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Bar & Restaurant Machinations
Plans are underway to open an upscale martini bar and restaurant in the former Kimball’s downtown jewelry store, to complement the already plentiful downtown watering holes. The jewelry company is currently in the process of moving the remnants of the business out to clear a path for the new establishment. In cooperation with building owner David Dewhirst, the venture is owned and operated by downtown denizens Mark and Trinity McDermott with Scott Scheinbaum and Regina Rizzi. Pasta Trio chef and Johnson & Wales alum Chriss Jones is on board to design a gourmet menu.
On another front, Harold McLean, the owner, creator and ramrod at downtown’s popular taqueria upstart on Union Avenue, Tortilla Mac’s, is set to lease the space that most recently housed the Chopsticks Chinese restaurant and was Garo’s for years at the intersection of Gay Street and Main Avenue. The target date for the T-Mac’s relocation and opening is March 8.
And in other Mexican cuisine news, the Tijuana Taco Company, currently located in Farragut, is opening two new locations. One is downtown on the west side of Market Square—also in a property owned by Dewhirst—and the second is on Northshore Drive near Pellissippi Parkway. Both locations have target opening dates in May. The downtown Tijuana Taco will initially serve only lunch but will also cater to event crowds. Owner Jim Klonaris adds that “we hope to be open all the time. If the demand is there from the beginning, we’ll go ahead and flip it [to be open in the evenings as well].”
South America?
There’s political strife brewing in South Knoxville over the temporary replacement of the late Howard “Nookie” Pinkston on Knox County Commission. The long-time commissioner’s widow, Lib Pinkston, has made it known that she’d like to be appointed to fill the seat, at least until August, when it is to be put up to the electorate. Her position differs from that of Howard’s brother and former business partner at Pinkston Motors, Paul, who thought it was he whom his brother had tapped for Commission appointment as the successor when Howard’s impending death from lung cancer became evident. Commissioners themselves are tight-lipped about their intentions in making an interim appointment next month, but there is some sentiment that says the City Council’s snubbing of Missy Mayfield when her husband, Councilman Danny Mayfield, died three years ago was a political embarrassment to the city that ought not be repeated in the county.
DeLay DeJetSitter
Knoxville’s Lincoln Day Dinner speech Feb. 19 by House Majority Leader Tom DeLay almost didn’t come off. The Texas Republican told the GOP organizers here he didn’t want to fly up from Houston on Pete Claussen’s KingAir, as had been planned, because he was anxious if he was on any airplane but a jet. County Law Director Mike Moyers, who was in charge of arrangements for the dinner speaker, says he told Congressman Jimmy Duncan’s office, and Duncan found a GOP supporter in Bristol at the last minute who would lend a jet for the flight to Houston to pick up DeLay. The majority leader then went on the Florida after the speech on a Haslam/Pilot Corp. jet.
P.S.
Don’t look now, but the Old Market House bell is back on Market Square on a pedestal in a prominent spot on the south end, and it’s shiny!
February 26, 2004 • Vol. 14, No. 9
© 2004 Metro Pulse
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