, because “Food from out of this world.” Guess what they have – Fries, fries, and more fries. French fry bowls with all kinds of fixin’s. They had several poutine options. We went with the Shrimp Poutine and Pork BBQ fries. The shrimp is a Parmesan Cheese Sauce, shrimp, and fries. The BBQ is a pile of fries topped with pork bbq, jalapenos, and cheese. They have lots of other loaded fry options as well as burgers. Both options were delicious. But it was a lot of food. We could have probably just split one and been happy. At the 1907, we got the MoTown Brown, an English Brown that was perfect! The brewery has 3 of their own brews on tap – a golden ale, an ipa, and a brown ale. The other 21 taps have brews from other breweries, some local, some not. Dogs are allowed on the patio only. And the patio is pretty small, though. So maybe leave your furry friend at home for this outing.
The Little Dutch
A couple of weeks later, we decided to head back to Morristown to eat at the Little Dutch, a much touted restaurant in downtown. It was closed for summer vacation when we were there before. The Little Dutch has been around since 1939. In the 1970s a new family took over and I believe they still run it. The menu is a mix of Italian, Greek, and American. They do have a salad bar. We seemed to be the only ones in the whole place who did not partake. I did try the French Onion soup (sorry no pic, I was hangry). It was exactly what French Onion Soup should be with a nice bubbly cap of melty cheese and toasted bread. For my meal I had the Grecian Salad with shrimp. The salad was topped with a beautiful chunk of feta cheese. Now, I know they made this cheese there in that kitchen because it was soooo good and fresh. The rest of the salad was, well, a salad. It had kalamata olives, tomatoes, pepperoncini, and onions. The grilled shrimp was perfect. It had a very simple seasoning and the texture was spot on. It normally comes with anchovies, but I asked them to not add those. I’m not a fan. The vinaigrette dressing was the perfect compliment. The hubby got the pork chop dinner which came with apples sauce and a side of your choice. He opted for the mushrooms. He said it was good. For drinks, I had a Guinness. I don’t believe they have cocktails of any kind, just beer. I think that may a law of some sort in that county. Now, y’all are probably asking why on earth would I order a salad when there were options like eggplant parmesan or lasagna? Because I had my eye on a very specific dessert and wanted to save room. We ordered coffee, which had to be made, it took a few minutes, but it was fresh and tasty. Sometimes, in the evenings, coffee can be sitting around for awhile and it gets stale and bitter. I chose the Greek Custard and the hubby opted for apple pie. The greek custard was heaven on a plate, y’all. It’s a custard filling with a crust of Filo dough, then topped with honey syrup. The custard filling was kind of like a bread pudding and the spices were cinnamon and nutmeg. It looks super rich and heavy. But I can say that I ate almost the whole thing and did not feel overfull. It was actually very light and not at all too sweet. I don’t have much of a sweet tooth, so this dessert was perfect for me. I expected the Filo to be a little crispy, but I guess the honey syrup soaked in and softened it a bit. It was still delicious and worth the 45 minute drive from Knoxville. The apple pie was packed with apples and the crust nice and flaky. The whipped cream was real whipped cream and I ate more of that than I normally would, I admit. After dinner, we noticed some pictures on the wall of celebs that had visited and saw a pic of the cast of the Evil Dead. I did not know that the 1981 movie was filmed in Morristown. After the Little Dutch, which closes at 8:30 pm on Saturdays, 7:30pm during the week, btw, we went for a beer at 1907. They were having live music and were quite busy. We sat on the patio and enjoyed our MoTown Browns.
Those are some of the places we’ve visited in the last month or two. I’ve been sticking to East Tennessee lately. But hope to head to Chicago in September, barring any unforeseen issues. Thanks for listening to this episode of Tourist in your town. If you enjoyed this episode, please share with your family and friends! Stay safe, stay hydrated, and pack light, y’all!